rear ended, will insurance company declare this "totaled"

2011 4-door Golf with manual transmission. 86,000 miles. Bought it new and not a scratch on it until last night. Perfectly maintained! I even had the headliner replaced last month. Needed to store some stuff in the garage, so the car was parked out on the street last night and it got hit hard! The rear of the car was spun around and knocked all the way up to the sidewalk. The back left rear wheel is twisted and pushed up against the rocker panel. Do you think the insurance company will total it? I am afraid that a totaled settlement will not nearly cover what it's worth.
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Probably not a total,..without seeing underneath though?...damage from what I see is only on the left side..looks like it may be able to be pulled out some..more than likely a portion quarter replace or full (part around $500.00)... rear suspension is toast..used parts for that if possible few hundred maybe..rear bumper assembly used ..around 500.00.. and Does rear door open o/k?..believe damage is a few grand less ( at least in my shop) than cost to replace car (around 7 to $9000.00?)...be sure to get more than one estimate! Good coverage?? Let us know what happens! That sucks though..Hit and run??

Hi Forrest. I am a UGA graduate. Have been living in Columbus since 1999. Thanks for the reply and I am encouraged by your words. I want it fixed.

Here is a picture I took from underneath. Don't know what I am looking at here, but it looks out of position. You can see where the tire has rubbed off some of the plastic wheel-well. The police asked me to drive it just enough to get it parked back on the street. The PD told me that the driver has contacted them, and has some kind of insurance. Driver was cited and also admitted to checking a cell phone at the time of the collision. For now, all I have is a PD report number. My USAA insurance company is not taking calls today, so the TDI club will be a primary source of feedback today.

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Totaled can be subjective state to state and carrier to carrier. Most times it has to do with how much the estimate is compared to how much the car is worth (fair market value) i.e. how much you would get out of it if you sold it (undamaged of course). And the guidelines can be all over the board depending on where you are and who is paying for the repairs.

Thanks Jesse. Yes, I am real concerned that they will value the car at $7000 and try to total it out based on that kind of value.

Forest, the left rear door has some damage, and it felt a little different when I opened and closed it, but I will have to go back out and take a closer look at the gap around the perimeter when it's closed. The hatch door opened and closed, but it definitely doesn't close the same as before, and there is no longer an alarm-beep when I use the key fob to lock the car.

I am a little bit nutty about this car, so I am sick about what happened to it.

Even if they do total it out, you could likely buy it back from them for very little. That might actually be the best case scenario for you if your attached to the car. It would require a salvage title, but that wouldn't matter if you run the wheels off it.

Meant to mention .. there is a BIG business in co-operation between body shops and insurance comp's. They co-operate in totaling/estimating damaged cars to the benefit of both.. so make sure to get est. from smaller and larger shops... I used to do some insurance work.. no more ( much smaller shop etc..).. just the restoration of classic muscle cars now!

Forrest please don't hesitate to give me even more guidance if you think it will help me do this well. I will call my insurance company in the morning to get their input. With the twisted condition of the back left wheel, I don't think I can drive it very far. Can you advise on how I can transport it around to get estimates from different body shops? Will representatives from the body shops come to me and look at it where it's currently parked along the street? Does an appraiser from my insurance company (or an appraiser from the at fault driver's insurance company) need to look at it first, or should I just go forward with trying to find estimated repair costs? Thanks again.

this is why i elected for gap coverage. i hit a deer with my first mk6 jsw tdi. and now hit a immovable cement post a light was on in a parking lot. Car was warm, i was wet from snow/ rain, and the window fogged up 20 sec after i started driving. Accident at less than 10 mph probably totaled my car. when moving it afterward i noticed the wipers both front and rear along with the sprayer did work... debating if i should part it out or fix it.
if your in a no fault state your insurance will handle it. if you aren't, their insurance will try to lowball you an offer. never take the first offer. if its totaled you can bring in your receipts for the headliner and install time, along with any mental distress, car rental, loss work, etc. aftermarket parts.

im assuming its a a tdi? the values here are from 5-9k depending on shape and options.

DivineChaos said:

this is why i elected for gap coverage. i hit a deer with my first mk6 jsw tdi. and now hit a immovable cement post a light was on in a parking lot. Car was warm, i was wet from snow/ rain, and the window fogged up 20 sec after i started driving. Accident at less than 10 mph probably totaled my car. when moving it afterward i noticed the wipers both front and rear along with the sprayer did work... debating if i should part it out or fix it.
if your in a no fault state your insurance will handle it. if you aren't, their insurance will try to lowball you an offer. never take the first offer. if its totaled you can bring in your receipts for the headliner and install time, along with any mental distress, car rental, loss work, etc. aftermarket parts.

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Are you in Columbus ga.?..Good info above.... the offenders insurance should come to look at it..go from there.. see what they say..good idea to have proof of what the car is selling for like car gurus..cars online etc....putting aside "kelly blue book"...some shops will send someone to look at it..By the way..GO DAWGS!!

yep..rear suspension is bent.should not be a big deal to repair from what I see.used parts is a must if possible..real curious what the estimate is!? here's a diagram parts.. https://www.vwpartsvortex.com/v-201...0l-l4-diesel/rear-suspension--rear-suspension

Forrest, I am in Columbus OH. If I were in Georgia, I would be trying to talk you into letting me haul my car to your shop. I had a lot of conversation with my USAA insurance reps today. They want me to let them come pick up the car and take it somewhere where an "adjuster" can assess things. The Columbus Police Dept has generated an accident report, and they will give me a copy, but they won't email it, and I didn't make it to their office before it closed at 2:00PM. So, I still don't know what insurance company is being carried by the at-fault driver. USAA did a good job of smoothing some of my anxiety about the eventual assessment by their adjuster, and they want to come pick up my car right away (they want to take the lead with the claim, and then recoup from the at-fault driver's insurance company), but I am going to keep the car here with me a little longer so I can continue to sort through things. I like your idea of going directly to the at-fault driver's insurance company, so I will go get the accident report in the morning to see if his carrier is listed in the CPD accident report. USAA assured me that if I am too dissatisfied with the outcome of their assessment and their settlement offer, that I can still get the car back. I am trying to figure out how to get a repair shop rep to look at it before I allow it to be loaded up and taken away. Thanks.

Hey cat.. any updates yet?? Hope there is some good news! Real curious about the repair estimate (hopefully)..OR total out value??

The feedback you all have given was a big help because it helped me choose my next best steps. Dealing with it this week was stressful, but I think things are going to be okay. On Tuesday morning I picked up the accident report from the Columbus Police Department. The at-fault driver received 3 citations. The police report also revealed that he has Allstate insurance, so on that Tuesday morning I closed the claim I had created with my own insurance company and filed a new claim with Allstate. I also succeeded in getting someone from a small body shop to come out to my house and look at my car. The rep from the body shop initially thought I would be into a total-loss settlement, but after I got him to believe that the car would probably carry a settlement value of $8000, he began to think that I might succeed in getting it covered for a repair. He understandably couldn't give me an estimate, but it was great that he came to my place to look at it. Allstate insurance also agreed to send someone out to my house to look, and on Wednesday the Allstate claims-adjuster gave me a preliminary estimate for $4023. The Allstate adjuster made sure that I understood that his assessment was nothing more than an "inspection", but he told me that he felt that even with some supplements that would likely arise with the tear-down at the body shop, that there would be enough room to keep me below the totaled-out scenario. Still, he made sure that I understood that the tear-down needed to be completed before I could know how things would play out. Yesterday I selected a body shop, and this morning the car was towed away. Allstate did have an issue with confirming that the at-fault driver was still active and in good standing with his coverage. His coverage was finally confirmed on Thursday (the police report listed the driver's father's policy number instead of the driver's policy number), and with that now sorted out, I was even approved for a rental car that I picked up today. I will know much more when they take the rear end apart early next week, but I am feeling better.

Sounds pretty good so far!..Keep in mind..you may have a choice to use used parts for some things..like the suspension parts $$....see if there is a choice.. this is only if the repair cost creep up towards the total amount! It would not surprise me if the shop used them anyway ( sometimes without the car owner knowing!).. you may have a choice...Keep an eye on the repair if possible.. let us know how it's going?..Thanx!

Things to be aware of - the threshold for a "total" is 70-75% of the FMV, but that value is based on comparables and not KBB - so you might have more room than you think, but that also might require fighting with them.

Anything that affects the passenger cage, this is the perimeter that runs around the doorframes, from the A pillar to the rear door latch frame, and across the body via the windshield / firewall and the rear door... ANYTHING that happens to that, is basically a full stop. Kinking the metal there, compromises the strength of the entire cage, and there isn't an insurance company on the planet that will accept that liability. Usually if the doors are tweaked, that's the indication, but anything that gets into the support for the quarter also can be. They aren't wrong, it is hard to tell before stripping all the plastic off.

Allstate is going to fix my car. I got word late last week, but the whole ordeal worried me to exhaustion. I will share more about the total repair costs when I get that info, but as for trying to assess the insurance company's total loss settlement value for the car vs the repair cost, it looks like I would have been lucky to get $7K. The repair bill is going to be about $4600. I am relieved, and it sounds like the things that were damaged can be removed and replaced - and the car should track just as good as it did before. Thanks to all who cared and shared encouragement.

There was a repair supplement, and that has now pushed the repair bill up to $5080. Ohio insurance laws are supportive of "diminished value claims", and Allstate has also indicated that they will add diminished value compensation into my recovery. I might get my Golf back on Friday