Collission....possible frame damage

^ X2 All day...

 

lmao.

We'd still be living in a world as fucked up as a football bat.
But here's to your utopia without beer and phones..

 

count me out cut my head off I don’t wanna spend life in jail!

 

Walk away and find yourself new transportation. To me that is all my vehicles are, I try not to get emotionally attached to anything that is not living. I owned a salvaged vehicle once, never again.

Good luck with your decision.

 

Take the money and run. Buy a new one.

 

Welcome to TW. Sorry for the loss of your truck. Glad you're okay. I would take an insurance settlement and get you a new truck. Don't' let the insurance company get away with a low-ball price on your truck.

 

Well I'm not running so no issue there.

They do this in the middle east - have never heard of someone 'on-parole' or someone with
multiple 'prior arrests for drunk driving' getting into an accident a second time over there. I kinda like it.

I used to love riding a motorcycle - no more. With people glued to their phones or drunk or high driving
we see people getting killed weekly out here.

My pursuit to life, liberty, and happiness has been taken away by other people who don't care.
I don't care about them either.

 

Let me get this straight, you feel you've been robbed of your life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but just maybe if we could start chopping heads off for DUI's and begin modeling the US after Middle Eastern law you could regain some of your loss?

I think you're the one that's been drinking.

 

I’m not familiar with the laws etc in the Middle East. But I’d like to think maybe I have more freedom etc here in the US.
Nothing stopping you from moving if you choose I don’t think?
Do you need a license or insurance in the Middle East? I can’t tell you but I’m content here maybe I’m ignorant or maybe I’m in the matrix can’t say.
I’m assuming you’ve had a loss due to an impaired or distracted driver?

 

@MightBeATurd
Sorry bud thread took a turn!
But yea it was a nice ride take the money and get yourself another one!
I was crushed when mine was totaled but my new ride helps ease the pain.
After all it is a vehicle and wasn’t gonna last forever.
Everything is temporary except memories and the internet.
Just some last longer than others!

 

This is great advice & difficult for a lot of us. A new build & truck sounds awesome. Maybe start checking out used 3rd gens & see how you feel! Glad you’re okay OP!

 

OP suffered because someone broke the law - ( failure to yield ) -
He suffered physically, and it could have been much worse thank god it wasn't.
He suffered from loss of property with the complete total of that bitchin ride.

People who put my life ( or yours ) at risk because they have the 'right' to drink and drive,
or drive at excessive speeds, or ignore the law should face severe punishment.

I've never been mistaken for someone that is soft on crime, that's for sure.

I don't know if the other driver was impaired, but if this happened to you and the other driver was impaired,
you wouldn't be too happy about it, I wouldn't be either.

 

Very Nice truck, just need the American flag !

 

No one has the right to drink and drive! It is severely punished where i live, but no one loses a hand over it. Read your constitutional amendments brother, I'm pretty sure it mentions something about cruel and unusual punishment. You can't legislate stupidity.

 

Thanks for all of the replies and suggestions fellas. Great community here. I was able to learn a lot and find out about great products/upgrades for my Taco in the time I had the truck.
To be clear, in an "owner retained salvage" deal, where I would get the truck back, I am left with the balance of the ACV($30,164.96) less Salvage($22,258.00... which still baffles me and they have no other explanation other than their appraiser likely compares it to other salvage Tacomas, most of which are stolen and returned with damage) annnd LESS deductible $500 for total of $7,406.96.

I've looked way too far into this claim process and it's driving them nuts I can tell. The threshold for repair under their policy is 50% of the calculated ACV(over which, they total it). That's the lowest threshold allowed, from what I've learned and is provincially regulated...most company policies are 70% or more. My repair estimate came in at somewhere around $12k I believe, which worked out to be 41.6%....well, claims adjuster man tells me they have a "claims reserve fund" of $2,000 which they must add on to make room for if repair bill exceeds estimate. Fair enough, this brought the % of repair in relation to ACV up to 48%. He's said it's close enough that they just declare it a total loss anyways. I've spoke with the claims office manager, and he says clearly I've done my homework but there's nothing they are willing to do or negotiate in a repair deal. Even where I would absorb any supplemental costs, or balance of any costs outside of their threshold. No real explanation for how yet they claim to be able to receive so much in salvage, other than...something like it's a more sought after vehicle and moving vehicles around through auctions....not sure, just a bunch of mumbo jumbo. A 2017 Tacoma with 200,000km and a salvage title might be worth $22k AFTER repairs. even then, would be hard to get that....but we've learned that they are able to totally negate the salvage branding.

Almost have to think the "associate" Appraisers, Auction house, Salvagers all sort of work in the same circle around the insurance ...their "preferred shop" is Impact Auto an auction/appraisal salvage yard...the phony desk job repair appraisal, the auction house. Everything is conveniently there on-site. money moves around, goes through the auctions put through the wash etc...all ends up back in the place, everybody gets a cut along the way. They probably have a team of mechanics under contract that will fix the truck for next to nothing, flip for over market value. Not only are they off the hook for a repair bill, they come out on top. It's BS but what can you do. They have a lot more money and a lot more lawyers than me.

Anyway...end rant. I am leaning more toward the cash settlement now, though still not 100% quite yet. I'm waiting to hear from another collision center who will look at the pictures, description of event, etc and get to me tomorrow with their opinion. The other shop manager I talked to seemed very on-the-fence about it. Said it is tricky to know until they have it in their shop and get under it or pull the box and take some measurements, so he took a pass on it.
I just can't help but listen to that little voice that says...what a success story this could be if I could pull off a repair myself. We'll see...I'll check with a couple other body shops in the area... if geneeral consensus is "nahhh", then well....choice is pretty clear, I would likely have to drive it to Toronto for a proper look...

 

Holy smokes thats a doozy....very similar impact zone and "longitudinal" angle. Mine may have suffered a little less due to the snowy roads, reduced friction...

 

A little update for y'all....just picked up from the auction house last Friday...

After two months battling insurance for a buy-back or repair deal, they finally broke me down. After I made a call to the ombudsman in later stages of the claim dispute, it was agreed that the truck would be "officially" appraised by an appraiser at the auction warehouse and value determined(in its damaged condiiton) would be used as the new "owner-retained salvage" or buy-back price. A couple of days passed then I received an email from my adjuster explaining that he would like to have the truck towed a nearby collision centre where they would carry out a 2-5 day procedure of removing the box, inspect/measure the frame and carry out the repairs if the damage is not significant. Regrettably I agreed to this.... the next day he informs me that the shop (CSN Ajax) found significant damage to the rear right and they quoted a full frame replacement and $34,000 repair estimate. They totalled the truck a 2nd time, this time submitted to the Ontario ministry for SALVAGE branding.
At this point it had been 2 months since I opened the claim and I was exhausted....I talk to my local collision guy and he agrees that though the truck is very likely repairable, the insurance company will just keep dragging this out and making it harder and harder for you to come to any agreement on a buy-back deal.
So I sign the paper work, send in the ownership, dadada....In the final valuation report I notice something....the new salvage value as determined by the apprasier. $10,745
I almost completely lose my $#&% as it's perfectly clear to me now how this all unfolded and why he decided to have the truck taken into this shabby little hole-in-the-wall collision centre to be re-evaluated. They knew that this value of $10,745 would not be acceptable as it would leave me a balance of just around $20,000 cash in a buy back deal. They made the swift decision to have it towed in and promptly written off for a frame and branded salvage, so that they could also take the "owner retained salvage" deal off the table, or at least strongly suggest against it and in my adjuster's words "will no longer be an option" due to safety concerns..
I am sad but what can I do...they outsmarted me. but hey I'm a couple bucks richer from the cash settlement and I still have the trusty ol' Mazda Beast-series in the garage that I can drive until I find the next one I guess.

Come mid-May and I'm doing my "every other day" check on the big name salvage auction sites. One Saturday morning- boom - there it is. My truck....up for auction going live Wednesday...long story short, I know the people who know the people who were able to help get a couple bids in and sure enough, before too long I am off to Toronto with a car-hauler to pick it up
Got it home, got lots of pictures...swapped the bad tire out for a snow spare I had, pulled the right rear axle up straight with only a heavy duty ratchet strap and a sledge(hitting the tire forward) got it rolling, pulled the bumper and the box, driveshafts and took it into my trusty preferred local shop. Boss says "We'll straighten this thing out like its nobodies business!"

Got some OME medium duty leafs on the way, bushings, shocks, ubolts, shackles...rear end will be tested to see if it will need replacing. Body work needed is very minimal, thankfully..

 

Wow. How much did you pay for it at auction?

 

I was hoping $10-12K....ended a little north of 15...yes someone wanted it almost as bad as I did
With 13% tax included in the cash settlement I received(but would not have been in a buy back deal if it were agreed, as in total savage price deducted from ACV(not including tax) would be the cash amount I receive with the truck) it really bumped up the total amount.
I'm still left with a bit over $15k to get the repairs done.