New England B.S. Thread

The 4runner is totaled. I think I had an upper ball joint failure on the highway. In about a two second span, the steering became tight coming out of a corner and wouldn't let me steer left. I pulled the wheel hard and front end dropped when the spindle broke away and shot me into a guardrail. I hit the guardrail where it begins and slid up it causing me to roll several times (I think) before sliding into the guardrail on the other side of the bridge. I came to a stop in the oncoming traffic lane laying on the drivers side.
I walked away without a scratch and had several good Samaritans stop and help me out of the vehicle and help stop traffic from both directions. Surprisingly, all 4 doors and hatch still work and the shell of the body stayed 100% intact. After I found the wheel assembly, the upper ball joint broke where the stud attaches to the ball and the lower balljoint sheered the 4 mounting bolts.

Now I have to work with insurance on trying to handle the buyout.
I do not have any additional coverage on the vehicle but I started accumulating receipts for aftermarket parts and maintenance related parts (minus and labor) totaling well over $7,500 minus the cost/value of vehicle. After talking with a few people on the 4runner forums who went through similar circumstances advised me to bring receipts and bring similar condition vehicle ads for comparison of value and challenge the appraiser to find a similar condition vehicle to compare replacement cost to. I was also told to start out polite and try to work with the appraiser and by no means accept the first offer because I will not get back what I put in.
Unfortunately, KBB says $4,800 in excellent which doesn't take into account for Toyota tax. Its a real shame but this was a 100% rust free 3rd gen 4runner with an almost immaculate body and paint. the higher dollar add-ons like the bumper, sliders, skids, Baja rack, etc are all structurally damaged I believe.

I was extremely fortunate that I wasn't injured or killed and that no other drivers were involved.

 

Snow is sticking to the cars here now. First time all season

Whoa!
That's a heart-starter for you. Glad nobody was hurt, but that sucks.

 

Just regular rain and I drove out of it within the first 20 minutes. Sun was out by the time I got home.

Having just gone through the insurance BS, the forums are correct. Challenge the adjuster's value and really dig into how they arrived at their numbers. I drove my insurance up several thousand dollars in my accident. Unfortunately, aftermarket stuff is a deal breaker for most insurance companies unless you have a rider to cover them. Mine wouldn't cover any of the add ons so I went after the base value really hard to compensate for it. I made out alright in the end but it took several hours of my time to put together a solid argument.

 

Goddamn!!! Walking away in general is impressive, without a scratch?!?!?! Testament to the safety of your rig. Airbags go off?

Glad you're okay man!!

Re the aftermarket stuff, only suggestion I have is try to salvage what you can. Either use it in your next ride or sell it on here.

Annoying to be sure, but that several hours to get several grand isn't a bad hourly rate either.

 

My thoughts exactly! Just passed me off because, in my case, fault was with the other guy so anything my insurance paid out you know they were just going to recover from them so why bust my chops? Worked out in the end, basically had to do their job for them.

 

True, true. Al Bundy said it all..."Insurance is like marriage..you pay, pay, pay..you never get anything back!"

 

Be the nicest most congenial person with anyone you deal with over the phone. I had a '99 civic that I totaled before the Tacoma...I used the check for my truck. It was a 13 year old car with 150K+ on it...They were going to give me like $4200 or something but I chatted with the woman on the phone...asked her about her day and if it's tough dealing with accidents and I explained that she's like a game show...People wonder what the prize behind curtain #3 will be....She said "Oh let's see what we can do here...You took good care of the car?" I told her I still had the original brakes because I would downshift..."She said I'll get you Six" and I thought she was going to say hundred more....but she said "I'll get you $6,000" and sure enough she came through for me I got like $6K for it. It was a huge bump...More flies with honey...


BTW Until you post pix I bet it will just buff out....

Glad you're alright and didn't lose consciousness...Watch out for head bumps on the window as you rolled. You'll discover a golf ball on your noggin later.

 

Wow!!!! Glad your ok!

 

Happy to hear you walked away.


What a shame about the 4runner, but walking away is more important.

 

Wow it looks like you can see the fresh metal where it snapped. Was this all after market? I wonder if it was a defect in the part...worth looking into...

 

That's surprising. When my 2013 was totaled I was able to get several thousand dollars in my aftermarket stuff covered. I think the base value for my truck was just over 25k, then I got about $3,500 in mods and sales tax on everything. My final settlement was over $30,000. I know for a fact they gave me $900 for my cap. WHen they were initially going to repair it, I had provided all the modifications that were damaged so that I could get all the correct replacement pieces. In the end I was paid out less depreciation a decent amount. I probably recouped 60-70% of the value, and likely what I would have gotten had I sold the parts outright.

I also removed everything they wouldn't pay out for.

When the Mazda was totaled I had new car replacement as part of the deal, so I got MSRP plus sales tax. I couldn't get credit for any of the things I added (WeatherTechs, trunk mat, etc) since they couldn't pay over MSRP. I ended up getting credited for the remote starter I added and then 50% of the destination cost (I don't know why they didn't include destination in MSRP, but that was a semantic issue). However, I ended up getting $3,500 more than I paid for the car new, which is why we ended up with the Jeep instead of another Mazda.

However, that being said in both cases I went through my insurance, not the at-fault party's insurance. With the Tacoma I tried to go through the at-fault insurance since my insurance didn't want to total me out initially and the opposing insurance did. They wanted me to sign off to move the truck out of the body shop and back to my house where they would give me an undisclosed settlement less salvage value. They would not take possession of the truck and I would be required to handle selling the salvaged truck myself. I re-engaged my insurance company and I ended up good.

I'm sure I've told this story before, but it's relevant here.

 

Damn, that sucks about your 4Runner, but glad that you didn't sustain any injuries!

 

Whoa, that T4R was a nice looking rig. Glad you are ok though.

 

Honestly, my insurance adjuster was a complete ditz and a pain in the rear to deal with. It seemed like she never quite had her shit together. I started out nice and then realized that if I wanted her to do anything, I just had to keep calling and e-mailing her to force her to respond. I tore the comparables apart and eventually did get her to add quite a bit of money to the claim in my favor but it took a lot of legwork to get there. They were adamant that the modifications I made did not impact the value of the vehicle and I didn't have a rider for accessories so they wouldn't cover them. On the same token though, they let me strip everything I could off the truck before they took it, as long as it still had everything it rolled off the factory floor with.

 

Well even though they're getting reimbursed from the other insurance company, anything that they don't have to pay you is just extra in their pocket. So I'm sure that they were fighting tooth & nail for the reimbursement.

 

Hey gang, want to help me get into the 2020 TacomaWorld calendar? Go to the voting thread and give me a vote if you would: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-2nd-generation-tacomas.637017/#post-21941369

 

How do you vote?

 

Smash that like button Rob!

 

Done!