Good evening everyone. I was involved in an accident earlier today and I've been fortunate enough to have gone 18 years driving without one.

Long story short: a guy was at a stop sign and pulled out in front of me. I swerved to the left as he pulled out making a left as well. Our passenger bumpers took all the damage, his worse than mine. Hit him hard enough that it dislodged the battery terminal off the negative end and had to makeshift it back together to get home.

Damage doesn't look bad; passenger side bumper pushed in, the small part of the front fender furthest forward is bent. However the steeringwheel is cocked to the left and the suspension sound loose. The wheel well is pushed into the tire but only noise when turning left. The steering also feels loose.

Having never dealt with insurance companies before in worried they'll come back to me saying it's totaled. It's It's 203k on the clock and a 98. Anyone with any experience with this and have any advice?

Unless you agreed to deal with it between yourselves without contacting insurance companies, I'd contact your insurance company and let them know what happened. They'll want information about how the accident happened, and whatever information you got from the other driver so that your insurance company can contact his insurance company and they will work it out. At some point you will need to get an estimate for repairing your car either from someone your insurance company sends to look at it or from an insurance approved body shop.

If they don't want to total the car based on the estimate, you can take the money minus your deductible (Who is responsible for the deductible will depend on how the insurance companies assign fault for the accident) and repair it yourself, or you can have the body shop do the repair and the insurance company will pay them (Minus deductible). Remember that if you take the money and decide to do the repair yourself and later find more damage you won't get more money, but if the body shop is doing the work and more damage is discovered, insurance will cover the additional damage.

If they do want to total the car, you can take the check (minus deductible) and walk away. Or you can buy the car back which typically means getting a smaller check and then deal with the repairs and going through whatever your states process is to get a salvage title for the car.

For a car as old as a 3rd gen 4runner, they are going to try and use a very low valuation for the car, so you may want to look around and see what you can find comparable 4runners selling for around you to support using a higher valuation. That may keep them from totaling it, and if not it will at least hopefully get you a higher payout.

Of you did not get a police report, you likely will be SOL with regards to insurance.

If you are up on maintenance and or have spent a bunch of money on the rig keeping it up to date, be sure to breach that subject... also how much the vehicle meant to you and your wife etc, etc. may not help, but I’ve heard of it.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck.


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Sorry to hear about the accident. I'd like to learn more about this, too, especially the Or you can buy the car back part of the equation.
What guarantee is there that you can buy it back post-'total', and from whom? What if you don't agree with your insurance that the car is a total loss? Can you work out a deal for less and keep the vehicle in your possession?

Thank you for the reply! I'm taking it to get an appraisal tomorrow. Will the give the quote with oem parts or the cheapest parts they can find?
I got a police report, thankfully. And I will bring all of that up when I talk to my claims adjuster.

Totaling requires repair costs in excess of 70-75% of vehicle's value.

You can help that value # with any receipts you have for significant work especially work that adds to its Safety (e.g. brakes) or other recent major work.

It does not sound like you're accident is serious enough to total out but who knows, if frame is good, it should be fine to repair within costs constraints.

Don't forgot to get them for your time lost at work and maybe a quick Dr. assessment wouldn't hurt to substantiate your seriousness on the matter.

Luck!

Your insurance company will place a value on your car. That value will be used to determine if the damage is significant enough to warrant totaling the car (Usually 70-75%, but it does vary state to state). If they decide to total your car, that value will be what they pay you. What they are doing is actually buying your car from you rather than paying to have it repaired. They will then auction the car off to people who will either scrap the car, part it out, or in some cases repair the car and sell it with a salvage title.

When they decide your car is a total loss, you will have two options. Option 1 is to let them buy the car from you rather than pay to have it repaired. Option 2 is for you to buy the car back. When you buy the car back, they will make an estimate of what they could sell the car for at auction, and subtract that amount from the value of the car. You will then get a check for the difference, and you can keep the car and deal with repairing it yourself. Depending on your state, the process to get the car back on the road will vary, but you will generally need to do some amount of repair to address any safety related things like fixing broken lights etc. and pass some sort of safety inspection. Once that is done you will be able to register the car again, but the car will now have a salvage title.

I keep all the receipts for this puppy, they'll be getting them if needed. What worries me is the steering being messed up if they pin it on the rack. The cost for that plus whatever else they find might push me close to what they put the value at.

I'd recommend calling your insurance company and letting them know right away. If you decide to handle it amongst yourselves you can just tell your insurance company and they'll let you, in my experience.

Insurance has been made aware and already started the claims process. Made this post mostly to see what other 3rd gen owners have been through with their accidents and what not.

If your thinking of a number you wanted for your 4runner you should have settled that with your insurance company before the accident. Some insurance companies will work with you on the final settled price and some will not. All insurance companies are different in their processes.

Because of high part prices and high cost of labor...it doesn't take much damage to total any truck or car. The CoPart yard is littered with such examples.

Some members on here even had their damaged trucks held at the insurance yard during the appraisal process and forced to take the insurance settlement. If the insurance co needs your title for you rig in order to go forwards, it's also a sign they will change the status on the title on your truck.

Got the quote from the shop to fix it. Comes out to ~$2200, but that doesn't include fixing the steering and suspension issue. The gentleman at the shop said he won't know just what needs to be fixed until they get it on a lift to tear it down, but he agree that the steering rack is likely the culprit. Unfortunately in his experience the claims adjusters typically don't pay for OEM parts on a 23yr old vehicle with 200k on the clock. Depending on how they value the vehicle I'm just under the state minimum of 75% before they total it, however fixing the steering will push me well over that number.

Get a couple of quotes and tell them to fix your truck to factory specs with a warranty. I Got hit about eight years ago on the rear passenger wheel by a driver that ran the stop sign bent rear axle, bumper, rear quater panel etc. I told the lady's insurance that the car is worth a lot more then the blue book. Be ready with some high dollar examples from the net. It took a lot of back and forth about 3 months worth until it got resolved and they ended up paying for a new oem Toyota differential but after market bumper muffler etc. In total they paid about 8k in repairs plus my rental expense which was pretty high.

He's already told me the insurance company will fight putting OEM parts on a 23yr old vehicle, but all of the body work will be factory parts. I told him I want all of the structural and mechanical parts to be OEM, don't care if the body work is aftermarket.

This ^ Do some research on value of a like 4runner (dealer lot $$$) for values
just like real estate "comparables".

Nothing wrong with junk yard parts for body damage . .
3 mos. is awesome had an incident that took 11 mos.. never forget YOU pay THEM..