Yeah and it works the other way sometimes too. My wife’s car had one of those flatbed delivery trucks back into her car and just peel the whole driver’s side open like a can opener. I mean it literally looked like wolverine took a single claw down the entire side. I thought for sure they’d total it. But because it had so few miles on it even though it was still an 8 year old car they just fixed it because it was worth more than the 75% cost of repairs limit. I think the total repair bill was like 10k.
it still looks drivable, how can something that runs, stops, and doesn’t leak fluids too badly be totaled? Nobody should care how a truck looks, replace the front bumper with some plastic tubs zip-tied on and replace the radiator if it leaks. the only real issue I could see is if the steering is messed up.
Cars these days are essentially one-time use when it comes to collisions. They’re exceptionally good at protecting the occupants, but can only be kind of guaranteed to do so once. Like a helmet!
Newer cars that have unibodies can look relatively fine and be all smashed like a soda can on the inside. The metal crumples to redirect the force away and protect the delicate meatbag in safe zones. Your knees and elbows and head might whip around like a mofo. Be glad the airbag didn’t activate, because it might break your nose. The unibody CAN save your meat by itself. Source: personal walk away from a approx. 50 mph front and rear impact and the plastic and glass didn’t look that bad. No airbags, no problem. Thanks, unibody design!
You’d be shocked how expensive it is to repair a vehicle back to new for insurance purposes. Bent frame is almost instant total total. You can always repair them, but you’ll end up with a salvage title which is almost worthless to anyone but you.
My wife has been in 2 accidents, 1 was about like the one pictured and the other worse. Both were totaled by the insurance company. The one like the picture was actually drivable from the scene.
Totaled just means repairs will cost as much as the car is worth. If the frame is bent, that would probably do it.
Yeah and it works the other way sometimes too. My wife’s car had one of those flatbed delivery trucks back into her car and just peel the whole driver’s side open like a can opener. I mean it literally looked like wolverine took a single claw down the entire side. I thought for sure they’d total it. But because it had so few miles on it even though it was still an 8 year old car they just fixed it because it was worth more than the 75% cost of repairs limit. I think the total repair bill was like 10k.
Okay. That makes sense. Thanks!
There’s also the airbags, seatbelt pretensioners, the belts themselves, a huge amount of stuff that needs to be swapped out after a crash.
it still looks drivable, how can something that runs, stops, and doesn’t leak fluids too badly be totaled? Nobody should care how a truck looks, replace the front bumper with some plastic tubs zip-tied on and replace the radiator if it leaks. the only real issue I could see is if the steering is messed up.
Cars these days are essentially one-time use when it comes to collisions. They’re exceptionally good at protecting the occupants, but can only be kind of guaranteed to do so once. Like a helmet!
Newer cars that have unibodies can look relatively fine and be all smashed like a soda can on the inside. The metal crumples to redirect the force away and protect the delicate meatbag in safe zones. Your knees and elbows and head might whip around like a mofo. Be glad the airbag didn’t activate, because it might break your nose. The unibody CAN save your meat by itself. Source: personal walk away from a approx. 50 mph front and rear impact and the plastic and glass didn’t look that bad. No airbags, no problem. Thanks, unibody design!
At this point, many companies consider any car with a deployed air bag totaled. There’s a lot of stuff that crumples and isn’t obvious.
You’d be shocked how expensive it is to repair a vehicle back to new for insurance purposes. Bent frame is almost instant total total. You can always repair them, but you’ll end up with a salvage title which is almost worthless to anyone but you. My wife has been in 2 accidents, 1 was about like the one pictured and the other worse. Both were totaled by the insurance company. The one like the picture was actually drivable from the scene.
That’s not what totaling means. A totaled car that’s still on the road is called a salvage vehicle.
Totalled means the repair bill is more than the cost of replacing the car. It actually doesn’t take much to total a car these days.