Totaled Not Totaled?

My son found some black ice yesterday morning on the interstate and took a spin hitting the center wall doing about 50mph. He is fine, just sore, thank god.

The knee airbag went off but the steering wheel airbag did not.

The car is at a certified USAA body shop now but they won't touch the car until it goes to Ford to determine why the steering wheel airbag did not deploy.

I now it is hard to tell from photos, but totaled or not?

Very hard to tell, but I would err on it not being totaled.

I'm going to say not totaled but depends on the amount of damage behind the bumper cover.

Glad he is okay! Sounds like a scary event for him and you.

My vote is not totaled as long as the damage is just cosmetic.

Hard to tell but I would vote on it being not totaled.

does not seem to be totaled lost but once bumper cover off will be the real story.

Depends on a lot of things, if just cosmetic items, may not be totalled, but if you have a good amount of miles on the car and there isn't as much value left in it, it doesn't take much damage to make insurance company just total out the car.

Buddy of mine got in a collision that didn't look like much damage, very similar to this, and they totalled it out as the car was only worth about 11k KBB value (he had 78k miles on it, it was a base GT, don't recall what year but previous gen, 2012-13) and by the time they did the repair work, paid for his rental car, it was going to be 9-10k, they totaled it as they could probably get 1-2k for it by taking it off the street as is, and not run the risk of fixing it and having another major claim on the same car. Repair costs are always higher than you would think and what they should be, especially when insurance is paying.

I'm so happy your son was OK. As to being totaled, if it's only the bent sheet metal a good body shop can make it look good as new.

It sure looks totaled to me. The unibody will be kinked in some locations. They might be able to get it to look good again with new panels and fresh paint, but the structure of the car will never be the same.

Hard to say for sure like everyone else is saying, but I'd guess you're looking at:

- New headlights ($2400 - only if they find cracking, mine wasn't damaged from looking at it but was pushed back from someone backing in at a parking lot and insurance replaced it)
- New front bumper cover ($800)
- New grilles ($300ish, not sure on the CS one or if they'd let him replace the RTR style)
- New splitter ($200) and belly pan
- New fog lights + bezels
- New turn signals (at least passenger side)
- New hood ($1600) + hood stripes ($200 OEM at least) - can't tell if it is the light or damage
- Maybe fenders, can't tell if anything happened to either side

Plus whatever frame/body areas and cables need correcting/replacing and the associated labor.

Well the subframe where the bumper crash bar mounts on the passenger side is certainly bent. That is not cheap to fix as you'll have to hang the motor to replace all that, I believe.

Any airbag deployment can make it a tricky situation for the adjuster. My gut says it's not totaled simply due to how new the vehicle is, but it could really go either way.

Not totaled.

In most States and Insurance Co. policy provisions, a total loss is when the damage to repair is within 74%-75% of ACV (actual cash value). So as a hypothetical example, if the car’s ACV is $10k and to repair the damages is up to or exceeds $7,500 - the Insurance Co. totals out the car.

Other determining factors would be extensive frame or unibody damage where it’s either not feasible to repair or to repair it increases the repair costs past ACV.

Your car does not look to be totaled at all based on the pics.

Rad support can be straightened IF it has been pushed back. Hood, fenders, and any parts behind bumper cover, plus airbag, plus prep/paint is going to be prob upward of $6k+ if using Genuine Ford parts and NOT used or China made aftermarket OEM-like parts....

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As for the “why” for steering wheel air bag. I have read in the past that for a steering wheel air bag to go off, the collision has to be in excess of a certain preprogrammed speed, impact zone has to be across the entire front which would be similar to a head on, a t-bone or straight on crash that impacts both air bag sensors located near the front radiator support.

Your vehicle seems to have taken a non-direct hit, more to one side, rather than a straight on dead center impact. That may explain why only certain air bag sensors triggered.

Totaled vs not totaled comes down to simple economics: if repair value < replacement value, we fix it, otherwise, no. I think the GT comes out on the winning end a lot more than the Ecoboost does.

$17,000 worth of damage (and they didn't even tear into the car to find out how bad it really was):




It totaled the car (I paid ~$26,000 for it). I got just about every cent I paid into it in the insurance settlement, too: I only had 7,700 miles on the clock :tsk: P.S. It wasn't my fault

Had it been a GT, I'm sure it would still be on the road!

EDIT: Can't link the image for some reason. Look at my profile for the pic addle:

Totaled.

If any bags go off, totaled. I was told by my local auto body shop that if the bags go off, the entire airbag system wiring has to be replaced, and that is prohibitively expensive. If one bag went off, the steering wheel should have honestly, but it should be totaled either way.