Fear, loathing & denial. I think my Tacoma is totaled

We all live on borrowed time - that's what I've always said about commuting in rush hour on i40 to and from Research Triangle Park. I even gave up my motorcycles because it would be easier to count the people on the highway not texting while driving.

Yesterday my number came up - I was rear ended while sitting at a dead stop and pushed into the car in front of me.

The front-end damage doesn't look too bad from the pictures, but there is definitely some twisting around the hood and engine bay - you can see the hood is fine, but the alignment to the quarter panels are way off and some of the structure inside the engine bay is bent from being pushed in.

The rear-end damage is a little more obvious - the impact drove the hitch into my spare tire and bent the ends of the frame on both sides. The tailgate and bumper are also severely damaged.

Moving up the truck, I realized this morning that the gap that separates the cab from the bed is larger on the passenger side than the driver side suggesting some twisting or warping further up the frame (hard to see in pictures). There is also damage on both the cab and bed (driver side) where it looks like the bed was jammed into the cab, which seems to confirm my suspicion that the frame is damaged beyond just the hitch area.

Gonna be a few days before the adjuster is able to get it looked at. What do you guys think?

Update 1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The insurance adjuster was able to fit me into today, he confirmed it is totaled. I'll wait to see what the cash evaluation is.

Anybody know what a 2015 TRD Sport with 43k with a salvage title is worth for comparison?

Update 2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I haggled a little more with the insurance company this afternoon (I'm not a good negotiator, they were actually just nice people) and they agreed to $28,800 + $200 for "loss of use" which is in lieu of requesting a rental car. I'm also keeping my bed cover, roof rack, lift kit, and AT tires which I will either put onto the next truck or sell to recoup some cost (they agreed to this). The offer doesn't expire, so I can keep driving my truck until I find a replacement, I'm sure this isn't indefinite but they agreed to at least 3-4 weeks of shopping around.

I'm glad I hadn't sold my OEM suspension yet, I'll be putting that back on this weekend along with the original street tires.

All in all, it could have been a lot worse - still wish I could get a little more out of the deal but I don't feel completely screwed over aside from the complete inconvenience of the whole situation.

Update 3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a grueling amount of market research and haggling, I was able to bump up my figure again. I'm now at $29,300 for the total loss, plus keeping my lift and other equipment.

Update 4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's been a few months, so I wanted to post the conclusion to the saga if anyone is actually following this or going through a similar situation. It was a complete headache for me, but it actually turned out in my complete favor.

After receiving a final offer of $29,300 from insurance, I completely changed course - I followed some sage advice from TW memebers (@96carboard) and decided to "keep" the salvaged truck and accept a lower payout from insurance. Before I finalized anything, I listed the truck on CL to gauge interest and I got a huge response (about 15 people messaged me, 5 were serious, 1 had the cash ready). Insurance offered me $22,000 if I kept the salvage truck, so as long as I made at least $7,300 on CL I was winning. So I listed the truck at $15,000 and took $14,000 which means I cleared right at $36,000 for a totaled truck that I originally paid $26,500 for.

At the same time, I was looking for a new truck - I ended up driving from NC to GA to buy a 2018 DCSB TRD-OR, Cement Gray, 6-speed manual transmission. I got an exceptional deal thanks again to TW members posting competitive prices. I ended up paying right at $32,000 OTD. All in all, I ended up making roughly $4,000 on this ordeal and got a brand new truck in the process. I'll be using the extra cash to upgrade the suspension and a few other things I want to do.

all in all, I'm very fortunate that it turned out this well - the hard work and negotiation paid off. For anyone going through something similar, I hope this helps.

 

Well that sucks, hopefully everything turns out in your favor. At least your ok.

 

It’s a truck dude. Shit happens be glad your ok.

 

how fast was the person traveling that rear ended you? That frame is bend pretty good!

 

Frame replacement/fixes run about $20k then you have body damage. Typically this gets close enough to the replacement value of the vehicle that the insurance is going to total it out.

Figure out if you are going to buy back and fix or replace. If you are going to replace start getting comps to make sure your insurance pays out a fair amount.

I hope you are OK. Make sure you get any aches and pains checked out so they are on the books.
Trucks are replaceable, body parts much less so.

Good luck

 

Hard to say, the airbags didn't deploy so it couldn't have been that fast. He truck that hit me was a loaded down work truck, it had a lot of mass which could account for the severity of impact / low speed.

 

Thanks - that's solid information to have. Not sure what my plan is yet but I'm trying to get some comps done this week.

You're absolutely right - I am already religious about visits to my chiropractor, gonna get a few extra visits in this month.

 

The insurance adjuster was able to fit me into today, he confirmed it is totaled. I'll wait to see what the cash evaluation is.

Anybody know what a 2015 DCSB, TRD Sport with 43k with a salvage title is worth for comparison?

 

Damn I'd be pissed.

 

See if they'll total it but let you keep it as an "off-road only" vehicle. Still good enough for that.

 

wrong question. you want to know what a 2015 DCSB TRD Sport with 43K in the same condition as your truck was before the accident are going for... and don't mess about with salvage on a bent frame, just get a new truck.

 

I always said if I get in a wreck I want it totaled . I wouldn’t want it fixed. The value loss on a damaged and repaired vehicle is crazy
Pay me the money. That’s just me. I buy new vehicles 3-6 years.

 

You’re right- but that’s a number I know very well

I’m curious what a salvage can go for these days- it might be more prudent to take a small payout and get to keep the truck, then repair and sell it myself. I know someone who did that with a wrangler and made an extra $5 for his hassle.

 

I’m the same way- I have no intention of driving a repaired car- especially b/c the insurance company has no obligation to use OEM pars (ridiculous). I was curious about salvage value because someone might want one of these but can’t afford the $27-30k they are going for these days.

 

I'm with you man, never the same after repairing that many things.

Also agreed on bad drivers in NC. Especially here in the Queen City. Alot of folks from somewhere else who dont know where theyre going. Many doing 85-90 mph, slaloming through traffic and texting at the same time. I miss driving in the 90s and 2000s and never thought I would be saying that.

 

I'm not saying this in order to suggest changes to the outcome, but it is very unlikely that there is any frame damage beyond the very ends -- all behind the rear suspension mount. The reason for the cap-to-bed gap being changed, is because the rearmost mount for the bed is behind the rear suspension mounts -- on the part that got bent down. Structurally, this truck is fine. The minor frame tweaking at the back is an easy fix. The rest is just body, which is mostly up at the front and probably mostly confined to a few plastic clips that popped off when the bumper cover got shoved up.

Personally, I wouldn't hesitate on that truck, as mechanically sound and cosmetically slightly messed up. Be easy and cheap to fix up for a DIY project. Body shop of course charges based on how ugly they think it looks, because the uglier, the more $$.

 

So, just got my claim evaluation back from the insurance company.

For a full buyout - they are offering $28,800, which was after some serious negotiation. I don't think they'll go up any higher.

For a salvage and keep - they are offering $21,000.

Thoughts?

 

Thoughts depend on what you are doing.

If you want to get back into a 2nd Gen Tacoma is $28,800 sufficient enough to get you the same truck you had before plus compensate you for taxes and licensing?
If yes its good. If no then you need to keep arguing.

If you are not going back to a 2nd Gen Tacoma is $28,800 reflective of your lost vehicle value?
I would say $28,800 is pretty good.

Just don’t buy a Turd Gen

 

Take the money and run. As for doing a buy back, look at it this way. If someone offered to sell you that truck with a salvage title for $7,800, would you buy it? I wouldn't.

 

Unfortunately $28,800 is just enough to buy what I had, not including tax / title fees. Ironically, it's a lot more than I paid for the truck, it has increased in value significantly since I bought it and they are a lot harder to find now. So in that sense, there is no replacing the truck (especially because its a 6 speed), and even if I could it would cost me another $1,200 - $1,500. It's a better offer than I thought I'd get, but the market is just tough to buy back into right now.