WILLYumD

It was a beautiful day. Cool weather and the windows down. I'm driving down a 3-lane road and boom. A Mazda in the slower right lane decides to switch lanes right as I'm next to them. Their momentum sends me hitting another car's rear. Needless to say, there is significant cosmetic damage. My alignment's off and one of my struts seems to be dunzo, but most of the damage is on the body (headlight, quarter panels, hood, both passenger-side doors, a wheel).

After hearing that the other party is admitting full liability, I'm expecting my insurance to total the 18 year old ES.
I had a local collision repair place take a look and they agreed that a economic total-loss is likely.

I really love this generation of ES, the style and ride is like no other.
My parents' neighbor has a pretty clean ES with a knock sensor issue (shouldn't be too difficult right?) that they offered to sell me once.
A GS would be nice but I'm not confident my parents would be too keen with the premium gas bills (not like the ES was a super efficient vehicle, either).

What would you guys do in my situation? Locally, 150k+ mi. ESs sell for about $3.5-5k. I'd expect to get $1-2k from the insurance company.

Also, I am rather unfamiliar with insurance and collision mishaps, but would it be possible to keep the parts from this car should they total it? I've put a good amount into the audio system, and I had just gotten new tires and did the brakes.

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

Id let them total it and move on to a newer one if you want to stick with the car.

speedkar9

Got any pics of the damage?

Another ES would be a safe bet. If your looking for at 99-01, just make sure the transmission checks out okay as it was not as reliable as the 97-98 ES300's tranny.

A GS would be a really nice upgrade, but what price point would you be looking to spend? Under $5K you'd be looking at the 2GS. My brother has one, he likes it, good power, fairly smooth, strong bullet proof 2ZJ engine (minus the oil leaking and burning)...the only thing I personally don't like is the styling is a bit old school. I've got the 3GS and I'm really enjoying it.

If the insurance company has not found you to be at fault then you should be getting the full replacement value of your vehicle back, including taxes. They should allow you to go to the impound yard to retrieve your stuff, depending where it is, they may not care if you swap out the sound system to save it for your next car...since the car will likely end up at a salvage auction and that radio will not affect the salvage value of that vehicle anyway. Tires are a bit more difficult, unless you have a set of rims you can swap in right away.

WILLYumD

Pics available here.

That's what I'm in denial of, 02SDGS, gotta muster up the strength to move on.

In regards to another ES, while the 99-01 ES looks better (marginally), I'd rather not step down to a worse tranny. Thanks for that tip!
I personally love the look of the 2GS. Would the 1UZ be any better than the 2JZ? Not really looking to mod the engine, but reliability counts big time.

I am thinking of talking to my adjuster before the car's officially written off, but I'm afraid they'd mark down the car significantly if it was missing a stereo. Tires and brakes I understand can't really be taken, just frustrating because they have barely 200 miles on them.

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

A GS will cost you significantly more than your ES to run. It was like every week the suspension on my 2002 was ****ting the bed.

WILLYumD

That's what I see trending with that ball joint. The gas, too. Thanks for the input! Either way, an ES is familiar and much better than nothing.

chadlex

Sorry about your car. Well, if you have the time to shop you might still run across someone that still has a good older 97-98 ES that they are selling. You might have to be willing to expand you search area out of town or out of state though.

1960vw

My insurance , when my Mazda was totaled, gave me enough to buy an exact or close to model with similar attributes, regardless to what Blue Book said about what I drove. I would demand that the insurance company give you that same option! Ironic that a Mazda did this to you!

jaredmac11

Unfortunately, any 1 of those pictures likely would have totaled the car.

I hate it when an older car is hit. Guarantee to total it, and if you maintained it well, its difficult to find a car to move right in to.
You can always take a check minus the salvage value and part it out if youre handy and interested in moving in to another ES... though there are SO MANY wrecked ES, I dont think its particularly worth it.

WILLYumD

Turns out the at-fault party's liability is limited to $10k. There's another vehicle involved with pretty gruesome bumper damage so we'll have to see if they give me enough as 1960vw was lucky enough to.

And yeah, my local pick and pulls are chock full of ESs, only thing I really have going for me is a fairly well maintained engine and undamaged rear end. Probably going to have to bite the bullet and take the check.

1960vw

*****, no harm in asking before taking the check.

speedkar9

$10K liability? That's it? Wow, up here we have to have $1M liability by law.

$10K is too low, almost any minor car accident can eat up that amount. If they don't end up paying, you could probably pursue the rest of damages in court by suing the at fault driver.

And that's even more reason to go and strip the car before they scrap it - if they're not paying you the full value of the car (show them receipts for the tires, brakes, sound system etc), then why should you have to let the car go with those parts? I'd go and pull them ASAP. A coworker and me went to strip his car before the insurance gave him the cheque last year...he even took things like the radio buttons, emblems, wheel caps, headlight bulbs, and swapped the new battery!

WILLYumD

Definitely will, 1960vw, not gonna take less than what a salvage ES is, but I'm not expecting big bucks. I think $2.5-3k is reasonable.

Gotta love American insurance

I took out the audio system since I'm pretty sure they wouldn't cough up for the full amount, and it was pretty easy to take out. Can't do much about the tires or brakes, though.
I'm gonna see what number they offer before I do anything else. My dad's ready to get an attorney if the other driver and I break $10k.

jaredmac11

I've never heard of this 10k limit... Im not familiar with FL insurance laws however.

Be careful taking stuff out. You'll need to replace it with stock stuff. I had to anyways.

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

Please don't think about keeping the car, it's definitely totaled. Take whatever they give you (within reason) and find a replacement. Glad you're okay and nobody got hurt. It sucks to have this happen to anyone, especially a fellow ES owner. These older cars are not worth much, hence the risk of losing them due to a fender bender.

I agree on the stripping - always replace whatever you take. You don't want to get into legal trouble.