Totaled?
 

Hey all,

I'm feeling really grateful that my passenger and I walked out without a single scratch. I dodged a cat and rammed straight into a tree. Sigh.

Pics attached. I love ya renny.. thanks for protecting us...

I brought her to a shop but they said it's probably totaled... Control arm snapped, axle also, it's a really a mess and it's so painful to see it...

Anyone know how to deal with totalled cars? this is my first time. I haven't heard back from my insurance yet.

Ima go cry for a bit :(

Even if you were to be able to replace the parts the chassis would be mostly beyond repair. It looks bent from the pics.
The next time just drive over the damn cat.

^ agreed, replacing a bumpier after hitting a small animal is much better than this. And think about that poor tree you destroyed ...

Glad you and your passenger are ok.

Stupid cat. Good to hear you walked out alright.

that's totaled.

First S2 i have seen totaled, glad everyone is ok.

Sorry for your loss, but you could sell your RECARO Sportster CS seats and interior. There are a handful of RX-8 owners who would love to acquire the R3 interior.

damn..imagine the cat said "what an idiot!"

and yes, its totaled. hope you have full coverage.

Glad to see you and your passenger is okay.

It is probably repairable but if it is repaired it will never drive the same.
Just consider it totaled and buy another 8. :)

And don't feel bad for not hitting the cat, I would have probably done the same thing.
I have a soft spot for cats. :(

I do, but I have a softer spot for my RX:Peace:

Back in my day of driving classes in high school, we were taught you always make the choice to hit what is softer. I have always had animals, cats and dogs. And I love animals, but you should have just hit the cat.

If they total her, try to part out the good stuff. But you will have to grab that stuff quick, most insurance companies won't let you near the car once they total it. They crush em right away, so that there is no evidence for any further insurance claims of any kind.

Totaled...totally agreed. Anyway, the most important thing is both of you are okay and alive. That is just a car, it could be replaced...not you, amen.

or could it be replaced.:rollingla

From the pictures it looks as if most of the energy was absorb by the suspension, that is a good thing.

You should seek out a shop that specializes in hard hits. even a rainbow can be straighten, all it takes is time, money and a few mirrors. That being said, is it worth it to you? If you can,take a picture of the passengers side rear door lines along with the trunk lines. That will help to figure out if it is diamonded (racked).
In the engine compartment, did the drivers side strut areasustain any damage? Or was all of the damage to the outside of the engine compartment? Did the windshield crack, not just that lower corner, PS upper corner? That will tell if the( A ) pillar has moved.

Keep in mind, that as soon as a frame rack clamp touches your car, the value will never be the same.

I am truley sorry for your loss.
It looks repairable to me. ( 13K??). ( more pictures please)
MY2010 there was 263 R3 produced for US, Is there only 262 now? Seek out a heavy hit specialist. Good luck, and hug your loved ones.
--
--Jim

The frame can be straightened, true. What happens when you hit again in a similar spot though?
Safety aside it will never handle the same and that's what is important. He couldn't dodge a cat safely with a healthy car lol.

Thanks everyone. Ya the windshield on the driver side has a 10cm long crack. Just one line. The passenger side from the door to trunk was perfectly fine.
The suspension itself seemed intact but the strut seems busted but I can't open the hood.

Next time, hit the cat. I grew up in a rural area. We would see this a lot from the "city folk" that would come out on weekends. An animal runs out, the swerve and crash. Some killed them selves in the process. See it a lot on the volunteer fire dept out there. Most the other "country folk" just ran the animal down or braked. Insurance will fix a bumper. Glad you made it out OK but next time let the animal die. It's not worth risking you life or the life of others to save an animal.

Exactly Prophet. My cousin has a friend that died from this and he lived in the country though. He was driving with his sister on a gravel road and a bunny came running out, the sister screamed to not hit it and the guy swerved and rolled the truck. The guy died and the sister lived.

You're totally right. If it's a deer you may even have a good dinner! :)
On a serious note though: cats, rabbits, badgers, squirrels, hedgehogs and the likes are all fine to hit. Even small dogs are ok. Problems arise with mid size dogs and upwards since they may really unbalance your car to the point to let you crash anyway.
Just a heads up and clarification i guess, for the inexperienced tourist.

Airbag deployment - Something I hope I never get to witness ......

just noticed OP is Asian.:lol2:

Not much you can do with a totaled car. You have to wait and see what insurance is willing to pay. If you arent done paying it off you might be stuck paying the difference on a car you cant drive. I totoled my own rx8 and it does make you wanna cry but be glad you and your passenger are ok. YOu can also try and buy your car back and part out what ever isnt completely trashed, might help get some money back.

Well, I've been involved in more than one deer hit. Biggest was buck that was around 215is lbs. Gotta love the rut. Horny time for deer, for those that do not know. In every hit, the deer either bounced off, rolled under, or rolled onto the hood. NONE ever made the car "unbalanced." Most cars way 1.5 tons or more. Even at 200lbs, the deer is in a loosing battle with physics. If you stay on the brakes
you will come to as safe stop like any other time. Maybe some extra wiggles, but that's it.

Hm, how the? haha.

Well this incident was an expensive lesson for me. How come I feel like every plus in technology is a minus in humanity lol...

That sucks. Its sad to see such a beautiful car go, but at least everyone is ok. Although I must ask... How was a tree a cat-sized swerve away from the road? Generally those kinds of things are separated by dirt, ditches, and sometimes even guard rails lol.

I almost run over a cat couple months ago. Lucky it was local road i had enough time to stop otherwise i would just run it over and say sorry cat, u will be remebered

While best advice is to hit an animal rather than wreck, attempting to avoid an animal is good practice against the day it's a child running into the road.

Ken

haha, dont worry. I was just kidding.
I am asian too.:lol:

I was at a decent (legal) speed but the cat made me flick the steering wheel to the left suddenly and i tried to counter steer because i felt it sliding already. Over countered and the car just lost control, straight up the dirt into the tree. Luckily i wasn't blocking the road and ended up in someone's driveway. Strange though, no one in the neighborhood, even cars that passed by came out to see what was happening after the crash. So if we were injured/unconscious, we've been dead for sure.

The report should be sent to the insurance tomorrow so I'll know what their deal is. I plan to keep the seats/coilovers/bhr coils if i can get to them.

That sucks.

Sorry to hear about ur car. :( By chance do you still have the sun visors??? Both of mine broke.

Usually, if estimated cost of repair is greater than cost to replace, then it's totaled.
I don't know if your insurance replaces it with a new car - usually not.

Unless it's really low mileage, or there's something like the "one year newer" clause one company's been touting, they generally pay off the replacement value of the car...what it would have sold for retail at a used car lot.

There was an excellent post by Doc Beech a few months ago. It describes how he maximized the insurance payoff when his 8 was totaled. Smart guy, with experience in the insurance business. Well worth searching for that post.

Ken

Gold nugget. Gotta search for that one. Thanks.

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Found it: https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...hlight=totaled

Thanks I found it
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...ight=insurance

That really sucks dude; rx8's are pretty tail happy. If it's any consolation I'm sure everyone here would be eager to fight over your s2 goodies (seats, final drive, rims, etc.) granted you can get your hands on them first. Best of luck.

Thanks, AAA hasn't contacted me yet (wtf?) so I'm trying to call them now and it's taking forever lol

Corvairs are tail happy. RX-8s are neutral, especially if the DSC is on.
I'm curious to know if the OP had DSC on in this accident...

It would stand to reason that the insurance company would want to access the Event data recorder ( if the 09 has one). That might be why you have not heard from them yet.
That will give them a snap shot before, during and after the catccident. (rate of speed, was any safety equipment disabled,DSC. if the brakes were applied)

http://www.iihs.org/research/qanda/edr.html

Bosch and Mazda Sign EDR Retrieval Tool License Agreement
http://www.boschdiagnostics.com/supp...aEDRPress.aspx

Not to cast aspersions on the ethics of an insurance company, but the longer they drag it out the more likely you'll cave in and accept a lowball settlement.

Ken

I don't mean to hijack your thread yoluun, but I just had a similar accident, though mine involved a coyote and a curb, not a tree. In my case, I was going well above the speed limit in my 2007 sport rx8 base model (no performance package).

Digger do you know if it is mandatory for insurance companies to access this EDR system, before this I hadn't even heard of it. How can I find out if my car has EDR? You have me very petrified now, as i am awaiting to hear back for my settlement. I don't want them to determine reckless driving as the cause of the accident, though it mostly was.:(

glad you're okay.... but those r3 rims, I just want to cry :(

@ V&C, The likely hood of the insurance company accessing EDR is slim at best. They don’t have the ability to easily access the memory at this point. However, if several cars were involved, along with injuries that would be different. They would have to ask you for a release since you are the owner of the info. Did anyone die? No, then you should be golden.
--

Thank you digger, I do appreciate it. I did all kinds of research about EDR laws and such after reading your initial post haha. The adjuster said something about it taking up to ten days for my settlement to clear so that the investigator can determine who was at fault. (Not sure what that means since i was the only party involved.) That is the main reason I am so concerned, but I've decided to stop worrying about the things I can't control and just wait the next week or so out. Hopefully you are correct, no one was injured...physically. Emotionally....now that's another story.

Yoluun, keep us posted! It's nice to know that we are not alone in times like these. I am thankful to have such a great resource for information. I have never been in an accident, let alone totaled a car either. Shame that it had to be my baby.:[

Hopefully it works out with my insurance and I won't have to rebuild my FC's motor to have another ride just yet. I wish you the best of luck as well! Long live the rotary!

Thanks VC! It really gets messy when something else is involved ... perhaps I'm lucky that night. I really hope things turn out well for you.

Sorry I haven't kept up the details. Finals are coming up next week and I decided to deal with my renny after that.

So they realized that the insurance plan I had was minimal coverage (which I did tell them that I want to only pay the minimal possible amount when I got the vehicle's insurance) ... bleh :( bad idea.
The collision experts told me $16K to repair but that's without tearing the car down.

I said screw that and towed the car back to my garage. I took a look at it myself and plan to just start replacing parts with aftermarket stuff because it doesn't look that bad. I need to have the collision center replace the driver side strut tower and that's all I'll ask them to do. The snapped control arm is a bolt on I can easily replace, the sub frame needs to be replaced but I don't know where I can find it. I have a list of what I need to get, but I'll post it later along with some pictures. It doesn't really look that bad, but I don't know what some pieces are called. orz.


Gotta go off to turn in homework to professor. Will keep everyone updated asap.

For now here's my garage and her that I partially tore down on the driver side.

Buy a new one, that thing is never going to be the same.

yuck, I really need to consider getting full coverage next year.:SHOCKED: