Got rear ended today morning

I tried Route #2 when my 2013 was totaled. Never again. My insurance company initially wanted to rebuild / reframe and the whole nine. I had zero interest in that route given the extent of the damage to my truck. The at-fault's insurance company wanted to total me out. Cool, I engaged with them directly. Where they tried to pull the fast one on me was to give me total loss value, less salvage and force me to keep the totaled truck and handle the process of getting it back from the bodyshop. At the time I thought oh cool, salvage value was a few thousand (in my mind) and I'd be able to strip and sell off the parts and make a bundle. Nope, they had my value at something like $18,000 (book was almost $10,000 more) and salvage value at $13,000 so they wanted to hand me a check for $5,000 and I'd be on my own. I immediately said not a change, re-engaged my insurance company who totaled me out, bought the truck from me (including sales tax and modifications) and handed me a check in excess of $30,000.

Any incident since I've only engaged my insurance company and anytime the at-fault company has engaged me I've simply referred them to my agent.

 

Less body damage, likely still tweak the frame. I was hit in the front corner with my ARB and while it pushed the car off me (and effed him up) my frame ended up diamond shaped and still totaled the truck.

 

So plastic bumpers are still better i guess? in high speed accidents, and at low speed its steel that better

 

Steel isn't going to deform, so it will translate all that force into other parts of the body (and you). But yeah, a lower speed collision theoretically it will not get a bunch of cosmetic damage / cracking the way a plastic bumper would. If it's enough to tweak a crumple zone it's going to do that regardless. Most of the frame damage photos are due to the hitch getting swung down.

I haven't seen actual tests, but anecdotally I had a steel bumper on my truck and it was still totaled. Would it have taken out a deer (or kangaroo) without cosmetic damage, certainly, but it's not going to magically protect from a car, either.

 

Don’t forget what the bumper is bolted to. It’s possible a stronger bumper would transfer more energy to the frame.

 

They will only do so much, but are idea while off roading, and Mall Crawling.

 

Yeah. No Fault Insurance is basically PIP. Just to cover medical expenses and then related necessities (wheel chair rental. ramps, handicap accessible veicle, etc) so you're not waiting on insurance companies to fight it out. It's up to your insurance company to get money from them for the collision repairs. Sometimes you the customer needs to get involved too. A detailed police report goes a long way with this.

 

There is a lot of incorrect/inaccurate stuff in this thread. Soundman's explanations are spot-on, not bad for a non-insurance guy. For reference, I've been in insurance claims for a long time, and am also an ASE Master Collision Technician.

OP, you either go through your insurance, pay your deductible, and let them work to collect it back (the process is called subrogation, which is what my current work group does), or you go through his insurance. Those are the 2 choices. Any choice other than those 2 is not only foolish, but will also very likely end badly.

Other than Michigan, there really is no such thing as "no fault" when it comes to property claims. And even in Michigan, it depends on a few things. Mikeymopar's explanation above is accurate.

Steel vs plastic is an argument rooted in "they don't build 'em like they used to." And thank god for that, because they were built like shit from a safety standpoint back in the day. The vehicle is designed to protect the occupants in the event of a collision. The vehicle is a sacrificial item in an accident. People who walk away from a wreck without a scratch will get bent out of shape because "This POS plastic crap just fell apart, this tin can just got crushed in a 5 mph impact, etc." Those are people who have no idea what they're talking about.

 

EXACTLTY!
Collision shop bills: $5-25k,,, medical bills you can easily roll the decimal over one,,, and maybe even two positions.

 

Yes, that's why I am waiting on police report to upload. Hopefully I can get SR taco as rental, Ive always wanted to try that small 4cyl engine and i do need a bed. Also will be cheaper than SR5 , don't want to spend any extra for the other guy, mistakes happen

 

Yea I am going thru my insurance, will drop truck this Wedn and will see how much body shop says, and ill also get rental there. Hopefully its not too bad, I just want them to repair the tailgate, i don't want new tailgate, ive coated it inside out and its black badging SX package truck.

 

Insurance adjustor (but I do mostly injury not property damage for auto). I would look at how the bed lines up with the body of the truck to see how that looks. But as long as no frame damage this looks repairable.

I see some misinformation here.

Most states are not no-fault states. In fact there really is no state that's true no fault. There is always some means of recovery or liability.
If you go through your own policy you will have to pay your deductible IF you end up paying your deductible before the other parties insurance accepts liability and coordinates with your insurance company to get it back. In a rear end loss, liability is easy.

You can go through their insurance fully provided they have enough coverage. They need to carry enough property damage liability coverage for any repairs, towing, storage, or rental if there is any.

CA has a $5k property damage liability minimum. Most states are $10k. I would say in my experience most people carry $25k.

If your car is drivable, it is reasonable to use their insurance company for all damages. Just as what their limits are for property damage so there are no surprises.

At a glance this isn't a total loss. Not unless here is just some weird damage that can't be seen. If frame is fine and no airbag deployment this should be repairable.

As for shop selection. You are allowed to use any shop of your choice for repairs, however that insurance company if they do not have a contract with that shop, cannot guarantee their work. So if you have quality issues with the work you have to deal with that. So make sure you pick someone you know the quality of their work and customer service.

 

You're walking a little funny. Does your back hurt at all. You might want to go to a chiropractor...

 

Estimate is around 5K from body shop, actually not as bad as I thought it would be. I was thinking around 10K

 

case in point: IIHS demonstrated this 10 years ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_r5UJrxcck

 

That’s what concerns me about high-clearance rear bumpers. I really like the way they look, but I’d think it would be easier for someone who was relatively short to end up underneath your rear end and hit your rear axle- not much between that and the plastic gas tank.

 

I think I would have just because. Sorry for being hardcore but seems the past few times my wife or my vehicle has been damaged it's someone not paying attention and usually it's technology.

That's IF you can make a full recovery. Ain't no money in the world for that.

 

I got my truck back today, still missing the black badging but they will do that later. Man I can't believe how much I missed it.. I rented 4cyl taco all this time and it wasn't it, I missed the twitching transmission and a roaring V6 whole lot, it felt like moving from Sedan to a tank, took me few tries to park MY OWN TRUCK lol

 

Sahweet, glad it worked out.

Just be careful with the parking thing, don't end up in "that" thread haha

 

lol no, I love my truck way too much for someone to say " douchebag parking " . The thing i am doubting about now is that I actually like the chrome badging in on the tailgate lol.. It matches with the chrome bumper sides. Maybe I will keep it instead of the black badging.

Also, I noticed that this tailgate doesn't have water drains on sides, and inside its all coated. I had no idea there was differences on tailgates for SR,SR5 etc, not sure which one they used. Also they replaced the receiver hitch, so i have to coat that again, no idea why was it replaced.