Someone hit me last night on my way home from work (everyone is fine). My car is not driveable and had to be towed back home. Tow truck driver said it was difficult to turn the wheel and when he opened the door it stuck a little.

It is a 12 Just A Cooper with 40k miles and on KKB private seller it say it will go for about 13 or 14K. Thought about it being totaled or how much the damage could be/cost?

 

I'd guess it isn't totaled, but I'm not an insurance estimator. Good luck.

 

Glad no one was hurt.

Does not look that bad.Just make sure it goes to a reputable shop.

 

Assuming the front steering components and/or the frame aren't bad, looks repairable to me (though am not an expert). Depending on your financial situation, you're almost better off if it's totaled from a resell perspective..

 

Ouch, sorry to hear this :(

Looks repairable, but i just hope no frame damage, or the axle and transmission is no damaged a bunch.

 

Everyone call for totaled so quickly these days! . . . I doubt it will be totaled unless something major hidden is found. From the looks of it it's what use to be called more simply "fender bender"...

 

It is hard to see the damage to my wheel in this picture, but it is off which is why I thought it could be totaled. Here is an overhead view of the end result of the accident.

 

That's a first for me. It's not too often one gets to have a picture of their own car in an accident from a far...

The wheel off doesn't always mean the worse. Engine, transmission, frame chassis, safety equipment, are some of the big cost. LCA, suspension, drive shafts are easier to replace.

How old is the car and how many miles?
It will be totaled if the amount of repairs come more or less close to the residual value of the car prior to the accident. No insurance wants to spend a lot of money fixing a car if its current price isn't there. That's probably going to be the biggest factor. It's not always fair to the owner unfortunately.

I wish you luck. No one ever gets paid fairly for the amount of inconvenience and stress it causes

 

Hopefully there's no serious damage and can be repaired. Some days, it just doesn't pay to go out! Sorry to see that happen. You've got a nice Mini.

 

Ha yeah the accident happened right outside of work and a co-worker took it.

The car is a 2012 with just a hair under 40k miles. It just sucks because my car is in pretty decent shape and now that it was involved in a major accident (not caused by me...the other two cars are at fault) the value of my car is going to go down significantly.

 

The pics don't look bad. Similar to how my car looked when I rear-ended someone. (D'OH! Why did you stop in the middle of a lane??)

If you had just hit the front corner of the car on something, I'd be worried about the door not opening smoothly. But it looks like you got hit at least partly in the side, which ironically makes me worry less about hidden damage.

 

Exactly! I lost thousands of dollars in value due to the damn CarFax. Based on my loan amount, I went from $3k up to $2k down just because of the CarFax hit. I figure it was the police or the tow yard that put it on CarFax. The value will take a serious hit and I highly advise you if you are able where you live to pursue a diminished value claim.

Just some history, in November, my '11 MCCS with 87k miles was the middle of a sandwich between a delivery truck and SUV. It got repaired. It probably should not have since repairs were only about a grand under retail value. The body shop did make a comment to me that these little cars can take a serious hit and still be repaired. Mine looked terrible but the fact is that there wasn't any structural damage. I'm a little mad they fixed it because it isn't worth what it was and if they had written it off, I'd be driving a R55 JCW.

 

Have you heard anything back yet ?

 

So a little update an appraiser came out (from my insurance company) and took a look at the car. From his mock estimate he believes the car has 6k worth of damage, which means it is repairable But they picked it up yesterday and it is now at the body shop, which they will be able to take everything apart and see if there is any additional damage.

I had no idea about "diminished value" until yesterday, when a co-worker of mine told me about it. I started looking online at the different websites that offer to help with the claims...how secure and reliable are these companies? Also I have a really good family friend who works in the insurance company and he said unless I have a Carmax type offer from less than a year ago there is no way to file the claim. I feel like this is untrue because most people when they are in an accident weren't planning on selling their car anytime soon.

If anywho can tell me a little more about possible filing one of these claims. I live in So Cal. From what I reading you go after the "at fault" party and with my accident, which is unknown as of now (someone either ran a red light or took a left in front of the person going straight)

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

Here's what I know about diminished value and by no means am I an expert. Sorry in advance for the long-winded nature of this post.

My '11 Clubman S had 87k miles at the time the accident. I had not really thought about selling/trading it seriously though I was curious what MINI would give me for trade on a F54 that would be arriving sometime soon. I heard about DV not long after the accident. I started researching because there was some thought mine might be totaled. I looked at KBB, Edmunds, NADA, CarGurus, CarLocate, etc, for some kind of number. I looked at these sites at trade-in. I was coming up with a range of $7850-9400 trade in. I found that the same car/options was available around the country for retail ~$11-13k. The initial estimate of the damage on mine was $8k. I knew totaling the car was going to be 75% value. What that "value" was, I didn't know. No one could tell me if repair was based on retail or trade-in value. It was retail in my case. They based the repair on $12.5k value. The repair was actually over $10k so it should have been totaled based on the 75% threshold.

When I got the car back from the body shop, I headed over to MINI because 2.5 months later (yes it took that long) the F54 had come out and they have some coming in. They looked at the CarFax and the accident is listed. They offered me $4k. I owed $6k. Based on that, I was now $2k in the hole when before I was up to $3.5k up. The MINI offer was a low-ball and I knew that. It gave me a basis to start. I took it to another dealer who had a used JCW Clubman and CarMax and got the same higher number at each place.

The DV amount is the difference between what it could be sold for then and what it can be sold for now. My calculation that I finally agreed on ended up being excellent trade-in minus what CarMax offered me. That may or may not end up being a good deal for you, but for me is was pretty decent in the overall scheme of things. All of the negotiation was with the at-fault driver's insurance company.

I'm likely keeping it because of the loss in resale value and my mechanic says all I really need is an intercooler, CAI, maybe exhaust and a tune to be faster than a JCW. He said that will run me around $2k which is better than several years more of car payments. Well, those and that I know this beast and he still has a lot of life left.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

Thank for all the info. I went on all those websites and priced out my car.

Now it is just a waiting game until I get my car back. I actually went to the body shop yesterday and they said it should take two weeks. Good thing they said was that they have al the parts, which is usually what takes the longest.

 

New update:

I got a call from the body shop and they started taking the car apart. They found another $2400 worth of damage. I'm not sure what the percentage is in California, but it seems like it is getting close to that total percentage. The body shop called my insurance and they approved the new charges.

On a new side note I went to a local Mini dealership this weekend and they have a bunch of 2015s leftover. I found one that has all the opinions I currently have, plus a lot more. I looked up the VIN number to see when the build date was and it is 11/14...which means the dealership has had this car for over a year a least. Do you think the dealership would be willing to heavily discount the car? Any other advice on how to get the best deal on a leftover?

Thanks in advance!

 

I had to chuckle to myself when I read the shop found another $2400 in damage. That's a pretty big find to suddenly pop up.

Anyway, good luck whatever you do...

 

The first total was from the appraiser visually looking at the car. The extra $2400 is because the body shop took the car apart and found additional damage.

 

It's all good, as long as the insurance company said it was OK to proceed!

On the leftover model year issue, I've never worked with a Mini dealership for a discount... but it's always worth a try. I saw leftover Mini Roadsters discounted about $4,500 on dealer websites last Fall in northern states. I suspect that was a Mini money type discount, since I saw the same figure advertised at more than one dealership.

Definitely worth the hassle to wander in to a dealer, discuss discounts, or givebacks and then press for a little more off on the price of car that has been there that long. If they don't meet a reasonable deal, say thank you, and walk away. Most of the time, if they really want to sell that car, they will grab you before you get into your car to drive away. Just watch out for add on charges, after a deal has been casually agreed to. If they start doing that, the same procedure will generally work. Object to the added costs and tell them this is not the price agreed upon, and if need be, walk away from it again. Be nice, but be firm. If you can time this toward the end of a month... it might be even better.

I've been really surprised at what some dealers come up with when they really want to sell a car. Every dealership is different, so you might or might not luck out. Worth the try!

 

What's the chuckle? That's fairly typical. Insurance adjusters are typically hack estimators who can only write basic stuff that they see. After it's disassembled, the shop can identify exactly what it takes to make it back to OEM specs through visuals and measurements and prices for parts they can actually get. I deal with this stuff every day.

 

Assuming your earlier numbers are right, that extra $2400 is getting really close to totaling it. By the time, they put you in a rental car for weeks (since you were not at fault) and you voice your displeasure with it being repaired (and ask for diminished value), they may finish it off. Don't wait until the shop gets moving on the project, start pushing those buttons now. Your only issue is that you are the claimant and its the other party's insurance company.

 

Well it is to late now because the car is almost done...should have it back Wednesday or Thursday according to the shop. My whole dilemma with this accident is that three cars were involved and the insurance is waiting for the police report (could take months my agent said) to determine who is at fault (obviously not me).

 

There's always gotta be a wrench in the monkeyworks someplace.

 

I hope everything works out. it a pain with multiple insurance companies been down that road.