crashed my Limited Edition 07' LX, total loss ?? (1 Viewer)

[Kinger07]

I'll say first that the rider walked away, thankfully. Over the weekend, a Harley Davidson rider didn't see me coming while he was stopped at a stop sign. He was attempting to cross US 40, I was traveling northbound on US 40. He pulled out into the intersection, I swerved left to avoid him, but he still ran into the passenger side of my truck as I passed through the intersection (no signage for me). Police report filed, he was taken to hospital with minor injuries, but is okay. Luckily for me, he had active Geico insurance policy.

Point of this thread is to gather input on whether you guys think insurance will declare it a total loss. My friend recently had the rocker panel & ONE door on her Subaru receive similar damage and they were quoted 6k for repairs.. My truck is worth 20k max, so it will probably be a close call either way

2007 LX470 Limited Edition with every option except for the night vision. I bought the truck in 2017 for 23k, when it had 80k miles. I am the 2nd owner, and truck has a detailed service record from day 1
for valuation reference, the truck now has 170k miles, $4k in lift, $1k roof rack, and $3k in tires (set of 34'' BFG A/T's & set of 33'' Bridgestone Blizzaks)
I filed a claim, but I'm leaving town for a month and wont be able to get the truck looked at before that. So i'm left wondering what will happen for now, and that brings be to this post.
Do you guys think it is totaled? Doors are relatively easy, but the rocker area concerns me. As I understand it, this is more of a frame component of the body?? as opposed to bolt on doors, and therefore not as easy to fix. The rocker is definitely pushed inward, VERY slightly, and this damage may have transferred from the rocker to the B pillar at its base where it meets the rocker, in between the doors. thanks in advance for your input

 

[Kinger07]

BTW, my fiance was in the passenger seat at the time and neither of us felt a thing. We knew what was happening and heard it, but it felt equivalent to a crack in the road.. These trucks are absolute tanks

 

[Exiled]

It doesn't look that bad, you should discuss with insurance the option of replacing both doors and having them repainted. I know Land Cruiser Heaven in Leander, TX has a couple of part-out 100s and I believe he has both passenger side doors. Not affiliated.

Worth a try, your LX looks fantastic and I can't imagine dealing with an insurance totaling/salvage title because of something like this.

Also, glad the biker didn't fare worse!

 

[kgrove]

1) your car looks very repairable unless the frame got bent, which seems unlikely from the photos.

2) Chances are high your car is worth well north of 20K no matter what the insurance company says, *especially* if your car is relatively rust free. My 2007 LC was totaled last year. The first response back from the insurance company was for about 23K, but I challenged the valuation. They gave me 6 comps, 3 they used for the math and 3 just as FYI material, but the combination of the 6 generated the 23K value. Of the 6 comps, 4 had accidents in their CarFax history, 1 had obvious signs of severe rust on the undercarriage (a couple of the ones with accidents did too), and the last one had an invalid VIN number - couldn't be found by CarFax or Toyota's VIN identifier. It was either a fraudulent car or the copied the VIN wrong. I ended up negating them up to $29.5 for the settlement value, but mine had only 115K miles on it. You can probably get them to add something to their initial valuation for the aftermarket stuff you did, but they aren't likely to do it willingly.

3) Look up "diminution of value" for your state. Diminution of value means your car will be worth less even if it's repaired because it will show an accident in its history. If the accident is not your fault, in most states the insurance company for the at fault party is required to compensate for that diminution of value, but they rarely will do so without you asking. My wife's Sequoia was in an accident a few years back and I was able to show the insurance company that a clean Sequoia was worth about $3K more than the same one with a salvage title and the insurance company eventually cut me a check without a ton of fight once they figured out I knew the game and my math was reasonable. They will be more than happy to pay for all your repairs and walk away without compensating you for the loss in market value if you don't fight for it.

For my valuation stuff, I had the benefit of a buddy who is an auto broker pulling Manheim data for estimated values and actual auction and dealer sales prices. I'm sure there must be services that would do something like this for a fee. Be careful with sources like KBB as they seem to be wildly underestimating 100 series values right now. There also are huge regional differences as many of the 100s you see in the midwest and NE have corrosion problems while many of the western 100s are pretty clean. People often make the mistake of comparing asking prices without looking underneath.... a 100 series with 200K miles that spent its life around snow and salted roads could sell for 10K less than the same car from San Diego.

 

[Kinger07]

@Exiled thanks, I'm hopeful you're right that it's all fixable/not totaled - the last thing I want is to have to get rid of this thing! I will keep the Land Cruiser Heaven thing in mind, too.

@kgrove thanks for the advice, I will keep all of that in mind. Hopefully it ends up that its fixable and I can again plan on keeping this truck for life.

 

[flintknapper]

No where near totaled. Repair rocker. Two replacement doors (stripped and painted) transfer your glass and door cards over. New cladding, good to go. $7-8K tops.

 

[suprarx7nut]

Valuation of the vehicle might be key here. New doors, trim, rocker repair, handles, weatherstrips, door glass regulator/guides, fender repair and finally, body work and paint. That's a ton of work. $5-10k easy. If they value at $17,500 and add in some diminished value they might be tempted to total. Show them some cares and bid and bring a trailer auctions and hopefully you can keep their starting valuation closer to $25k and stay clear of total territory.

Good luck and remember to be patient. There's no rush at all to close it out. You can sit on their offer for 5 years if you need to (even though they will tell you to make a decision in 5 days or else xyz...).

 

[Eighteen11R]

Bummer...beautiful LE rig @Kinger07. Tremendous testament to the safety built into these series machines. Glad to hear everyone walked away from the accident. Hard to believe a scooter rider missed seeing your big black rig coming his way?

Agree with above comments that it doesn't look as though the frame got touched. Any corrosion underneath? Has it always been a CO vehicle? Getting the rocker area integrity back to original shape to take another hit would concern me too. Reduced structural integrity of the body could be called into play. I further agree from above comments that it all can be repaired to look nice again if your frame is straight and cancer-free.

For the back of your mind:
Worst Case Plan - If after all you do attempting to add the real value back into your rig and they still total it, settle on their pay out and then immediately ask for the salvage price and buy it back from the insurance company.

 

[DuckLN]

Is mediation of fault expected?

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

I just had my 05 repaired about 2 weeks ago, 2 weeks before that it got damaged from the nose to tail on the passenger side. Every panel on the passenger side had cosmetic damage. Otherwise the truck was totally fine, but I too was very concerned. I've never cared what happened to any car my wife/kids have damaged, but I lost sleep on this one. I felt physically ill. I was so sure they were going to total it that I'd already worked out how to buy it back and come out of pocket. However, the insurance company (a good one that caters to veterans) picked up the bill. When I talked to the lead POC at the shop he told me he got to $9K and still had 3-4K of room before they'd even consider a total, which is what they consider 75% value. So 12-13K is 75%, means my '05 with 265K on the clock is appraised at ~$16K by the insurance company. It's the only car I've ever owned that I make money while driving it. I bought it 5 yrs ago for $11.5K. That's pretty cool.

 

[ramangain]

I vote to just cash the insurance check, fix it yourself enough not to rust, invent some tall tale that is obviously BS but funny enough to be entertaining about the damage.

Be "that guy" who proudly displays his Red Badge of Courage after traversing some narrow passe at 4000 meters (sheer drop to ocean on the side, naturally) to ensure some baby seal gets its COVID vaccine at the summit, etc etc etc

 

[Kinger07]

Thank you everyone for your input! It is all much appreciated. Everything is going pretty smoothly so far, file claimed, police report obtained, no liability on my/my insurance end as I did not have any signage and was not speeding = all liability falls on motorcycle riders insurance. Still havnt had the damage assessed but it will undoubtedly be a lot of labor / metal work to get the rocker back to straight - hopefully not enough to total it! I love this truck and genuinely want to keep it forever. straight axle swap it in 5 years , diesel swap it in 10, then drive it for another 30

 

[Kinger07]

Hey guys, heres an update - the rocker is compromised and has to be pulled as close to straight as possible, then cut out, then a new rocker section is welded in. New rear door & skin, new front door skin, moldings, etc. The new rocker section includes about 1/4 of the A-pillar. Structural damage will be reported on the vehicle history Lexus certified body shop quoted 14k in damage. Geico has it at about 8k, using all new OEM parts, and hours/labor pulled straight from Toyota. Hard to argue, but luckily I don't have to - I drop it off at a trusted shop on May 3rd and they will get what is due & have it back in shape within a week - can't wait!

I did open a diminished value claim, much to the apparent chagrin of the Geico agent - they must not like it when people know about that

Thanks again for all the input, it's really great to have a forum like this

 

[Fof5]

Hey guys, heres an update - the rocker is compromised and has to be pulled as close to straight as possible, then cut out, then a new rocker section is welded in. New rear door & skin, new front door skin, moldings, etc. The new rocker section includes about 1/4 of the A-pillar. Structural damage will be reported on the vehicle history Lexus certified body shop quoted 14k in damage. Geico has it at about 8k, using all new OEM parts, and hours/labor pulled straight from Toyota. Hard to argue, but luckily I don't have to - I drop it off at a trusted shop on May 3rd and they will get what is due & have it back in shape within a week - can't wait!

I did open a diminished value claim, much to the apparent chagrin of the Geico agent - they must not like it when people know about that

Thanks again for all the input, it's really great to have a forum like this

Sorry to hear about your wreck.
Can you update on how the diminished value claim turned out?

I just recently had a dump truck crush the front end of my 2010 LX. The driver’s insurance is denying my diminished value claim. My 2010 LX has 129k miles and there’s two previous minor wrecks on the vehicle. They claim the previous wrecks, year and mileage mean I am not owed any money for the diminished value.

 

[Columbo624]

Sorry to hear about your wreck.
Can you update on how the diminished value claim turned out?

I just recently had a dump truck crush the front end of my 2010 LX. The driver’s insurance is denying my diminished value claim. My 2010 LX has 129k miles and there’s two previous minor wrecks on the vehicle. They claim the previous wrecks, year and mileage mean I am not owed any money for the diminished value.

View attachment 2725237

Understandable, especially if it's the other party's insurance. They have no contractual obligation to you and they only owe what a jury would determine is reasonable. It is a pretty good argument that if something already has 2 prior accidents the third likely won't impact resale. But it will freshen up the front end which is nice...

 

[CloudCity]

Sorry to hear about your wreck.
Can you update on how the diminished value claim turned out?

I just recently had a dump truck crush the front end of my 2010 LX. The driver’s insurance is denying my diminished value claim. My 2010 LX has 129k miles and there’s two previous minor wrecks on the vehicle. They claim the previous wrecks, year and mileage mean I am not owed any money for the diminished value.

(My original response is no longer applicable.)