...actually Drew Carey!

Glad no one was hurt. I estimate repairs will be under $9K.

 

Looks fixable to me!! 6500 in repair bills.

 

Looks like its on the border. If the roof and windshield are not harmed, its not going to be totalled. However, the front framerails, even though covered by the hood, make it unable to tell for sure. If the bill is going to be around 8k as a few people have mentioned, I would figure the car is worth maybe 11-15K depending on year, its probably totalled.

 

Thanks for the input. We're waiting to hear back from the insurance agency as to what exactly makes it totalled. From my own experience it shouldn't be. I was hit by a semi a few years back and had over 10k worth of repairs to my car.

 

I'm sorry to hear about this incident.

One dollar, Bob!!! One dollar!!!

 

FIXABLE. i vote 7,599 for the minor frame work hood bumper assembly bracksts for the radiator and other damaged internals. if it is wrecked could i buy the mirror caps from you?

i'll bid $7,599 Drew!

 

my vote is $8,765.43

 

It looks pretty good to me. The hood creased where it was designed to, bumper essentially popped off. Door to body lines look straight, consistently gapped. Even the plastic rings over the wheels appear in decent shape. I estimate $6,233.11.

 

The problem is you guys are forgetting it'll def need an alignment, and there are a bunch of small brackets and things that are surely bent under the hood as well. All the lighting in the front, and even though the doors open and close fine and the rest of the car "looks" fine, there is still a possibility it isn't. How fast was she going when she hit? What about any wiring that runs along the front of the engine bay? Is it all part of one big harness? Subframe still ok? Lots of things that add up quickly. I don't think it's totalled, but there is more that needs to be taken into consideration here.

On a side note, glad to hear no one was hurt! Looks like the car did it's job...although the airbags not going off is odd...Even at 15mph+ the airbags should deploy.

 

I didn't forget; it's included in my estimate.

 

the

 

The way I learned it is if you can drive or walk away from the accident air bags will not deploy.

 

Lol, well I was just saying because no one was mentioning that stuff that's all. My vote is $9,234.23 partially on the high side because in order to get the paint just right they'll end up repainting most of the car in the blending process. Plus I think there is more damage in the engine bay then can be seen right now...

Edit: As far as the airbags go, yeah I wasn't sure...I just thought that with that amount of damage the airbags would have gone off. I get nervous about that stuff because my sister had brand new 97 jetta that she was hit head on in and the airbags didn't work...

 

Airbags not deploying is a very common occurance, I see it every day at work. Insurance is saying the unibody is bent, transmision is shot and they say the whole nose would have to be replaced.

 

Scary that airbags don't work as often as they should...my sister might have been better off if they had. She suffered major injuries and some serious head trauma. Her head broke the steering wheel in two pieces.

So any news on other estimates? With the unibody being bent and tranny being shot that might mean the end of her :( But then again you never know!

 

should buff right out..

 

If the car has frame damage, is the equivalent of having a person with a broken neck. You'll have a very difficult time unloading that turkey, even if it has been "Properly" repaired. Here is the kicker... When they start tearing down the car to begin the repairs, that is the point when the body shop will start to find more damage. You have no idea if the engine has broken or compromised internals, you have no idea if the transmission is damaged on the inside. It is very difficult to determine the extent of the damages just by looking at it. If I were you, I would follow on another poster's recommendation... Take many pictures, document EVERYTHING, get a second, third, fourth opinion and retain legal counsel if necessary. Remember... The insurance company is there to look after their interests, not yours! To me, this car is a total loss. I personally would never want to drive ever again a turkey that has sustained that much damage. The car will never be the same (Don't let the ins company and the body shop fool you into thinking otherwise). Good luck. You are gonna need it!

 

CHA-CHING! TOTAL LOSS!!!

 

If the insurance company insists in fixing the car, let them do so and once you get it back, unload the thing. Take it from me. I had a terrible repair experience on an accident very similar to you (Instead of hitting a rail guard, a Ford F-150 hit the front end of my '96 Acura Integra.. The car was 1 year old at the time). Frame damage post-repairs are horrendous. Your car will be a rattling bucket of screws. It will never feel the same, will never drive the same...ughhh! Memories! Hope it gets totaled. You'll thank me.

 

Sorry to hear this.
It doesn't look to be totalled from the pic, but like it has been said, who knows what remains to be seen underneath. My rule of thumb in these situations, if the frame is damaged at all, do everything in your power to make sure it is totalled.
Everything else can be replaced, bolted in/out, but the frame is the backbone of the car. No replacing that(except with a new car), just fixing, and it's never the same.

 

If it's one thing I'm learning in my line of work, its that it is very difficult to perform an accurate estimate on a car, even when you see it in person. Why ? so much damage is hidden until the shop starts to tear it apart. Even our professional estimators who perform about 8 estimates a day, can't get close on some damaged cars.

But hey... I'm game.

Definitely does NOT look like a total loss. I'll say the damages will be $7,250.
Looks like less, but I'm betting they'll find stuff we can't see.

Edit: Just read page two of the thread. Tranny ? Ka-ching ! Changes everything. All bets off on the damages.

 

This isn't 1997. A lot has changed in auto repair industry in 11 years. Besides, you may have had a crappy repair shop.

When that MINI gets fixed, it will look and drive like the day it was in the accident. Book it.

Edit: IF... IF the MINI gets fixed.

 

MINIs do not have frames.

 

I'll vote for totaled. I'll guess that the engine is off it's mounts and was smashed into the tranny, displacing it. I'll further guess that it tweaked the unibody at the firewall. A pic from inside under the dash might prove this.

Sorry to hear about it and glad she's ok. The Mini did it's job.

Yes, airbags are designed to NOT go off unless the impact is so severe that there will be major injury. The airbag itself will cause minor injuries, so they're not always a good idea. My friend recently had an airbag accidentally deploy and ended up with some nicks, scrapes and a banged up cornea to show for it. Not good.

 

if you vote ... you can't go over ... even by 1c