Sorry to hear about your accident. Best part is that you have lived to tell the tale. Could have been a lot worse. Cars can be replaced, lives cannot. Keep us updated on the outcome of the dilemma.

Take care...

 

Glad you are ok!! What happened to the piece of crap that hit you??? To think that the national insurance institute graded our little minis a poor shame on them. Maybe they should analyze a real crash instead of their low speed bu******!

 

Very sad losing your new MINI, but at least it gave it's life to save yours. Good Luck.

 

Posted pictures everyone on the first page. I need some opinions as to whether or not you think this is a totaled car. My major concern is that if the fix my new car, I will have a carfax history report haunting my car when I try to sell it. Any thoughts?

 

While I'm not a body guy - I would say looking at those (horrific) pictures that you have about $18,000 worth of damage. Left side, hood, stuff under the hood, alignment, axles, etc...

 

whoa...and the pictures bring the story into even sharper glare. Impressive how the cockpit remained unscathed. I become more and more impressed with MINI all the time.

I hope for your sake that the car is totalled. I guess all you can do is wait. Has your insurance agent been out to visit yet; taken pictures? What was his/her reaction?

I understand why you want it totalled. After 2 weeks of buying a Toyota Sequoia I let a friend drive it. He was on a cell phone , ran a red light, t-boned an also-new Lexus SUV. $22K damage to my Sequoia. I, too, had hoped for it to be totalled. No such luck. $45K truck, $22K in damage = 10 weeks in the body shop, $500 deductible, and me wanting to be rid of the truck for the next 3 years. It's just not the same (emotionally) after an accident. You want the pristine vehicle that you drove off the lot. It's particularly sad when the accident/damange was no fault of your own.

I will say though, when I got mine back you couldn't tell it had been damaged and it ran without problem until I traded it in 3 years later.

G/L to you hun.

 

Sorry for your loss and i'm glad out came out ok, but i don't think they are going to total that. I had a friend that had a 2001 325i and lost control in the rain and hit all 4 corners on the retaining wall (very similar looking damage). Lots of damage all over, bent frame and all, even interior cubby doors stopped working, and it was only $10k worth of damage.

Looks like new hood, bumper, light fixitures in front, all the drivers side panels, new tail light and rear bumper, new axles and wheels. Can't be sure if the frame is bent, but it's not looking good to be totaled (i hope for the best though)

 

My dad's Caddy got in a wreck, not totalled, but a bunch of work. It was pretty new, not his fault. He got the person's ins company to not only fix the car and pay for a Cadillac rental (2-3 months) but cash compensated him because the resale value of the car would be less. This was an issue that the insurance company fought him on, and I think he got a lawyer involved, more to show he was serious about it, no legal action took place.
I don't think it's totalled either, but I can't tell what kind of shape the engine's in. The cockpit looks amazingly undisturbed. That's good.

 

Wow those pictures are sad to see. My Maddy looks just like your car! Its amazing how well the car held up. Im hoping for your sake that the car is totalled.

 

What a night you had! One to tell the grand kids! Were you shocked when you took the pictures seeing what you lived through?I hope every thing works out for you!

 

What pics! Wow.

I actually think they won't total it. It's amazing what they can repair.

 

Sure glad to hear that you came out of this uninjured. Also, it's great to see that your door held up so well after being hit so hard by the cop. But .. Why did neither the head nor the side airbags deploy? With a hit like that on your door I'd have sure thought they would.

 

Good to hear you are ok! I'm impressed by how well your car took the T-Bone impact! That's impressive!

 

I was wondering about the airbags as well.

Thanks for posting your story and pictures.

Sorry to hear about your MINI but I'm glad you are OK and relatively healthy.
Good to hear that no one else were hurt.

High speed chases... not good, very dangerous. Bad.

Just think, if that Honda hit an SUV that flipped and caused a chain pile up how many people could be hurt? But with your MINI, damage was limited and people were able to walk away.

Cheers to your MCS Beautiful car by the way. Hope you can get another very soon with as little hassle as possible.

 

I don't know if you guys have any more opinions on this, but one of my major concerns if they find out that this is not a total, which I am going to fight them over. How can I be sure that the motor and tranny did not suffer any extensive damage from the impact. Just checking with an OBDII reader might not show any trouble codes, but down the road a broken part in either of these could spell big money.

 

My car looked worse than that after our accident and was declared totalled. Damages were estimated at somewhere between $20,000-22,000 (for a car that was worth about $14,000 originally). You 'll have to wait until they fully inspect it and such to know. In our case it took about a week and a half to get a final total from my insurance company on this. In your case I'm guessing it depends on how bad the frame of the car is. Just from the outside pics you had it looks bad but possibly still repairable. If the entire frame of the car is bent up then that will likely make it a total loss.

Not that I know anything about repairing cars like this. I really don't. This is just what I gleaned from several people while talking about my own car. After my insurance determined it was totalled they gave me a pretty comprehensive report that listed how they estimaged the damage and how they got to the amount of cash they were going to give me for it. In my case I got a really good deal on the car in the first place and that helped me to recoup more of its value. I'm sure you'll get something similar for your car, whether it is totalled or not.

Anyway, good luck with that.

 

Good thing you're otay, sucks about your ride though!!!

 

I hear you. I'd try and sway them to total by saying "my plan for this car was to race it in amatuer events, so it must be put back together as original so I can mod it". If they insist on repairs make sure you are compensated for the decrease in resale value when you sell (see my other post), and that you are given a really good extended warranty (bumper to bumper) to cover any future problems that may come up unexpectedly.

 

I am so sorry to hear of your accident. I don't know if you have heard this
yet, but the all new 2007 MINI has been certified in Europe as a 5 star crash rated car! I certainly know you can now attest to the R56's sturdiness...

Best of luck in the future i ngetting her repaired. I would like to use your pictures to show anyone at my dealership who might question the integrity of the MINI.

Sincerely,
Steve

Steve Mezardjian
Hendrick MINI
6800 East Independence Blvd
Charlotte, NC, 28227
(704) 566-2510.

 

When my first DVLMINI was whacked, the thing that sent it over the "totalled" line was frame damages...Now, since the "frame" is the body in unibody construction, I had to have Long Beach MINI look for this. They have the greatest Body Shop, by the way.

Anyway, the rear seat and all interior trim in the rear needs to be removed to see this. My floor under the rear seat was crumpled or at least "wrinkled."

That added over $5000 to the estimate and thereby totalled the car.

Good luck with this. As everyone, I'm glad you were not injured.

Be insistent with your insurance company.