Your story is soooo sad.

But hang in there. Everything will be OK at the end. I have a 1999 Taco as well. I took it off roading in Death Valley. And I was just at Joshua Tree last winter. It's a different kind of fun. Although the Taco consumes a lot more gas....

Good luck.

 

Hahahah, this tacoma has probably 100 horsepower and its 2wd. so i mean i cant go off roading or anything. just depressing i guess. Im sorry about your mustang grueinthebox, the truck is not going to be fun to drive at all, it is manual which is great, i will never own an auto car in my life. The truck bed definitely has its pro's, the mini was never good for my girlfriend and i in the back .

amberback they do pay for the insurance and everything so it is their decision.

PAimporttuner i did have a justa haha. i loved my little cooper. maybe after i get out of college i will have enough money to sell the truck and use all that i have to get another mini. who knows. i can cross my fingers.

darthhen my sisters truck isn't bad at all. i know i wont try to drive it fast cause its not gonna be any fun, comparing it to my mini :[, so i mean prob 20 mpg at least. joshua tree is beautiful.



to everyone, thank you for all of the kind words. It is settled, the towing company is coming tomorrow to take her away. I am going to spend the night in her to say goodbye. i dont care how uncomfortable it is. I took the shift **** off and i will have it for the rest of my life. every time i think of losing my car it brings tears to my eyes, as pathetic as that is, im a tough 18 year old guy who is tearing up over a mini cooper. ugh. this just sucks. thank you everyone, you have made it a lot better. there are the nicest people on this forum. never forget my first car.

happy motoring NAM. it was the best 52k miles of my life. i will be back soon.

 

I realize that this comment is too late, but how is this car totaled? I see hood and maybe some radiator damage, unless the airbags went off. Even then, it doesn't look all that bad.

Val

 

I thought the same thing. I'm seeing $2k to $3k in parts, plus another $2k in paint booth and frame bench time, maybe $500 in materials and waste disposal. At an 80% of replacement value, this car would have to be worth less than $6,600. I know around here in CT that would probably be about right with above average miles, but in SoCal, these things go for much higher. The tint and painted wheels surely don't help from a resale prospective, but it shouldn't affect the replacement value. Plus, that looks like a factory "sport package" car (wheels, spoiler, can't see if it has the fogs). I don't know if that can be reflected in book value, but not having the sport package on an R50 would be a dealbreaker for me because of the seats. Good luck.

 

That's what my parents and I thought. It looked relatively minor. New radiator, new grille, new hood. But the insurance adjuster said that it was totaled, he thought the same thing, he said from the outside it looks like relatively minor damage but once we got the hood open he said there was much more than he thought. The kbb for it was 10.5k here and im sure i could have gotten that for it. The air bags didnt go off surprisingly.

It does have fogs and the sport package. I love the seats they are, well were, sweet.


-Brent

 

That's a damn shame. Too bad the Parental Politics are involved. I'm sure you could buy back that car from the insurance company, and rebuild it yourself and be out ahead. If the airbags didn't deploy, there probably isn't any framehead damage. From the pics, it appears to be above the framehorns. I don't know how they do it in CA, but here in CT, if it stays registered to the owner at the time of the accident, you shouldn't even need to go through a salvage inspection, although the next owner would.

 

Trade the TACO in, get another R50, and stop the chain of hand me downs! IMHO it's not fair that you lose the car you love, and everyone in your family gets a new car, but you get the bottom feeder that none of them want.
If it where me nobody but ME and the dealership selling me a MINI would ever see that check. It might **** some people off, but they will live.

 

Maybe the car had a cracked block somehow.

 

Sorry to hear about your MINI.

What kind of accident did you have? (Someone hit you. You hit someone. Etc.)

 

It's quite possible that the transmission case could be cracked in a collision. I found this out when searching for salvage Getrags for my conversion. But the rear transmission mount hangs from the DS framehorn, and that appears perfectly undamaged from the photos. There is no apparent bumper contact. However, it appears that the OP's parents are punishing him in some way for wrecking the car. That's all I get out of it. Would they have traded in the car to buy Mom's replacement if it were undamaged?

 

Well my parents spoke to insurance today. Guess how much it was worth? THIRTEEN THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED EIGHTY. 13,480. WTF. We bought it for 13k. And after putting 30 thousand miles on it, it's worth more. I'm baffled.

to blackbomber, its already settled. my mom bought a new car yesterday :[. and theyre using the 13.4k check for the down payment. If they're giving us 13k for this I don't see how it's totaled. I was estimating it was worth 10k and damages plus parts was around 6 and labor was the rest so it was borderline. but it shouldn't be anywhere near 13 thousand. it isn't a punishment, my sister got in 3 accidents in the first 2 years of driving and the last one she totaled my moms car, my mom was planning on getting a new car next year since she has had hers for 9 years and my parents get new ones every 10. So they decided she might as well get a new car and i can have her hand-me-down.

to dicks garage r53, it's too late. my mom already bought her new car yesterday. I didn't expect them to give me the check and be able to buy a used mini, but i was hoping they'd let me. After a while i'm gonna ask them if i can sell my sister's truck and use that money for a mini but that's gonna be a while from now.

to sneezy erica, it was on the freeway in stop and go traffic. We got up to like 50 then stopped rapidly then did it again and i was in the middle of accelerating in second when the lady in front of me slammed on the breaks and i couldnt stop in time, i had no chance. the reason my car is totaled is cause i slammed on the brakes so the front of the car tilted down and the bumper of the taller car hit the hood directly, if it woulda been an inch lower i would have hit the metal bar in the bumper and my car would have been much less damaged.

 

So who is the insurance company? It sounds like they gave you a real fair shake.

At least you got some use out of a fine car, and (presumably) came out unscathed. I love my pickup (Ram 2500), but after driving it 70 miles yesterday, I was glad to get back in the R50 this morning. In fact, I can't imagine driving anything else on a daily basis. You'll get another one in time.

 

We use farmers insurance. I was not hurt at all. I hope to get one after i graduate college, hopefully.

 

i feel your pain. back in 2007 i got a brand new 07 mcs. laser blue, 17" rims, automatic with paddle shifters, cai and exhaust, upgraded front mounted inter-cooler. on January 18th 2008 i got t-boned by an excursion. the car was a total loss. i felt horrible. after all the time and effort i put into the car, i lost it in a heart beat. i will never forget that horrible night. thank lord i was okay. lol i remember when i first got the car i didnt like it since everyone made fun of me saying it was a "girls car" but soon after that people thought different about the "girls car". i'll miss my r56, now i have a 2006 r53. not all that happy with it. maybe because i got used to the r56. hopefully sometime in the future ill be in a another laser blue r56.

 

OMG i feel terrible for you Mini for life. that's so sad. :[. I felt the same when i first got mine but after a few months I fell in love with it. I hope you can some day have a laser blue r56. I hope to some day get a sport. the only thing i wasnt happy with about my mini was that it wasn't as quick as i wanted it.


And anyone who commented on this thread we got $13,480 for my mini from the insurance company and im flabbergasted. I have no idea how it was totaled if we got 13480 for it. They said it cost 7k to fix. Can anyone explain how that is totaled? That really ticked me off when i found that out.

 

Insurance companies will total a vehicle if the cost of repairs exceeds a certain percentage (e.g. 50% or 75%). "Totaled" really has nothing to do with whether a vehicle can be restored to its previous condition - it is a financial decision.

 

Hm, that's weird. Because you think they would save more money by just repairing it for 7k instead of giving us 13.5k. Must have been close. Thank you so much for the explanation.

 

Recently had an addident with a BMW 325i. My insurance adjuster claims that part of the evaluation on whether a car is "totaled" is not solely the cost of the repair, but the possibility of "future liability." She said that if the repair is considered "major" and car gets repaired, then if you have an accident in the future, what is the risk the other party could claim the car was unsafe due to the repair previously preformed and come after the insurance company for authorizing such repair just to "save themselves a buck on paying out the 'totaled amount.'" She claimed that if the cost of repair was close, possible "future liability" could tip the scale. Maybe that is the case here?

I had never heard that before from any agent. Anybody else heard of such a thing? (Any attorneys on NAM?)

 

Sounds about right I paid 20K for my MCS last year and a few weeks ago the dealer offered 20.5k .. I was tempted

 

:( this is so sad, i totally feel for you dude. I'm so attached to my cooper. I'd look into selling that tacoma as quickly as I could.

 

Well, I am going to let my parents relax for a bit and wait to bring up the conversation of selling the tacoma. Idk how they would react if i mentioned it.

That sounds like something an insurance company would do. I have no idea though