This morning, while my wife was taking our 7yr old daughter to school, she was involved in a fairly decent accident with our 2003 EB Expy. I've been investigating accidents for 28yrs and my personal/professional opinion is that it's totalled. When we reported it to our insurance company and after he plugged in the description of the damage, the "system" didn't indicate totalling damages. The only possible explanation I have for that is this: the airbags did not deploy.

• All parties are OK
• Speed limit on road 55. She was going 45-50
• Vehicle in front had stopped abruptly (cheapest gas station in county was on the left) to turn left.

Thoughts, comments? Pics - RIP Expy

(lemme know if link doesn't work, 1st time with picasa/google)

 

If it were newer and had more value, I would say it's repairable. That appears to be totaled to me.

 

Its done for...

 

I would ask for the insurance company to send a live person person to come look at it.

Probably totalled, but with the dramatic rise in used car prices lately, it may be worth fixing.

 

YAY! A possible "positive". I've loved that Expy since the day we drove it out of the dealers lot. 4WD, leather, kids babysitter (DVD), nav... /cry. Yea, our insurance company (USAA) has already had it picked up and sent to the local repair shop. The bank doesn't own it, we do ... I just checked NADA and with 99k miles, the average trade-in is 9650.00. That wouldn't do a dent in a new one.

...dangit, I was gonna inherit that thing from the wife ... new 800.00 Michelins ... new brakes ... /cry

 

As long as there is no frame damage or major engine damage i think it will get saved. Even with a little frame damage still might.

 

If it doesn't buff out, then it is totaled.

 

purdy shure thats totaled

 

I told the cop I could do just that ... had to add some levity ... What tripped me out, the engine was pushed back into the cab area. The fan is gone; spewing antifreeze everywhere; things bent and broken ... yet this thing was still running when I got there (about 4miles away, I made it in 5min). It was purring like a kitten and leaking like one too.
Another thing: why didn't the danged airbags deploy? Was it so violent a crash that the sensors were destroyed? I thought they worked a massive decreased velocity, closing the switch, deploying the airbags. Thankfully, my family didn't need them ... but still ... kinda worries me if we do need them. The only injuries were to my wife's pride, seatbelt bruises on both my wife and daughter ... and a quiet empty spot in our garage.

 

sucks about the car, but on another note i just noticed im not far from you in Butts county

 

Nice, kinda wish you were on GA42 and she hit either that Zuki-nator or that honkin' F150... she'da bounced off the tires and you'd be through the intersection quicker.

 

Let's all bow our heads in a moment of silence for the ole girl that gave her life to protect your family.

 

I THINK USAA will consider it totaled. They WILL send an appraiser out to look at it if you file the claim through them.

- Jack

 

You wouldn't believe how close to the mark that is. Just tonight my little 7yr old went out to the garage and started crying. She said she thought mommy was gone ... then she remembered that the Expy was "broken". Both my wife and I also had this feeling of loss ... like a dog died. A member of the family. Strangest damned thing. I never thought about that with my Toyota or Nissan or 300M ... or any cars we've owned. The Expy took us cross country on vacations and never let us down.

...she was still hummin' away when I had to put her down by turning the key to "OFF" ...

 

Looks to be a total to me.

If the shop USAA sent it to is a direct repair facility then the shop will write the estimate and do an evaluation on the vehicle. At that point if the cost of repairs exceeds %75 of the cash value of the vehicle they will total it.

One thing that may help save it is that the air bags did not deploy. Air bags will usually add an additional $3k on average to most repairs. That thing got hammered though. Glad to hear everyone is ok.

That is the weird thing about airbags these days. I remember the first gen airbags would go off at the drop of a dime. you used to see people that would ride up over those parking bumpers and it would deploy. There have been many times ive looked at a vehicle and wondered why the bags did not deploy.