Scared my car is a write off :(
Discussion
Ok so I've had my Celica GT-Four for about a month...have a set of 15" wheels and tyres sitting in my loft but didn't realise it was going to snow on Sunday so left on the 17" low profile ones. Figured one trip to the stables would be fine and I'd change the wheels over this week...
So queue driving up the farm track full of snow at around 8mph, a road I've driven for over 2 years with no problems. Ever. Turn the wheel to take a small bend and the car goes straight on, geared down etc, nothing, it just locked up and hit a fence post, surprisingly hard and head on! (slight slope downhill at that point) It ended up on top of the fence post up a small grassy bank. Thank god for 4wd or I'd have needed to be towed out, since my front wheels were no longer on the ground!
The plastic of the body kit is wrecked, the metal beam that runs in front of the radiator is bent and the side wing is cracked. The bonnet won't open as the bit where it locks is out of shape
So my poor car got taken to the garage that my insurance company recommended this morning and I'm waiting to see how it goes. I'm absolutely gutted as I've had the car such a short period of time and I absolutely love it
Anyone had experience of similar accidents and know how much damage is likely to have been done/how much to expect it to cost/whether the insurance company will bother getting it fixed?
So queue driving up the farm track full of snow at around 8mph, a road I've driven for over 2 years with no problems. Ever. Turn the wheel to take a small bend and the car goes straight on, geared down etc, nothing, it just locked up and hit a fence post, surprisingly hard and head on! (slight slope downhill at that point) It ended up on top of the fence post up a small grassy bank. Thank god for 4wd or I'd have needed to be towed out, since my front wheels were no longer on the ground!
The plastic of the body kit is wrecked, the metal beam that runs in front of the radiator is bent and the side wing is cracked. The bonnet won't open as the bit where it locks is out of shape
So my poor car got taken to the garage that my insurance company recommended this morning and I'm waiting to see how it goes. I'm absolutely gutted as I've had the car such a short period of time and I absolutely love it
Anyone had experience of similar accidents and know how much damage is likely to have been done/how much to expect it to cost/whether the insurance company will bother getting it fixed?
Rob, because I don't have the money to pay for a few thousand pounds of repairs. Plus I've paid insurance for 10 years, I figured I'd make use of the courtesy car and protected NCD!!
I'm so gutted, I've had no luck with cars recently and I tohught I'd finally found one I was going to stick with!!
I'm so gutted, I've had no luck with cars recently and I tohught I'd finally found one I was going to stick with!!
sday12 said:
kambites said:
It probably is, yes. You can always buy it back and fix it yourself if you want to, although.
Not always an option I'm afraid.Beetle_Crazy said:
Rob, because I don't have the money to pay for a few thousand pounds of repairs. Plus I've paid insurance for 10 years, I figured I'd make use of the courtesy car and protected NCD!!
I'm so gutted, I've had no luck with cars recently and I tohught I'd finally found one I was going to stick with!!
False economy imo. Despite having your NCB protected your premiums will rise accordingly. Anyway, hopefully if they do write it off you can buy it back as a CAT D and use the money to get it sorted.I'm so gutted, I've had no luck with cars recently and I tohught I'd finally found one I was going to stick with!!
Good luck!
Rovinghawk said:
What difference would the wheel size make? It's not as if the tyres would be squirming under hard cornering.
RH
Wide low profile 17" tyres vs narrower, all weather 15" ones I've got sitting at home. The size is less of an issue than the fact I've got narrower, therefore better in the snow ones sitting in my loft and wasn't using them!!RH
Ugh. You have my sympathies.
I did something similar about 6 years ago in an ST205 GT-Four (spun on ice, clipped a sign which caved in the front) and it *was* repaired, but I fear that since then the car value will have decreased to the point where it may be a write off. I think the repairs (done through Toyota, so you may get it cheaper) were about 5K. In my case though, I had bent in the radiator, the charge cooler, the air-con cooler and the oil cooler so not sure if yours would be that much?
They are remarkably tough cars so don't give up hope. Mine drove home afterwards, just like yours.
I did something similar about 6 years ago in an ST205 GT-Four (spun on ice, clipped a sign which caved in the front) and it *was* repaired, but I fear that since then the car value will have decreased to the point where it may be a write off. I think the repairs (done through Toyota, so you may get it cheaper) were about 5K. In my case though, I had bent in the radiator, the charge cooler, the air-con cooler and the oil cooler so not sure if yours would be that much?
They are remarkably tough cars so don't give up hope. Mine drove home afterwards, just like yours.
Ryvita said:
Ugh. You have my sympathies.
I did something similar about 6 years ago in a GT-Four (spun on ice, clipped a sign which caved in the front) and it *was* repaired, but I fear that since then the car value will have decreased to the point where it may be a write off. I think the repairs (done through Toyota, so you may get it cheaper) were about 5K. In my case though, I had bent in the radiator, the charge cooler, the air-con cooler and the oil cooler so not sure if yours would be that much?
They are remarkably tough cars so don't give up hope. Mine drove home afterwards, just like yours.
Thanks for the sympathy, I can imagine you probably had the same feeling of "OMG that didn't really happen...I'm imagining it..." I think I was in shock all night, woke up the next day completely expecting to go downstairs and find out I'd dreamt it!!I did something similar about 6 years ago in a GT-Four (spun on ice, clipped a sign which caved in the front) and it *was* repaired, but I fear that since then the car value will have decreased to the point where it may be a write off. I think the repairs (done through Toyota, so you may get it cheaper) were about 5K. In my case though, I had bent in the radiator, the charge cooler, the air-con cooler and the oil cooler so not sure if yours would be that much?
They are remarkably tough cars so don't give up hope. Mine drove home afterwards, just like yours.
Fingers crossed I've done less damage than yours...it seemed to be driving fine and no odd noises/smells/wasn't overheating etc etc. But I'm just praying to the Toyota gods that I'm right and there isn't too much structural damage done
Ryvita said:
Ugh. You have my sympathies.
I did something similar about 6 years ago in an ST205 GT-Four (spun on ice, clipped a sign which caved in the front) and it *was* repaired, but I fear that since then the car value will have decreased to the point where it may be a write off. I think the repairs (done through Toyota, so you may get it cheaper) were about 5K. In my case though, I had bent in the radiator, the charge cooler, the air-con cooler and the oil cooler so not sure if yours would be that much?
They are remarkably tough cars so don't give up hope. Mine drove home afterwards, just like yours.
as above the car value has dropped big time in last few years so anything costing ££'s to repair isnt looking too goodI did something similar about 6 years ago in an ST205 GT-Four (spun on ice, clipped a sign which caved in the front) and it *was* repaired, but I fear that since then the car value will have decreased to the point where it may be a write off. I think the repairs (done through Toyota, so you may get it cheaper) were about 5K. In my case though, I had bent in the radiator, the charge cooler, the air-con cooler and the oil cooler so not sure if yours would be that much?
They are remarkably tough cars so don't give up hope. Mine drove home afterwards, just like yours.
http://www.tcbparts.co.uk/
http://www.fensport.co.uk/
The two obvious places to go for parts. If you get lucky TCB might have a whole front end you could transplant. You can work out roughly what your parts bill at least would be. If it's still running fine, then hopefully you haven't hit any of the rads. Check for error codes on the ECU before driving it too far though.(Standard paperclip trick - short out E1 + ET1 in the diagnostic port and read the morse code off the ECU light on first ignition position).
I remember exactly the same feeling of waking up the following morning and looking out at the car and... "Oh bugger".
Worst case, you can buy mine if you need another one. (Different to the one I crashed Check my garage.)
http://www.fensport.co.uk/
The two obvious places to go for parts. If you get lucky TCB might have a whole front end you could transplant. You can work out roughly what your parts bill at least would be. If it's still running fine, then hopefully you haven't hit any of the rads. Check for error codes on the ECU before driving it too far though.(Standard paperclip trick - short out E1 + ET1 in the diagnostic port and read the morse code off the ECU light on first ignition position).
I remember exactly the same feeling of waking up the following morning and looking out at the car and... "Oh bugger".
Worst case, you can buy mine if you need another one. (Different to the one I crashed
Check my garage.)Edited by Ryvita on Tuesday 20th December 10:49
Ryvita said:
http://www.tcbparts.co.uk/
http://www.fensport.co.uk/
The two obvious places to go for parts. If you get lucky TCB might have a whole front end you could transplant. You can work out roughly what your parts bill at least would be.
Perfect, thank you! We have a mechanic friend who would be more than willing to do the work if it turns out the insurance company won't, it was just affording it that would be hard. But those guys look really reasonable!http://www.fensport.co.uk/
The two obvious places to go for parts. If you get lucky TCB might have a whole front end you could transplant. You can work out roughly what your parts bill at least would be.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff