2018 Collision Repair Estimate

Air bags should not deploy in a low speed impact. They are not pillows, they can even cause injury. They are there to prevent serious injury or death in case of a high speed crash. The kind of crash that totals vehicles.

 

There is a post around here where the guy hit an elk and it was worse than this. His was $10K. I’ll go with 6K, like others. We already know the hood is 1K+, so it is all the bumper supports/labor.

 

Just to give you an idea of repair cost, this was a 3 km/h impact on the front left corner, parking lot thing. Final total was C$9500, I could not believe it. Of that, about $6500 in original Toyota parts.

These trucks look rugged but believe me they are made of glass and are expensive as hell to fix.

 

From the NTHS site.

"Frontal air bags are generally designed to deploy in "moderate to severe" frontal or near-frontal crashes, which are defined as crashes that are equivalent to hitting a solid, fixed barrier at 8 to 14 mph or higher. (This would be equivalent to striking a parked car of similar size at about 16 to 28 mph or higher.)"

We don't know how fast/hard the impact was, but if both cars were only going 10 mph that would be equivalent of a 20 mph impact and based on the above enough to cause airbags to deploy. Obviously there are complicated systems at play, but hard to imagine a head on, even a slow one, not deploying airbags.

 

Good time to get a hood scoop...

 

A speed range and then "Or higher"? Not very helpful. But realistically, if OP didn't get hurt, it's a good thing the airbags didn't go off. And as can be seen by some other posters in this thread, it doesn't take a whole lot of speed to have it look really bad.

 

I recently hit a mound of sand, going a little over 20 mph. Bumper retainer supports and bar and radiator support were bent, and metal inner fender (driver side) was buckled slightly. Ive found all the structural parts online but for the inner fender for about $170. No airbags deployed in my crash. Glad they didnt too. Bumper and grill will probably be another $300 in parts.

I am planning on having a cab shop rebuild the inner fender with tubes and such, more clearance for uptravel and tires.

 

Sorry about your new ride that got smacked.
Hope you are ok.
So much for Toyota Safety Sense.
I think I would fix it and trade in in on
another.
I feel for you brother.

 

I'm saying easily over $8k. A red light runner did $11k to my bed/bumper.

 

The 75% of value threshold is a good rule of thumb. That amounts to a substantial amount of damage for a brand new Tacoma. The engine not starting is concerning, but I still don’t anticipate it being a total loss.

 

Make sure they use genuine Toyota parts for the replacements - some insurance companies push the repair shops to use cheap Chinese replacement body panels that don't fit properly...

 

I took mine to the dealer. The used all genuine parts...

 

One cannot overestimate how high an insurance claim can go. Deer hit with minivan (BIL driving) was $6-7K. Theft of WRX where the car was recovered and amateurishly painted with some body damage and parts removed was $20K and totaled out. Hail damage last summer to 2nd WRX was $22K.

The guys I've worked with were seasoned pros but they didn't mess around--one reason being it's a big hassle if the estimate is too low and the repair shop has to beg for more $$ to complete the repair. Takes time and time is money.

Anyway, glad no one was hurt, and good luck.

 

If both cars are going 10mph its a 10mph impact. Equal and opposite forces. Each car only has to deal with its own forces.

Part of the reason a mini cooper vs a semi is so bad, is the semi goes from 40mph to 39 mph (lol) meanwhile the mini goes from 40mph to negative 39mph. (A 79mph change, vs the 10mph change in your 10mph scenario)

 

I'm in at $6000. Offering 3 to 2 on the under.

 

I notice the grill says TOYO in reverse. Sorry about the wreck

 

My second gen got hit in the fender by the drivers side mirror of a Mercedes convertible sports car that attempted to merge into me without shoulder checking - my taco had way more damage than her mirror......... I was a little disappointed in my truck that day......

 

Good catch. Bad math, but the point I was trying to make is that a vehicle doesn't have to be totaled for air bags to deploy. By design, they can be set off at a fairly low impact such as a fixed barrier at just 8mph. Whether or not they actually are deployed is more complex than just MPH, but given the recent recall one wonders if maybe the tacoma might also be suspect.

 

I havent researched it extensively but I believe it's pretty much just G sensors. Can have them oreinted to different axis's or could be simply 1 in front bumper 1 in rear. A different reading would tell a computer if its a sideswipe vs straight on collision. Different airbag timings maybe.

But as I described in another post somewhere mph plays a ridiculously large part in the severity of a crash (airbags included).

And low speed collisions behave differently depending on the collision (your point I think).
For example having a full head on vs partial overlap distributes the forces in vastly different ways across the crumple zones. And depending on the G sensor readings you may or may not have to deploy airbags.