GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I am heartsick! My baby might be a goner.

A car collided with me on July 2nd as they were turning left across my lane. There was a work truck perfectly blocking our line of sight of each other, but the other driver was deemed liable (I had right of way). I'm currently waiting for the official estimate from my body shop. USAA (my insurance co.) wanted to call it totaled from the get go and haul it off to some mystery spot, never to be seen again. Now, I'm quite a b*tch when it comes to my car. I drove it to my usual body shop myself and had to whip out my "mom voice" on the USAA adjuster... she is *not* feeling particularly loved right now.

Here's the carnage:


The impact wasn't hard enough or square enough to deploy the airbags, but everything is shifted







The guy at my body shop knows how much I love this car, and I know he'll be straight with me. It's my intention to get her fixed unless she's structurally compromised or the cost to repair out of my pocket becomes more than a certain price point. I keep getting my hopes up that it'll eek in under the totaled price, but I just read DeClercq's thread, and I'm not feeling too hopeful anymore.

Those of you with salvage title experience, give me some tips? Did you have issues with your insurance company covering the car afterwards?

And no, all my eggs aren't in one basket... I've test driven some things, and have pre-approved for a new car loan with my credit union, so I'm poised to do something regardless of how this comes down.

UGH!

It does not look like the frame rails are bent from those pics, and if they are, it is minimal. Looks like mostly just the bumper cover, possibly radiator support, hood, and possibly the radiator, condenser, etc stuff under the bumper might need a going over. IMO a perfect candidate to repair with used parts, not OEM new parts. The fenders don't even look damaged. Heck, if mine was only damaged that little bit, I would be fixing it myself (and I did with my Mustang - all new headlights, new hood, and I pulled out the radiator support enough to latch the new hood properly!)

I would certainly get an "insurance" quote from your shop, and if that is too close to the value of the car, ask them about a quote with used parts to see if it could be reduced and not hit the salvage threshold. See http://www.car-part.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for parts.

No personal experience with a salvage title, but both my credit union and insurance agent (State Farm) had no problem if I bought a rebuilt salvage car. I asked when I was looking before. They would just not cover the full value of a non damaged car if it was totaled again.

If they did decide to total it, find out what the salvage value is. Might be worth it to buy it back and fix it up. Your car sure looks good from the pics, even with the damage!

Good luck!

I really believe she's fixable. This car has so much of my heart and soul poured into her, I just cannot think to walk away. Aside from flapping bits, I drove her home on the interstate and to the body shop fine, so she's mechanically sound, no leaks either.

the shop guy remembered me from a year ago when someone scraped her in a parking lot, and the year before that when i slid of the road and crunched that same corner. He remembered how much i went on about my love of this car lol. He's the one who told me about salvage titles and what my options are. The chick at Usaa was trying hard to sell me on their car buying options rather than 'help' me.

Up until this experience I've been pretty happy w/ USAA, and i get that it's a numbers game, but seriously, trying to sell me a new car as I'm reporting my accident details is low.

I'll post the numbers once I get them. It just feels good to know the Gen Vibers are still here rooting for her!

I agree with trb. In 'rebuildables' parlance this looks like a
"Very easy front, airbags o.k., no leaks, drive home" followed by some fantasy price suggestion.

You probably won't even need a new hood. I would try to straighten out the hinges. Even the headlights have no visible damage.

When you took it to the shop did it pull to one side? Did you run the AC? Did you check the headlights and blinkers?

I didn't check the lights or signals, but pretty sure the ac worked fine. I can't remember for certain if I drove home with it on,but I rarely drive without it. the car felt fine, up until 55mph when her front bits started flapping in the wind. No pulling, no leaks (she sat in my driveway for 5 days before I took her to the shop around the corner so there'd be a noticable puddle or drip spots). I'm pretty tuned in to when my car doesn't sound or feel right, and she felt fine to me.

Thanks for the tips! I have some good questions for the body shop now.

My husband and I sat down last night and tried to figure out how we could swing one car while the Vibe's in the shop. Once USAA deems it totalled, they take the rental away. He's got a 74 Charger as his hobby car and drives it only 6 miles back and forth to work each day. I'd be driving it more, but not an insane amount. The trouble is that his is NOT the reliable ride (I do love the time the drive shaft fell out of the Charger on us in the middle of the night in Nowhere Tennessee). There's some mornings it gives him the finger and we figure it out with the Vibe.

This is certainly going to be an interesting few months LOL!

Ouch ! I am not liking this series of Vibe accidents we've been experiencing lately ! I hope you are able to get it fixed and keep it for a long time to come. Sending postivie "Vibes" your way...

If everything is working OK, that sounds good for the repair scenario.

I can't see it taking a real long time to fix it, unless you are waiting for parts to arrive or the shop is really backed up. Maybe a couple of weeks? My insurance company was able to give me an additional week with the rental, basically because I complained about the length of time it took for them to actually total it, and the fact we've been customers for over 30 years and would not want to shop around for new insurance after this issue. I wonder if yours would allow you to continue to rent a car at their insurance rate, which for Enterprise is 50% off the regular rate - mine was $23.50/day paid by insurance. Or try priceline.com for a cheap per day rate. I know people that have made a $20 per day offer and they accepted it.

If you are waiting on parts, I would try to see if the shop, or even if you & hubby could work the parts back closer to their correct places until they got everything in, thus allowing you to drive the car for several more days if necessary. Zip ties can work great to hold things in place. I had quite a few on my 2010 holding the front splash shields in place!

One of our local body shops provides free loaner cars to their customers.

Now that you describe how it felt when driving I am even more convinced that his is an easy fix. The only way this car qualifies as totaled is if the shop and adjuster aggressively drive up the repair cost with things like a new hood, new head lights and so on. If they do that take the check, buy the car back and do a reasonable repair, straighten the hood hinges and the latch, straighten or replace the radiator support, new bumper cover with paint, and if the lights work you are done.

A few years ago a niece of mine got into an accident. Her Nissan Altima was hit in the trunk area. I use some 2x4 and with some impromptu bracing and leveraging against a spare tire I was able to bring the trunk back in shape. O.k. the trunk did not close correctly, I think the hinge arms were bent. But for the money ($0.00) she was very happy and she drove that car for 2 more years or so.

Whoooaaa.. 2014 has not been a good year to some of the Vibes out there Here's hoping that they will repair it for you. Good luck!

glad you're fine, and it seems that mechanically the vibe is still ok.

hope it all works out!

Well that's all she wrote folks the frame is bent at that front corner. Everything on the front end was pushed sideways more than in. I just picked up her tags.

I'm taking the buyout for my sanity. We already have one project car in the family, so I'm getting a new car.

Should I post the VIN so you guys can track her afterlife?