BRZ accident advice
 

I'm sad to report that a couple days ago my BRZ was involved in a pretty major accident. A car traveling the opposite direction made a left turn about 15ft in front of me as I approached at ~45mph. Needless to say I could not stop in time and t-boned the guy.

My BRZ is brand new.... literally has ~350mi on it. So far insurance companies are looking at this as 0% my fault as the other driver crossed into my side of the road without adequete clearance.

Anyhow looking for some advice on how to work with the insurance company. Looks like initial appraisal is >17k in damage, which includes unibody damage, entire front end re-paneling, and a bunch of new radiator and electrical components among other things.

I'm worried no matter how well they fix the vehicle i'm faced with a case of Diminished Value as the frame repairs and a major accident will surely show up on car reports like carfax. I'm afraid the unibody will always be slightly degraded and there will be a bunch of nagging issues down the road due to mis-alignments and issues that just were not caught.

Anyone have a similar experience to this with a new car? Any way to fight this with the insurance companies. In my opinion unless it's replaced with a new car they have not returned it to it's previous state considering the work that needs to be done. Perhaps I just need to suck it up. The situation stinks :mad0259:

Here's some recent read on the topic from another forum. It's not gonna be easy, but it's worth a try.

thats gonna suk if they decide to fix that car
atleast ur ok

Glad you are ok!! Good luck, but I would think should be totaled

Every state has different laws regarding Diminished Value. You need to research what they are in your state.

Rather than trying to get DV, I would find out what the magic number is for the insurance company to total the car, find a GOOD shop that you would want the car repaired at, have them begin the tear-down to see if they can hit the magic number because there WILL be more damage than the initial estimate, hope that your insurance company will total the car, and if they don't, at least you have a competent shop that won't half-ass the repair. Also, don't bother going to a dealership's body shop because they tend to half-ass EVERYTHING.

where in San diego this happen?:confused0068: man that sucks glad your ok.. looks like youll miss the 86FEST if you were going... time to get a FRS 10 series....

Any frame damaged you get a mark on the title that makes the car worth half. Fight for totaled and most insurance fist year they replace it

I'll be honest, I had a wreck with a brand new tC not even 3 months into its life about half a decade ago. I had it towed to the same dealership that I bought it from and within 24 hours they called saying that it was a total loss and that the insurance company would buy it out i.e. pay off the rest of my loan and cut me a check for the amount I paid off on the car. This is with full coverage of course. Lost a little bit of money due to deductibles and the appraisal of the car at that time, but we're talking less than $1000.

Try to get it totaled. It won't be the same for sure.

I believe totaling has to be like 70-80% damaged or something of the value

Was this a Limited or Premium model? I think you will have a really hard time getting a Limited totaled if the estimated damage is under $19K.

But worth a try. Definitely look into diminished value.

DO NOT FIX. Unibody damage? That alone should total the car in California. I know motorcycles get totaled when there is frame damage. The unibody of a car is basically the frame and this car is designed to distribute crash stress to the entire car in an accident. Just because they found SOME of the damage doesn't mean they're able to see hidden dents and crumple zones elsewhere. When my wife was involved in a similar accident (her doing 60 and the other person turning at ~35), the area above the hatch of our Civic Si was crumpled, along with areas on the side of the car which were never touched by the other vehicle.

Probably a bit late now, but you should always take it to a dealer's body shop if you can after a major accident like that.

A body shop has a vested interest in NOT totalling that car. They want to fix it. They don't get squat if they total it.

A dealership has a vested interest in totalling it because they want to sell you ANOTHER new car. Two for the price of 1. Plus they're just more expensive anyways.

Right now, if you're not already, get your insurance fighting for you. Hopefully you're not dealing with the other drivers insurance at all -- let your insurance company fight that for you, that's what you pay them for. Tell them that you won't accept anything less than a total. That you simply won't feel satisifed with that car any longer and you won't be able to sell it for anything close to the value that they're using as a determinator of totalling it or not.

I would also call some salvage yards or maybe even shops that rebuild cars, and see what they'd offer you for it. It may be worth talking the insurer up to $20K, taking the cash instead of fixing the car, and selling the scrapped car to a salvage guy for a few grand. Depending on what you owe, you may only end up 'upside-down' a couple grand. I'd probably suck that up versus getting a car with that level of repairs done to it.

Also, make sure the body shop quoted AUTHENTIC parts. They almost never do. However your insurance contract states that they will return your car to its before-accident state. Putting in knock-off Chinese parts is NOT the condition it was in previously. You usually have to fight for this; but it's never that difficult of an argument to win. Insurers know you're right, they just hope you won't notice. Hopefully since your insurer isn't ultimately paying, they didn't get the quote with non-OEM parts, but you never know. And I really hope you didn't take the car where the other driver's insurance wanted it taken. OEM parts can make a huge difference in the quote.

And lastly... you could always take a bat to a couple undamaged panels in the middle of the night...

Totaled for sure if repairs > 60% of the value of the car, which is definitely the case with the $17k estimate you mentioned.

As long as you're ok, don't sweat it. Your only obstacles now are finding another BRZ and dealing with a premium increase on the insurance...regardless of fault :(

Really hope you put down a nice chunk of change when you bought the car, or have Gap insurance...

Good luck man. Hope it all works out.

Yeah my car had about 15K worth of damage done and I was praying for them to totaled my car but they fixed it..

Try to get your car totaled that way you can get another BRZ haha