"^^ not again Roll On Floor Laughing omg, everyone, your air bags are defective!!!! drop what your doing and write a complaint to scion corp! Tongue no offense but this is one of many accidents where the air bags wont deploy. but to the original poster, sorry bout your car bro, i know what its like to lose it...[/quote]"

ta ____ u need airbags for at 30mph?????
anyways the sensors are in the front, so say u hit an SUV that's fairly high and u scrape ur hood and top of bumper - ur auirbags usually wont pop out.


UR TC MY OLD SOLARA
AS FOR DAMAGE: really not bad
- grille - grille
- bumper +paint - bumper n paint
- headlights 1or2 can't see - 2 headlights + corner lights(used)
- front support thingy - front support
- fender + paint - hood + paint
- hood + paint - radiator

WITH LABOR AND PAINTING OF THE HOOD AND BUMPER I PAID =
2650$$$

now go and find a guy that fixes salvage cars, have him fix that for you. Have insurance write u a check for 5-6k in damages and get it fixed for half.

 

lol you definitely gotta lower your car now haha. just kidding.

but yeah it doesnt look that bad, i bet your car will be brand new in no time.

 

"

ta flip u need airbags for at 30mph?????[/quote]

Sounds like it was intended to be sarcasm. I do believe it had to do with the fact that there was a tC that caught on fire and people kept saying recall because of one car on fire. Or just in general that people like to yell recall over nothing.

 

This is what my tC looked like after the accident when I put it in the garage.










This was about $7k damage. If the pics dont work let me know, I'm fairly new to this forum and imageshack.

 

have you got a quote yet?

 

Pics work perfect. I've got a couple pictures of our wrecked Honda.. I can share. It was $3k in repairs.. we haven't had it repaired.

 

If my tC was made 02/2006 would it be considered an 07 model?

 

nope

 

Its amazing how similar both of our wrecks are. about 7k in damages huh? seems like thats the overall estimate...

 

i was the first with the estimate...oh yeah
lol

 

Whats up 07SilverTC,

Thanks for the advice, it will definitely be an asset to me when I scope around shops in my area. Unfortunately, like someone else mentioned, my insurance will only allow me to choose from various locations in my area - not a toyota owned service center (which, according to another post, doesn't seem that great anyway). I actually do live in the Bay Area, I will PM you with my actual city, but its 10 minutes from Oakland is all I will disclose. I sure hope that the car won't be shaky after it gets fixed - my cousins 4runner shakes when its gets past 60mph on the freeway after getting it repaired from an accident

 

RY, per the California Department of Insurance, an insurance company CANNOT force you to go to any one body shop nor STEER you in any way towards a shop. They can merely suggest repair facilities to you. I'll keep an eye out for your PM. G'luck with everything man.

 

Can they not deny to pay for the repair done at certain shops? They recommend Shop A and Shop B.. they support Shop C, but don't send you there (by chance you find they support).. but they definitely don't support Shop D.. does that make any sense?

Or maybe they just recommend what's cheapest for them. No clue! I don't deal with insurance companies a whole bunch (actually, rarely) but I was under the impression they could choose whether or not they will pay for the work done by a certain shop.

 

I did auto body and paint for 5 years...

As far as insurance companies "recommending" shops, PA may be a little different but:

The one large body shop I worked at (dealership shop, the dealership has at least 6 or 7 different shops in different areas)... had some sort of "contract" with State Farm. State Farm will not warranty work done by a dealership that is not "contracted" and "approved" by them. I'm not sure they could flat out refuse to pay if you chose another shop... but think of it this way.

Your insurance company is going to foot a large chunkof the bill. Most time, the shops they "approve" and have "contracted", they've investigated and know the quality of work they put out. The body shop has a certain standard they must adhere to.

With the State Farm vehicles we had to do, they were INCREDIBLY picky about the work that came out of the shop. If it did not look like it came off the showroom floor when it left, the shop would have to redo the vehicle at their own expense. You could have McDonald's food bags piled up so high you can't see out your rear window, rotten, smelly food, trash everywhere... guess what? We had to clean all that out. There could be a thing of broken rotted eggs with mold and shiz on the floors, etc... we had to clean it all out. If the customer wasn't happy with the work... we had to fix/redo the car on our own dime.

I do know for certain they CAN refuse to warranty work outside of the insurance company's "network" of dealerships. Think about it. You're an insurance company... would you want to warranty work done by a dealership that you haven't gotten checked out? What if they were some hole in the wall garage that half arsed everything, missed fixing something important, and led to the car being totalled?? Probably not.

So, as far as flat out refusing to pay if you go to another dealership/body shop? I highly doubt they can legally, but they CAN refuse to stand behind the work of a shop they haven't approved.

My suggestion would be to go check out the places they've "recommended", and ask them some questions. Ask your insurance company about their policies, what they will and will not "stand behind".. and go from there.

9 times out of 10, you're better off going to a shop to get your repair work done that they've approved. That way, if there's a flaw in the repair work, that will not come back on you, and your insurance company must stand behind you, the paying customer. If you go to a shop not recommended by them, they can say "well we haven't checked out that shop, so we don't know what kind of work they do. You chose the shop and went against our recommendations, we don't need to pay for that". And odds are, they'll have more ground to stand on legally than you do.

I hope that helped, and if you have any further questions, feel free to PM me.

 

Oh yeah... this link doesn't DIRECTLY apply to this situation, but it's a "sticky" I wrote up on another site I've been on for almost 5 years about body work and paint. The reason I'm linking this is so (if you didn't already know)... so you have an idea of how much really goes into body work and paint... might help you with knowing what types of questions to ask.

Like I said, any further questions feel free to shoot me a PM ;)

http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.ph...17725&t=317725

 

So I have an update. Its been nearly 1 1/2 years since my accident. The cost of the repair is about $7,150, and I paid my $500 deductible with statefarm. The quality of the work was good - however, when the shop gave me back my car, my rims were partially black (caused from the battery acid corroding the alloy finish) They replaced the rim for me no problem.

The only thing I can complain about is that my headlamp bulbs did not match, so I just bought a pair of silverstars and now they're super bright whites. There is still a lot of evidence of the acid from the battery getting all over the tubings, lines, and covers (i.e. header cover). Maybe I'll post some pics so that everyone can see what my car looks like 1.5 years later.

I appreciate everyone's input and support - its wonderful to know that there exists a forum of tC enthusiasts that are so open to sharing their knowledge and experiences.