• candybrie@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Totaled just means repairs will cost as much as the car is worth. If the frame is bent, that would probably do it.

    • billwashere@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Yeah and it works the other way sometimes too. My wife’s car had one of those flatbed delivery trucks back into her car and just peel the whole driver’s side open like a can opener. I mean it literally looked like wolverine took a single claw down the entire side. I thought for sure they’d total it. But because it had so few miles on it even though it was still an 8 year old car they just fixed it because it was worth more than the 75% cost of repairs limit. I think the total repair bill was like 10k.

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        There’s also the airbags, seatbelt pretensioners, the belts themselves, a huge amount of stuff that needs to be swapped out after a crash.

    • desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      it still looks drivable, how can something that runs, stops, and doesn’t leak fluids too badly be totaled? Nobody should care how a truck looks, replace the front bumper with some plastic tubs zip-tied on and replace the radiator if it leaks. the only real issue I could see is if the steering is messed up.

      • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        At this point, many companies consider any car with a deployed air bag totaled. There’s a lot of stuff that crumples and isn’t obvious.

      • Timecircleline@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        Cars these days are essentially one-time use when it comes to collisions. They’re exceptionally good at protecting the occupants, but can only be kind of guaranteed to do so once. Like a helmet!

        • verity_kindle@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Newer cars that have unibodies can look relatively fine and be all smashed like a soda can on the inside. The metal crumples to redirect the force away and protect the delicate meatbag in safe zones. Your knees and elbows and head might whip around like a mofo. Be glad the airbag didn’t activate, because it might break your nose. The unibody CAN save your meat by itself. Source: personal walk away from a approx. 50 mph front and rear impact and the plastic and glass didn’t look that bad. No airbags, no problem. Thanks, unibody design!

      • Gerudo@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        You’d be shocked how expensive it is to repair a vehicle back to new for insurance purposes. Bent frame is almost instant total total. You can always repair them, but you’ll end up with a salvage title which is almost worthless to anyone but you. My wife has been in 2 accidents, 1 was about like the one pictured and the other worse. Both were totaled by the insurance company. The one like the picture was actually drivable from the scene.

      • GiveMemes@jlai.lu
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        2 months ago

        That’s not what totaling means. A totaled car that’s still on the road is called a salvage vehicle.

      • GetOffMyLan@programming.dev
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        2 months ago

        Totalled means the repair bill is more than the cost of replacing the car. It actually doesn’t take much to total a car these days.