6/9/14 7:01 PM

Stopped at a light, some tool plowed into the back of her. Exchanged info after pulling to the side. She came home telling me there is almost no damage.

Until I looked. Trailer hitch now 45^ down, mounting points where it bolts to uni-body crumpled pretty bad under there. All she saw was cuts and paint stuff on bumper cover. I saw the buckles on the roof, the door seam to quarter gap of 1mm now. Both rear doors seem to have dropped 2-3mm and no longer in line across the tops with the front doors. And the way the tail gate pops open 3/4" when you release it and you have to slam it to get it to catch now. I also have concerns about it getting hit sitting still in gear with AWD as well.

With a 2013 car with 15k on it, wondering how easy to total.

Last edited by Sparky on 6/9/14 9:15 PM; edited 1 time in total

6/9/14 7:24 PM

No idea on the car - you'll have to have a shop look at it.

But just curious: how many wives do you have?

6/9/14 9:13 PM

Wife's, LOL One is enough.


Getting a rental, I do not want her driving it until an adjuster looks at it.


Cleaning it out of personal stuff for the tow truck to get it tomorrow.. I noticed the flat rear floor when open the hatch is not flat anymore. It is pushed up from underneath.


I get the feeling we better stock up on KY, sigh...

6/9/14 10:58 PM

ugh...you've barely had that car for a year. I hate other drivers. But then again I saw this douche of a cyclist on the way home from work today....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB7ooGdiG_w

The fish-eye of the gopro makes it look like it wasn't that close, but it really was. You can hear my engine rev down, if I hadn't slowed I likely would have hit him.

6/10/14 6:34 AM

15 months, now we get to live with an uncrumpled rear end because of that douche. You know if you trade it in you take a hit as well. How do they un-crumple the folded metal underneath without re welding in new metal and not have it fold twice as easy the next time it takes a hit from another douche!

If it is totaled, we are just going to buy used car for cash.


I guarantee you that douche on the bike would have just kept going if you dumped because of his stupid maneuver there too!

6/10/14 6:43 AM

Not to make light of the situation, but it sounds like the car is/was stiff, yet compliant.

6/10/14 8:06 AM

Knuck, knuck...

I just drove Elaine to work and shot back home. I never drive among the commuters. But encountered a few extremes of probably the same idiot that slammed into the back of a car stopped at a red light...[yesterday]

I changed lanes into the left lane on I-205, a 55 MPH Intersatae bypass raod we use a lot. With plenty room, and the person keeping claim to their lane and distance to the car in front I pulled behind floored it went up the shoulder and literally attempted to bump me out of her spot. An older gal in a SUV. There was lots of room and I used the directional etc etc. I did not have to question if this person was sane. It was plane stupid and dangerous, bordering vehicular battery that maneuver. This seems to be the last 2-3% of folks on the road here, being mostly very cautious, usually to much so here...

I expect I will become more and more anti social as I age, I am really starting to hate people...

6/10/14 8:50 AM

Every time I'm on Route 15, I'm amazed at how weird people are when they have a motor pulling for them. On Sunday there was a guy on a crotch rocket weaving through traffic at 70 MPH...

6/10/14 9:47 AM

The click and clack guys at www.cartalk.com might be able to diagnose your wife's car over the telephone.

6/10/14 9:54 AM

Sadly, Tom and Ray don't actually take calls anymore. Their show has all been re-run compilations since last year. Still fun to listen to, IMO.

6/10/14 12:00 PM

Aww, schucks. You're right. I poked around their website more to confirm what you write. As a casual, infrequent listener, I did wonder why so many calls were concerned with older model cars. I've been pleasantly duped. Thanks for the heads up. I agree they are fun to listen to.

6/10/14 7:50 PM

Not totaled apparently. I am pretty amazed at how fast it was grabbed an taken to get fixed, the rental car set up via picking Elaine up at work and putting her in a Prius. Less than 24 hours after the accident...


Just drove around in the Prius. That is so weird pressing the throttle and the car taking off with almost no sound. ;)

6/11/14 8:10 AM

My neighbor owns a Prius and tells me the no sound keeps her on her toes with city driving as many pedestrians like to cross without looking.

6/11/14 8:31 AM

The Prius rental has unlimited mileage in WA and OR.
That and 50 MPG, I guess a Spokane Trip may be in order. ;)

6/11/14 8:55 AM

But how the heck do they repair frame demage?

And, as you worried earlier on, with good reason, would the frame become weaker as a result? We all know metal, once buckled, would buckle at those same point with much less force even after it's straighten out.

6/11/14 9:12 AM

"But how the heck do they repair frame demage? "

They will be cutting out all the folded steel after they pull the corner of the car back on a frame machine which should un-ripple the panel buckles being they are minor if I understood them correctly.

Also that will open up the door to quarter panel gap back to spec. The gap is 2mm now and should be
4-5mm. Lucky it did not get hit hard enough to over lap and chip or pop paint there.

Then new parts are welded in to replace the folded stuff, and painted with same type finish as GM used. New bumper and cover and trailer hitch. There may still be slight buckles on the roof, but some car come from the factory like this I was told. I am going to stop by Chevy Dealers on my ride today and look at a bunch of Equinoxs to see this for myself. I have seen that on long roofs, but this one did not have those, I wash it by hand and sure would have noticed that.

There is a 3/4" round more or less small buckle on the quarter at the tail light. I am thinking asking them to leave it be. My thinking is I would rather have the factory finish and clear coat on the q-panel than that made perfect and then repainted. How soon will there be a dent on that panel in use anyway. This way the only paint work on the car would be the Bumper cover.

6/11/14 11:12 AM

Was this your own insurance company or the offenders?

I had better luck with the other party's insurance. My own insurance company (GEICO) often* try to nickle and dime me on the repair & rental. Never had that from the other driver's insurance.

* -- "often" but not all, There're exceptions.

6/11/14 4:41 PM

My INS won't nickle and dime me because the guy that ran into her will be paying them back. The Deductible for our claim with our ins was waved I found out when I got to the body shop earlier. The insured INS has accepted total blame. Hard to get around that when he ran into the back of her at a red light. My money is on cell phone/texting...

About $7500-9000 in damage he said approx, has to get it apart and pieces cut out for final adjustment is what they said. 4-5 weeks expected. So not close to totaled Average low sale price used locally is still 21k-ish.

6/11/14 7:45 PM

"The insured INS has accepted total blame."

At least that's something. Crappy situation but at least you won't have insurance drama.

6/17/14 10:55 AM

Barring any yet undiscovered mechanical and AWD system damage, the repair estimate is competed and it is just over 10k. If the car was 2 years older it probably would have been totaled.

Good part is the body shop is huge old and has multiple locations, so the lifetime warranty on the repairs should be worth something.