Topic: Deer season ended today and finally nailed one! Damage Update

[articsteve]

Glad you're ok.  No airbag?

Fortunately not, otherwise the INS. Co. would probably be moving to write the vehicle off.  The car is mint, has had a litany of service and parts replaced under the "Artic" warranty  , but shows high mileage at 150K km.  Consequently, the wife would be receiving a big fat low ball offer that would stick.

I dropped the vehicle off at the INS. Co's "preferred" shop which happens to be the auto body that we use at the dealer and I talked to them at 3 pm to see what the situation was and learned that the company adjuster ordered all wrecker parts so I pulled it out of there and it's at a more premium shop were they won't use wrecker parts.  Undoubtedly there will be some head butting tomorrow with the company adjuster who I assume is in the GTA somewhere.

So far it needs a upper and lower rad support and the obvious (hood, fender and front grill).  The passenger door is pinned and there is stress crease in which is unfortunate.   It needs a new condenser and rad.  These must be OEM.  The "preferred shop" only had authorization for a "Chinese" condenser warrantied for one year.  So what really is the point of that.   Then I'd be stuck will a hefty AC bill 3 years down the road.

The point of all this is that the Insr. Companies push these "preferred" shops with that "lifetime" guarantee on repairs .  In actual fact, you as the policy holder are getting screwed.   The "efficiencies" are at the expense of the policy holder.

This is a comp claim with no rate penalty.  Deductable is $300.  When I hit a deer 4 years ago in my 924S, the Pilot waived the deductible. 

[rrocket]

^^Yep...there's a reason there are "preferred" body shops...because the insurance companies prefer to pay less to fix your car...

[articsteve]

My guess is you said Fuuuccckkkk. Care to elaborate?
Railton

You know, I think that was my exact wordage.  I was really tired.  Had the unit on cruise @100 kph.  B*gger came out of the ditch and I don't even think I hit the brake.  I had been trooping around all day and had been downing a couple a few hours earlier so I was quite "dry" and then had to wait 3/4 hour for OPP.  Then the OPP wanted to have the car towed and I had to then argue the futility of that particularly in light that my ATV was sitting in a trailer attached to the car.    Was the sh*ts as they say.

Better the Camry than the 944.

When I hit the last deer with the 924S I was hoping for a write off.  No luck.  However my S2 is irreplaceable.  45K miles on a brand new 968 block.  LSD tranny is replacement and is perfect.  I'm very tuned to the possibility of a deer hit in October (it's stored now) so I lay off in the dense forest type areas and at night.  The only possible outcome if a loss occurred would be to keep the car in a settlement, source a donor S2 from the US and then swap power trains.  This would be at least a 3 year project and a horrible amount of labour.  In any event, I'd require another "summer" unit to tide me over so it would be costly.

[articsteve]

^^Yep...there's a reason there are "preferred" body shops...because the insurance companies prefer to pay less to fix your car...

Well put.

Getting a new Camry SE??

Wife doesn't notice much when it comes to vehicles.  To her a 2007 SE and the 2012 SE look identical.  She demands heated seat, sunroof, auto headlites, and someone to fill the tank.  That's it.  It would be a waste of $14K which would be the difference approx.   However the 2007 SEs lacked stability control which Toyota Canada in all their wisdom deleted.  Standard on US units. 

I have been toying with the notion of storing her Camry from May to October and replacing it with a 2002 C5 Vette auto targa.  She likes the sun.  The only issue is that I would need to train her to lift the top on by herself in the event it started raining.  Or have her carry a tarp. 

[airbalancer]

get her an e46 ragtop, push of a button the top goes and down
still room for her shopping in the trunk
and still fit grandchild in the rear seat

[articsteve]

I'll need to wait for the grand kid first, maybe then. 

[initial_D]

Good that no one was hurt. A Solara Convertible could be a good repacement for the Camry.

[rrocket]

  The only issue is that I would need to train her to lift the top on by herself in the event it started raining.  Or have her carry a tarp. 

Shouldn't be too bad.  IQ was able to get the targa on/off on the Supra.  And she's teeny.  I did worry about a gust of wind maybe turning her into a kite though....

[articsteve]

Attached is one horrible pic.      Essentially structural damage was limited to the upper rad support and connecting bracing.

Replacing entire front sans the left head lite assembly, hood, right fender, windshield (that I replaced in May/2011  ) and AC condenser.

$8300, 48 hours labour.

No used parts.  OEM condenser.

If one airbag had of deployed ..... write off.  You can begin to see why rates are high.

[Brigitte]

I still don't understand how the airbag didn't deploy.  Is it because it wasn't a sudden deceleration, like hitting a wall or another car?

Glad to hear all's well, though.

[johngenx]

Is it because it wasn't a sudden deceleration, like hitting a wall or another car?

Exactly.  The airbag deployment ECU has a g-force threshold to avoid having the bag fire in a low speed or non-critical event.  Most cars change the settings based on seatbelt usage.  If you have your belt on and experience a moderate or low force impact (the deer did body damage, but as evident by the lack of bending, the force was not very high) then the bag won't deploy.

Check out these pics of my father's Mercedes which rolled off a mountain side.  The seatbelt tensioners fired, keeeping him in the seat.  Notice how no airbags fired.  Defective?  No.  The other systems did enough to keep the forces applied to the occupant to keep them from firing.

People believe that all the bags fire in all collisions, and lay blame when they don't.  Most cars just don't work that way, and we should be thankful.  Bags and firing mechanisms are $$$$$$$.

[articsteve]

I still don't understand how the airbag didn't deploy

I asked about that.

In my horrible pic,  locate that red square shaped piece of metal that is lower down and sticks out past the radiator.  For lack of the right term, that is the right frame rail.  The "bumper" (front fascia) attaches to that. Then it carries on to wards the firewall and then dips down underneath the floor pan to the rear of the car.

In this Camry the airbag sensors are located on this "rail" near the firewall.  When this "rail" starts to collapse (compress) the sensors pick it up and fire the bags although independent of each other.

Consequently, the system worked very well.  Travelling 100 kph you don't really need the bags to fire off unnecessarily and then the car would have been totaled.  Worse, the OPP would not have let me drive home and I had to argue about that as it was.

[sailor723]

Attached is one horrible pic.      Essentially structural damage was limited to the upper rad support and connecting bracing.

Replacing entire front sans the left head lite assembly, hood, right fender, windshield (that I replaced in May/2011  ) and AC condenser.

$8300, 48 hours labour.

No used parts.  OEM condenser.

If one airbag had of deployed ..... write off.  You can begin to see why rates are high.

I know what you mean. Our Mini had the front end pushed in about 12" and the estimate was around 25K ! 

[safristi]

   is this the AIR BAGGERS convention...... ..

[5 Wheel Drive]

I remember asking the same question to the Acura dealer after my RSX got rear ended.  The guy who hit me pushed me into the car in front of me.  Even with quite a bit of front end damage, the airbag didn't go off.  The guy at the dealer told me it was because I was going less than 60km/h when I hit.