Accident Today

My 2006.5 Jetta got hit in an intersection today by a GMC SUV that ran a red light. Ran the light late since my daughter said she was in the middle of the intersection when she got hit.

I know how easy it is for these older cars are to get totaled with what looks like not that much damage. The door took the major hit but it did graze the rocker and section between the wheel well and door.

My daughter siaid that the car got knocked across the intersection into the media and when my wife and I looked at the scene of the accident there was no skid marks and my daughter said she didn't hear any screeching tires so maybe the GMC was traveling the speed limit of 35 mph when the impact happen?

Which makes be worry about a bent chassis?

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Think the insurance company will total it? Great shape with 104,000 miles on it.

[URL=http://s974.photobucket.com/user/msiert/media/image_zpspwhjxuux.jpeg.html][/URL]

That will rub right out.




perhaps not.


drive to a couple places for estimates. does your insurance company have a claim center nearby?

a little running around, but the only way to know for sure.

Photos can be misleading, do ^^^.
Good luck. Hope the damage is minimal.

Just need new door skin and some bondo

Placed the claim and talked to the adjuster, they are accepting the liability of the damage so I picked a know body shop that was on their approved list.

I nevered open the damaged door (if it would even open or close again) to see what damage laid behind it but I'm hoping it will be minimal.

Think I like to talk to the body shop before I go in for the estimate to see if they would be open to sourcing out a used door vs using a new door. Black seems to be a very common color for a 2006 Jetta and might not be that hard to find?

I'm worried that once the first estimate is done (with all new parts) that will determine wither its totaled or not.

Thanks for the replays.

Here's a picture looking down the rocker showing the indentation in the rocker in front of the wheel well arch.

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Insurance company will total it out. My black 06 was purchased from the auctions with the EXACT same damage! just the other side. If it was me, I would let them cut you a check and keep the car. With mine, it pushed in the rear quarter / wheel well housing slightly. I will able to tack on a plate and pull it back out. For a cheap driver, I would swap out the door skin and bank the balance. Look for a rear door in your area, that is the same color. believe it or not, the paint. 9 times out of 10, will match up just fine. I did that exact approach with mine and you cannot tell it wasnt the original door skin.

You could also work with a body shop to fix just that quarter panel section and blend it to the door skin you swap out. A decent skin will cost you $100 to $150.00. I do not think there is any chassis issue. As I mentioned above, you wheel well housing might be pushed in enough that the door seal doesnt fully align, which will cause road noise. That was the issue with mine, which I fixed with the tack and pull.

Update:

They did not total it.

The body shop said the the damage came to around 65% of the value of the car, in Nebraska it needs to be 75% of value to be total. Going by memory but I think the damage was around $3,700 - $3,800.

They said they were going to put it on the frame rack to pull it straight and determine if they can repair the dog leg in front of the rear wheel or if they have to cut it out. Getting a new door, window tinting, pin stripes and blend the front door and quarter.

The Jetta goes in this Tuesday and they said 6 to 7 days to finish it, I get a free rental car till its done that's to the insurance of that person that caused the accident.

Update

Got an update from the body shop:

"We wanted to let you know when the damaged door was removed there was more damaged exposed on the rocker & ¼ panel area. We will be able to section the left rocker rear section up into the ¼ panel to take care of the damages. With the additional labor needed and the time to get the part we will need to extend your completion date out to Wednesday the 30th at this time."

Turning out to be more work then what they thought, but it's to late now for the insurance company to change its mind.

Hmm...I don't see how removing the door would have exposed rocker/1/4 panel area damage. OPENING the door and looking should have exposed the damage.

msiert said:

Got an update from the body shop:

"We wanted to let you know when the damaged door was removed there was more damaged exposed on the rocker & ¼ panel area. We will be able to section the left rocker rear section up into the ¼ panel to take care of the damages. With the additional labor needed and the time to get the part we will need to extend your completion date out to Wednesday the 30th at this time."

Turning out to be more work then what they thought, but it's to late now for the insurance company to change its mind.

Click to expand...

Agree with TDILast..

The INS co could still pull the plug, if there has not been too much of an effort. Similar issue with my last ordeal. Basically teardown and inspect was covered and the INS went from repair to total. I bought back the car, clean title and full book value check.

Well maybe I'm not out the woods yet?

Believe what the shop meant was the door could not be open and had to be taken off and this exposed the extent of the damage that was hidden by the door.

Think they were hoping after pulling on the rack that the damage could be fixed without having to cut out a section of the rocker and part of the 1/4 panel.

They explained to me that that might be the case when they quoted the price but made it sound it would not make a difference to it being not totaled if that had to be done.

Oh I hope that the insurance company is being updated too and will let the repair proceed.