2020 Tacoma with new 2022 Frame

Latest update about my experience with some unfortunate frame damage. My 2020 Tacoma TRD OR was rear-ended in early January of this year at 15k miles. Finally, just got it back home in late August. The supply chain wait for some new OEM parts is horrible right now and there can be a long wait for rental trucks. Most collision shops have a three month wait before any work even begins. Very stressful situation with a lot of sleepless nights. Would need an entire notebook to catalog all the emails and phone calls it took to get this completed properly. I must have burned through nearly three weeks of PTO visiting the collision shop and the dealership inspecting the progress along the way. Insurance refused to total, and I refused to agree to a low budget repair. For example, “No I don’t want a used bed, no I don’t want a used frame and no I don’t want my damaged wiring harnesses spliced together with pigtails & no I don’t want my Pro lights replaced with aftermarket knock offs”. So, I was fortunate enough to have a quality Toyota Dealership perform the bulk of the work. New 2022 frame, new composite bed, new rear wiring harnesses, all new rear bumper components, sensors, hitch, covers, lights, radar, etc. Toyota did a fantastic job swapping everything over to the new frame. Now after months of inspecting my Tacoma from top to bottom, I’ve only found a few broken plastic clips, otherwise everything is back like new again. As a bonus the dealership broke my steering wheel somehow, so I got a brand-new leather steering wheel. Was glad because the original one had sharp edges on the plastic bezels. Drove a few rental trucks along the way, a very nice 4cyl Turbo charged Silverado and a new 4 cyl Tacoma. Man, I thought the Enterprise Tacoma was breaking down on me before I realized it was just a 4 banger. After growing tired of rentals, I eventually purchased a new 2022 Willy’s to have as a back-up vehicle. It has been a lot of fun. The 2-liter turbo with 8 gears is a fantastic powertrain combination, not to mention the 4 large disc brakes for stopping the mud tires. Sorry- got off topic... Most importantly my beloved Tacoma is still running great and error free. Was at 15,994 miles while driving into work today.

 

Congrats on getting your truck back, glad you stuck to your guns and didn't option for the used stuff.

 

Congrats, sounds like your truck is all good to go again! BTW l don't think there are any turbo V6 Silverado's unless it is some new model.

 

Glad to hear it went well!

 

Thank you. Edited- it was a 4 banger also.

 

I hate insurance companies

 

Wow 1 year without your truck... so the insurance paid out what 8k in rental car fees?

 

Thank you and you’re absolutely correct. Just from what I could see they spent over $41k and that’s not counting all the support people it took to handle the claim for 8 months.

 

Your spot on- just double checked and it was like $6k. Would have easily been $8k had I not went and bought a Jeep.

 

Can't believe you had to buy a new car just to get by while your truck was being worked on Glad you're okay and I'm glad your truck is back with you. Sucks you had to go through such a headache but I'm glad you didn't give in and made sure your truck was built to the exact spec you wanted. Koodos to you brother.

 

I’m so surprised they fixed that, wow. But happy for ya. The JLs are super fun. My mom has a 3.6L 2 door with a manual. Yes, she wheels it.

 

What did the insurance company do wrong?

 

Which insurance company was this? I would like to avoid them at all costs.

 

Glad you got the truck back and it was done to your satisfaction.

IIRC, the consensus back then was that it was totaled. I'm surprised that it wasn't, but then again with what even used Tacomas are going for, maybe it was cheaper to fix it.

Good on you for insisting on all new parts. That's too new a truck to be throwing used or "LKQ" parts onto.

 

Used cars are awesome, just gotta know what to look for

 

I think he was referring to used parts.

 

Yes, please let us know so a few of us never go with them.

 

Nationwide was the responsible parties provider. But after speaking with my insurance I got the impression that they would also handle it the same way. It’s like there’s no single person at large insurance companies that you can speak with that has a large calculator and the authority to add everything up to make an informed decision. Very, very departmentalized.

 

When my 2nd gen was totalled back in June, my insurance company was awesome. Same damage as yours and they totalled no questions. From the time of the accident to when I got my check was 6 calendar days. And they kept me in the loop every day with status updates. Every time I called I was always able to speak with my adjuster directly. The communication through phone and email was awesome with them. I was stressing out with stories I hear dealing with insurance companies, but thankfully mine was awesome. They totalled my 2010 for $21k when I bought it for $27k back in 2010. And the damage was literally exactly like yours. They told me they could repair it but that it was a 9 month wait for a frame and the cost of them paying for a rental put the total cost way over totaling it.

mine is American Family through Costco

I will never leave them because of that experience that they took care of me. Being in an accident is stressful enough.

 

Glad things worked out for you. The adjusters kept telling me that they don’t include any rental fees when making decisions about totaling. Almost makes me wonder if some insurance companies have insurance that reimburses them for their rental payments??