http://cow.org/~noisey/carwreck.jpg - This is the car at issue.

First of all, I'm OK. The other driver is OK. Noone had to get medical attention, thank God.

The story: I pulled out onto the highway at the end of my subdivision and was T-Boned by a 1995 Nissan Pickup that I managed not to see (just prior to sunup, haze, it was gray - and so was the truck). I was actually being let in from my right by an 04 WRX wagon, but as I was crossing traffic, I looked to my left and saw the truck coming. An instant later, impact. I imagine he hit me probably doing 30-35 MPH.

The police determined that I was at fault in the accident (I am OK with that) and I was issued a citation for failure to yield. Such is life, this is my first accident in 9+ years and first ticket in 4+. From what the insurance agent told me, due to my safe record, my rates should not increase with this claim.

Quick damage assessment: after the impact, the car was still running and I was able to drive the car out of the intersection onto the side of the road with no real difficulty.. As you can see from the picture, the doors are smashed in, as well as part of the front quarter panel. (There is also some hood damage). The window shattered and the side view mirror managed to fly through the car and land in the back seat on the passenger's side (somehow missing my head in the process). The airbag in the driver's seat blew but the ones in the dash/steering wheel did not. I really couldn't tell you if there's any frame damage or if/how much the B-Pillar is bent. I was not checking to see if the floorboard was bent.

As you can imagine, the side impact beams and seat airbag saved my life. That car saved my life. I am thankful more than anyone can ever understand. In any other car, I believe I would be in the hospital or worse.

I know the picture is not very good (I took it with my cell phone). I know you really can't tell THAT much from the picture, but ... given the description ...

Is it totalled? It's a 2003 WRX wagon with 50k miles on it. I've seen some salvage title models for sale that look like they have less (cosmetic) damage, but I'm not a car expert, so I can't tell you for sure. Given my description, is it something the insurance company would total out, or do you think they're going to get it repaired? I guess I'm OK with either way (the car I drive following resolution will be a WRX one way or another), but I'm just curious to know other people's opinions.

 

Seems to me the majority of the damage is only body/cosmetic. I don't see why it'd be totalled. Good luck with it man. Hope everything works out.

 

if it is just body damage then it is not totaled, but if any part of the chasis got F@#$ed up then yeah most likely it will be totaled.

 

With a 30-35 mph collision, I don't see any way that the damage will be limited to cosmetic. Frame and/or driveline damage is pretty possible. That being said, I think bluebook on your car is probably at least 12-13k, and that is a fair amount of body shop work. So it might be ok.

Also, air bags are wicked expensive to reload, but since only the seat blew, that could be alright.

Either way, you can't drive it like that and you're not going to pay out of pocket for it. Cross your fingers and call your insurance agent.

Glad you're ok, and I have some more security in my car now (04 WRB wagon).

Good luck.

 

Upon closer inspection of the picture, take note of the black bar beneath the doors. It does not appear to be damaged. IAMAN, but I would imagine that might indicate a lack of frame damage.

 

First off, looking at that picture.....how did you not get hurt? Man you are one lucky SOB.....was your window down at the time of the accident? Anyways....congrats on no serious injuries!

The car itself will most likely have frame damage, an impact at 35mph from the side will most likely have tweaked the frame.....whether or not its damaged is another question. I had one accident where I was rearended at about 20-25mph and the frame on my car was tweaked and needed realignment (needless to say I sold the car soon after), the guy hit the left rear of my car.

I wouldn't say the car is totalled, but do you really want to keep a car that has been in a pretty serious accident? If you plan on modding the car and want to take it to the track I would say get rid of the car because it will never be the same again. If the car is just for daily driving/transportation, then you might want to have it fixed and keep the car......really its just up to you.

 

Regarding your question, the window was up at the time, so glass shattered crazy and I have cuts on my chin and left hand to prove it. Fortunately, that's it. My wrist is bruised from something hitting it (one theory is the side view mirror), my glasses are scratched from debris and my jaw is sore from tensing up right before impact. After I realized what had happened, I pulled a nice 1 cm x 1 cm chunk of glass out of my ear canal. It was quite surreal. I was wearing a leather jacket at the time so I did not notice until about 20 minutes afterwards that the shoulder airbag blew. I've got a little stiffness (not soreness) in my lower back and shoulders. Considering the impact, that's not bad.

Well, for the most part, my car is a daily driver - I have taken it to the track once and autocrossed it once, but to be perfectly honest, I don't have the kind of money floating around to consistently do that sort of thing. I do drive spiritedly from time to time, but that's another story for another time.

If the car is reparable, I imagine I will keep it, provided it drives straight and doesn't look jacked up. If it doesn't, then I'll ditch it. I didn't have any money invested in it besides audio (XM, in-dash MP3 player, Focal's in the fronts and Infinity's in the backs - pretty standard stuff).

If it isn't, I'm not worried ... well, only sort of. KBB says the retail value of my car is $18,990 (I'm still STUNNED by that - I paid $22,750 in Feb of 2003 for it). While that may be true, I know the insurance company isn't going to pay all that out. I only owe about $10k on it, so after all is said and done I'd have to start over again but ... I don't know. I like the front-end looks of the 03 model but I'm not too well sold on the snout-nosed Alfa-derived front-end of the new models... Hopefully I'll know more tomorrow.

 

Body shop answer - $5-6k worth of damage. Not totalled. We'll see how it drives once repaired.