Today my son was sitting at the back of a line of cars waiting on a train to pass when WHAM, he was rammed from behind by a woman on her cell phone......with no insurance! Rear bumper, tailgate, both bedsides, dual exhaust tips, spare tire carrier, drop hitch, and tool box mounted in the bed all damaged. Not smashed like her vehicle is, but just kinda compressed & scrunched up together......the drop hitch and 2” trailer ball really absorbed most of the impact and kept him from getting hurt, I believe. She was probably doing 40-50 when she hit him judging by the damage to her vehicle, which had to be towed away. Here’s her vehicle. I don’t have a good one of our truck yet.
Anyway, he wasn’t injured and the police officer said that his report would certainly place the other driver at fault. There was a lady who waited and gave her version as a witness to it also. So our insurance company said we have uninsured motorist coverage and it’ll get fixed for sure. Now here’s the thing I want opinions on.
Estimate is almost $8000 to fix it. They said the frame is bent and the truck now sits 2” higher on the driver side than the passenger side. It is noticeable looking at it from behind. Son says it’s making a whine sound now when he’s driving it. They told him they could total it with the frame being bent like that and the rear end or driveshaft may have shifted a bit. The truck has 125K miles on it, but still looks good and has no other issues. It’s been a good truck, but it may be time to let it go.
Fix it or let em total it? I think we should get it fixed. Son thinks with a bent frame it won’t ever ride or sit right again and it’ll eat the tires up. He’s leaning towards wanting it totaled.
I have a friend who is a retired insurance adjustor. He says most insurance companies don’t want to even fix em anymore. Seems awfully wasteful, but we’ll see how it turns out tomorrow after the adjustor gets here to look at it.
Here’s one before today’s damage. Anyone know how to get a book value of what it should be worth?
