Landcruiser vs. Tire, is it totalled?

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T

Titan94

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Jun 8, 2010
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Location
Santa Monica, CA
Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this.

Hey guys, so I had an unfortunate incident on I90 outside Boston earlier this week and now I'm a bit worried.

I was heading back to Boston when a tire from a west-bound car fell off and jumped the jersey barrier, it struck the right front of my truck at high speed and did some decent cosmetic damage. My bumper shrugged off the brunt of the impact, but the fender is still a complete loss.

Here is a picture:
20151005_133730_zpsswwiq9zz.jpg


Now the other person's insurance is paying for the repairs, but I'm concerned that they may total it. The bumper is bent and likely can't be bent back without being ruined. The flare and fender need to be totally replaced, and the hood is bent 90 degrees at the right front corner. The headlight is completely shattered and the corner light is no where to be found. My mudflap was also ripped off, and the tire appears to have grazed my passenger door doing some minor paint damage.

I'm honestly unsure as to the value of the truck, I think it's worth ~$10,000 as I've put quite a bit of work into it both cosmetically and mechanically. It is well maintained, the paint is in great condition and it has 186,000 miles on it. Almost all preventative maintenance besides the head gasket has already been completed.

What do you guys think, what are the chances that they total it? KBB value is only ~$3,500.
 
My quick guess is that the estimate would be around $5000 if the bumper can be fixed. As far as value, you will have to fight the insurance adjuster a bit to make them realize the actual value of your truck. Worst case, buy it back if they call it totaled, research a good shop, get good used parts and handle it getting fixed yourself and you will probably pocket a grand for your trouble (which you deserve for your time/trouble). That looks like way too nice a rig to let get away. Sorry for the troubles.

PS. I'd gladly give 3500 for it:D
 
Push the fender out a bit with a crow bar, throw a turn signal in there somehow, replace the headlight lens and drive it. :D


Yeah, I'm no help.
 
Front bumper 1000 with shipping

Headlight and corner light 300

Fender 300

Hood 300

Paint to match 700


That's about 3-4k worth of repair? They shouldn't total it and even if they do you should come way ahead by buying it back.
 
I had a similar situation a few years back & found an entire front clip for $300, and $75 shipping from the next state over. Picked up a headlight from someone parting out another Lx450 and was good to go once the body shop painted and installed.

Check out car-part.net. That's where I sourced the body panel. It took a few phone calls, but was well worth the effort.

Your results may vary...
 
I'm not an expert here, but I don't think someone else's insurance has any authority to decide the fate of your vehicle, you can accept their offer, or refuse it, but they can't 'total' your vehicle, it's your vehicle and you hold the title. You have no agreement with a third party as long as you don't sign any of their paperwork. I have had several situations that would have been declared 'total loss' and collected on the at fault parties insurance and have never signed over the title.

Get the highest value check you can out of them and then find a shop that will fix it the way you want, get a used hood and fender, get it painted. A good shop should be able to use their frame rack to pull your bumper straight.
 
Thanks for the suggestions all, the adjuster is coming by later this afternoon to look at it. My hood clearcoat was just starting to fade so hopefully this works out!

I would really hate to see this truck put out of action by a.. tire. Luckily it doesn't sound like that's going to be the case.
 
At least it hit you from above. Running OVER a spinning tire can be very violent, I saw it happen once on the freeway the pickup that hit it left the ground entirely, it looked kinda like a dukes of hazard jump. The truck was totaled by any measure.
 
sbman said:
At least it hit you from above. Running OVER a spinning tire can be very violent, I saw it happen once on the freeway the pickup that hit it left the ground entirely, it looked kinda like a dukes of hazard jump. The truck was totaled by any measure.
Click to expand...

Indeed, I had maybe a full second to see the tire and I barely managed to swerve as much as possible, otherwise it would have either gone under the axle directly or bounced off of the bumper into the windshield. It looks to me like I hit the side of the tire with the bumper, caused it to spin sideways into my bodywork. There are some marks on the passenger door as well.

The tire was going highway speeds (as was I) so anything involving the windshield would have likely been fatal for either me or the passenger, also I'm lucky I don't have airbags or else I would have absolutely lost control and likely flipped the truck.
 
Wow, if you didn't have that bumper, this conversation would be much different. A tire/wheel coming at you is no joke. You got lucky.



Looks like an easy repair to me. How's the core support?
 
malteserunner said:
Wow, if you didn't have that bumper, this conversation would be much different. A tire/wheel coming at you is no joke. You got lucky.



Looks like an easy repair to me. How's the core support?
Click to expand...

I agree. I had a passenger with me as well and she was extremely grateful that the bumper did its job. I was very impressed by how well it stood up to a Chevy Tahoe tire and rim going 80mph hitting a 5000lb truck going 70mpg.

The core support appears to be fine, but now that you mention it I haven't looked as closely as I would like to. I'll be sure to check it out this afternoon, good call.
 
Depending on the level of perfection that you are looking for, that hood looks savable. The problem is finding a good panel pounder, it's a dying art, most bodymen are now just parts changers.
 
sbman said:
I'm not an expert here, but I don't think someone else's insurance has any authority to decide the fate of your vehicle, you can accept their offer, or refuse it, but they can't 'total' your vehicle, it's your vehicle and you hold the title. You have no agreement with a third party as long as you don't sign any of their paperwork. I have had several situations that would have been declared 'total loss' and collected on the at fault parties insurance and have never signed over the title.

Get the highest value check you can out of them and then find a shop that will fix it the way you want, get a used hood and fender, get it painted. A good shop should be able to use their frame rack to pull your bumper straight.
Click to expand...

^x2 YOU OWN IT. I'm sure that they can pressure you and most people cave but "buying back" and a salvage title won't happen if you don't give them the title in exchange for any settelement. You don't have to "buy back" what you still own. People have told me that they (adjuster) tell them that they HAVE to hand the title ove.r Seems to me most people just want whatever they are going to hand $$ over and that is used as leverage to get the title (which used to be figured at about 15-20% of undamaged vehicle price.)
 
My suggestion:

Take all the money they are going to give you for it. Its not really up to their insurance whether or not to total it. They want to save money so that can push it. Use comparable vehicles and never accept their first, second or even third offer. If it is deemed totaled by your insurance then purchase it back for the salevage title which could cost you between $1200 and $2000. Use the rest of the money to purchase the hood, fender, grill, light housings and then swap over. The bumper did its job so keep it there and put a Tahoe icon with a circle and line thru it on your bumper like the WW2 pilots did with the Germans.

Don't give it another thought and move on with life.
 
Here is a thought. Imagine if you did not have that bumper, and you did not have the lift, so you would be about 4 inches lower, right? That tire would have likely just skimmed over your hood and gone right through your freaking windshield.
Now imagine if you were in any compact or sub-compact car.
"And in this corner! Weighing in at 2500 pounds, riding 3 inches off the ground, but armed with a government approved Five Star Saftey Rating,,, the Toyota Yaris! And in the other corner, the laws of freaking physics!" I'll take a 6000 pound modified 80 series over a 4000 pound, anything else, with as many airbags is you want to put in it, any day. As long as you don't drive it like an idiot, which is kind of hard given the power to weight ratio of these bricks, their safe. Very safe.
I'm glad you were not hurt.
Know what's more expensive than 13 mpg?
Medical bills.
Any medical bills.
 
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