08' Limited - is it totaled?

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here is some advise from a licensed damage appraiser.

to check nose "sway" w/o putting it on a frame machine close the hood just to the point of latching. check the body line on the undamaged side to see if the gap opens up. if it is tight in the rear and gets wider in the front you have some sort of nose sway(it could either be frame sway or the rad support is swayed) the frame assy is stronger than the support. also you do have rt suspension damage. the top of the wheel is in and not angled as far as the lt wheel(turning wise). this is definitely not a total(at least i would not total it. some ins companies can be funny though.

say for example your damage is 10,000 total. the vehicle is worth 30.000, the salvage value is 15.000. the ins co could do whats called a constructive total due to possible "hidden" damage and a high salvage value.

frames an be straightened as long as they are not "kinked". bent frames are repairable. i do not think 4runner frames are sectionable. trailblazers for example are hydroformed frames and GM actually makes a kit to do such a repair.

the shop is giving you a run around on not writing an appraisal. a "good" shop would write an appraisal and when the appraiser gets there the shop would give the ins co appraiser the estimate to review.

i would go with my own ins co. they would be more sensitive to your needs, in most cases a 3rd party carrier, you would be athorn in their side. your ins co would pay you and leinholder(if you have one) or you could sign a DTP(direction to pay) so the payments go directly to the shop and it bypasses the leinholder. then your ins co would subrogate against the other ins co.

good luck.

This is very helpful - thank you. I will look at it again tomorrow and see what I can determine by looking at the hood. The police report is almost ready, so it shouldn't be too much longer, but I do want my insurance company to handle this and subrogate it with State Farm. I've learned a lot here and I'm most appreciative

 

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Here is an old picture of my cars. I sold the Honda (white) to get the 04 4Runner (white). So now I have three white Toyotas.

I had two red cars, my 68 VW bug got hit and destroyed and my 88 Acura got hit 4 times by 4 different drivers who simply missed my car. For some reason people don't see red cars.

Of course in this case, white didn't help too much.....:shrug:

Love it!

 

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Go check this thread out on my vehicle. http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/69525-totaled.html They are repairing mine with $16,000 worth of damages. My 4Runner is an '06 with 100,000 miles on it. The thing with Toyotas, and especially 4Runners, is that the replacement value is so high and a lot of repairs can be done before reaching the "totaled" threshold. I would guess yours will be repairs. Sorry to hear about the accident. I can feel your pain!!

YIKES! $16k in damage...I feel your pain! Do you remember what value they determined for yours? Did they make adjustments based on the damage?

 

[d_clark]

I have a feeling it's going to drag on and on if my insurance company doesn't step in and help. My agent acts like she doesn't want to do anything until the police report is issued, but I don't think that's her call Thanks!

If you have a large nationwide carrier bypass your agent and call the insurance company's (not agent) number to report your claim.

 

[GG Beast]

If you have a large nationwide carrier bypass your agent and call the insurance company's (not agent) number to report your claim.

I agree with this, it's what I had to do. My agent was next to useless when it came to process the claim, he was more just someone to complain to.

Sucks you got into a second accident! We got rear ended right after my Prius got totaled but it was low speed and didn't do any damage...

Good luck with it all, and get a massage! I totally needed one after 3 months of dealing with the insurance companies. It consumed so much time that I think they should have compensated for mental anguish!

 

[gaberelli]

YIKES! $16k in damage...I feel your pain! Do you remember what value they determined for yours? Did they make adjustments based on the damage?

Believe it or not, they valued my 4Runner at $24,500. I payed $21,000 for it 2 years and 50,000 miles ago!!!