I drive an 05 Honda Odyssey. I stopped at a red light when I was rear ended last week by a Toyota Highlander and it propelled me into the F150 truck in front of me. According to the estimate there’s approximately $8K worth of damage to my van. The frame is bent in two locations on the front and at least one spot in the back. My insurance adjuster is telling me it’s repairable. I’m worried about structural integrity moving forward and resale value. Why isn’t my van being “totaled” considering the frame damage?
“Frame” Damage Is Repairable Or Replaceable. Your Car Technically Doesn’t Have A Separate Frame, But Rather Unibody Construction With Reinforced “Frame” Elements.
It’s not totaled because the insurance company figures it will cost them less to repair it than it would cost to pay you the market value of the car, even allowing for slavage value of the crashed vehicle.
This collision and subsequent repair certainly does not help the integrity of the van and you should seek a very high caliber repair shop, not the cheapest or most convenient one.
You should be concerned about the resale value of the vehicle, but you can’t undo the accident. Will the insurance company allow anything for diminished value?
CSA
Only a professional will be able to tell you, upon inspecting the car. If you trust your body shop where the car is, ask them. If the car is drivable, you can probably get a second opinion. I would assume the shop doing the work has agreed with the insurance adjuster that the frame damage is repairable.
Each insurance company has different criteria for totaling a vehicle. It is generally based on a percentage of the overall replacement vehicle val, as well as determining whether the damage is repairable.
Why isn’t my van being “totaled” considering the frame damage?
The answer is quite simple. Your insurance company thinks the Odyssey was worth more before the accident than it will cost to repair it.
If your insurance company thinks it can be repaired, I am willing to bet they are right. They should have a pretty good idea about what they are doing.
Perhaps you should ask your insurance company for a second opinion, but bent frames can quite often be fixed.
According to Kelly Blue Book, a 2005 Odyssey in fair condition with 100,000 miles on the odometer is worth $9,635. Just do the math.
You could always ask your insurance company to pay you $8,000 and not repair the Odyssey.
Make That $8,000 (Estimated Repairs) Plus The Salvage Value (The Insurance Company Would Recoupe) From their Sale Of Your Van.
CSA
The last time I checked (in 1994), the salvage value for a vehicle with a bent frame was $50.
Naaaa, it will bring way more than $50 at an insurance company auction. Look at www.iaai.com or www.sapulpapool.com to see what I mean. Unless it’s really hurt bad, it should easily bring more than the $1635 difference between the $8000 damage and cash value of the vehicle. I think they should probably total it at your request.
On another note, since you were rear-ended into another vehicle, the accident is not your fault. The OTHER GUY’S insurance should be paying for your vehicle, and they should want to make you as happy as possible as your neck and back still hurt a week after the wreck.
That’s not how it always works.
First, what the vehicle will bring at auction and what the insurance is willing to pay you for its salvage value are two different amounts.
Second, sometimes when you get rear-ended and pushed into another vehicle, your insurance company has to pay for the damage to the vehicle in front of you. It all depends on how close you were to the vehicle in front of you and how hard you were hit. This is why is is very important to stop in time to keep a safe distance between your car and the car in front of you. Of course, if a large truck plows into you, and you were a safe distance away, the truck driver is liable. On the other hand, if you don’t leave enough room, your insurance will have to pay for the damage to the car in front. It may not sound fair, but I have seen it work that way.
Before you can say which insurance company is or should be paying, you need to know more details. For all we know, the person who caused the accident and the OP might be using the same insurance company. It might be that the other guy’s insurance is paying for the damage to the rear, but the OP’s insurance company is paying for the damage to the front, and the damage to the vehicle in front of the OP.
Does it even have a “frame”?? Most Hondas are unibody construction. There is no frame. Did the airbags blow? When they say the frame has been bent, they mean the belly-pan, the platform the vehicle was built on was crushed a little. They will clamp it down on a big floor-mounted machine and stretch it back into shape…(sort of)…Good Luck.
The right car with the right damage and the right repair facility could result in a better car than you started with. Like many things in life, there is no one right answer. Usually the result of repairing a unibody is OK, but not all.
Thank you for all of the advice. From what I’ve been told they do not plan on repairing the frame, they plan on cutting off the damaged part and welding on new parts to the frame.
The girl who hit me has the same insurance company I have-- both with USAA. The guy in front of me that I was pushed into experienced no damage to his truck. His trailer hitch went through the front of my van.
I have 60K miles on the van.
The air bags did not blow. I was told that was because I was at a complete stop when I was hit and the car did not get up enough sped on impact to deploy.
I still owe $11K on it, so I guess I should be glad they’re not totaling it. No GAAP insurance.