My Tundra Got Totaled

In 2010 my 2001 Acura CLs was totaled, they offered x amount or a lesser amount & I keep it. I kept it, took off what I wanted & sold the car to a guy in Texas.

 

They generally will not allow you to take off parts that they agree added to the value of the truck. If you had a RTT and insurance doesn’t decide to factor that in to the value of your vehicle, they have foregone interest in that RTT and it’s no different than going to retrieve your sunglasses from inside. The tow yard where it is stored, or mechanic shop where it’s stored, would have final say on how long you could spend on their property, but ultimately you could get your parts back that were not taken into account by insurance.

 

That’s what I’ll be doing from now on!

 

They gave me a good payout for it, so all that has been finished up. I was able to pull most of my upgrades off of it before they picked it up.

 

The body shop said it would be a total frame replacement, not just fixing it. Plus they didn’t even know when they could get a frame. The last total frame job they did took 6 months.

So dealing with the insurance company hasn’t been bad. We both have State Farm, so I haven’t had to deal with a company I’m not familiar with. It took about a week for the body shop to get the estimate. From there it was another day for the insurance company to decide to total it and come up with the payout. While talking with the claims agent, I asked about all the upgraded parts. I was told to submit receipts for reimbursement. I did just that and was offered $100, which anyone who has modded a Tundra knows that is laughable. So I declined that and at that point, I asked the body shop if I could come get my stuff off the truck and they agreed. I was told as long as I replaced what I took off, it was fine. I was able to get my wheels and tires, Pro grille and surround, color matched hood bulge, tonneau cover, rear TRD sway bar, Clazzio seat covers, Pioneer head unit, underseat storage, and my cat shields. I left the tailgate lock, remote start, and wireless charging tray because I just ran out of time. Took me and a buddy about 3 hours to get everything off. Some of those things I did not replace because they did not come with the truck when I bought it, but I still had the stock grille, wheels, and bulge to replace the upgraded versions with.

 

I was told as long as what I took off was replaced with something, I could take it. However things like the tonneau cover and cat shield I took because those didn’t come stock with the truck.

 

Sorry to be repetitive but I didn’t see how many people had talked about this lol. I submitted receipts for all of my upgrades and was low balled, so I declined that. I still had the stock parts for most of the things I wanted, so I just swapped them out.

 

Yes, I'm sure. That doesn't mean that fixing it could not be done... just means they could never fix it to be like the original. Once steel is kinked you can't make it like it was.

Making it fully functional is different, however. If the bend is isolated to the rear of the frame it shouldn't be that hard to fix. If it bent further forward in front of the wheels it would be tougher.

Anyway, just thinkin'. Even if I didn't want it, I'd rather see someone fix my truck up and use it than let the vultures pick it apart.

 

Ahh gotcha, that makes sense. I’m not a frame/body work guy, so when they said that I just figured it was toast.

This was my first (and hopefully last) time dealing with a totaled vehicle so honestly I didn’t even know that was an option.

 

Sorry that happened man. I'll admit I agree with what @rruff says, it can likely be fixed to be fully functional, but a lot shops might not want to.

I daily drive an outback that had both frame horns bent inward at about 45 degrees due to the front end collision that bent the crash bar inward pretty damn far! The car was obviously totaled. I found it and bought it at auction, and fixed it up almost all myself. A good local body shop only charged me about $900 to straighten the frame horns, and install a new core support. She drives straight as an arrow over 4 years later.

If you really, really want it, buy it back then find a shop that's willing to fix it. Unless like damage is very far up the frame, it can likely be fixed and squared up.

 

I’m so stoked on this. I surprised myself by how concerned I was haha.