2015, 171,000 trouble free miles, and the wife managed to bag our family's first deer of the season.

My first impression, it's totaled. The body shop agreed but will provide the estimate to the insurance today or tomorrow...

 

Ouch! Hope the wife was uninjured.

I'd be curious the damage estimate vs insurance company value of vehicle.

I figure anything much beyond a minor fender bender will result in a small check for our 2010 rather than repair.

Good luck.

 

its incredible how much damage a deer can do to a vehicle. I don't think most people realize how damn big they are until you're up close with one

 

I doubt it is totaled based off the picture. No air bag deployment or bent frame/chassis. It all seem to be just cosmetic damage that can easily repaired with a new bumper cover, grill, fender, hood(maybe),headlights, horn and a coat of paint. Insurance companies do allow the use of cheaper aftermarket replacement parts so it can probably be repaired cheaper than an insurance pay out.

 

AC condenser was also punctured by the broken grill. I doubt that's a cheap part.

 

Body shop estimate, without taking anything apart, is $11,622.51. They anticipate that if they start taking it apart, it will only go higher.

This is one of the more expensive body shops in town, but they are by far the best. And they just happen to be the preferred shop for our insurance company.

 

start looking for your next ride.

 

Well darn,

I believe your insurance will just send you check for your loss. Almost $12k and not even from an impact that would have damaged anything major like the sub-frame or engine. That is insane.

 

An AC condenser is like a $80-100 part. Someone is just going to buy your salvaged RX350 and fix it up for about a few thousand dollars at an auction and sell it with an salvage title for an profit. Probably someone at the body shop that quoted you.

The body shop you went to must only use OEM parts for such an high repair quote since most aftermarket parts needed on your RX350 could be purchased pretty cheaply. I can see maybe $7000-8000 due to labor cost and such, but not nearly $12000 for that non-structural damage with cheaper aftermarket parts available.

 

After paying a check for the car some insurance companies will offer to give you the car for very reasonable price. No real need for body shop if you can find a retired local autobody man on marketplace or similar and order in painted parts and bumper from somewhere like https://partifyusa.com/ and do the reassembly in your garage. New AC condenser and an AC service at an air conditioning shop and you could have that car for a while longer if transmission has had regular service and is still strong at 170k miles.

 

Yes, the body shop prefers to use OEM part whenever possible. We still have full coverage on the car, basically because it only costs an extra $25/month, so I wouldn't be inclined to accept aftermarket parts.

I fully expect the insurance to declare it totaled. We will probably buy it back from them. My dad has our old '07 RX that's over 300K miles for a spare car. He'll consider the '15 a nice upgrade.

Our neighbor fixes and sells wrecked cars, so dad can have him fix it up. It will look good in his garage next to mom's silver '15 RX, that only has 40K miles on it.

Some of the big ticket items on the estimate, $1300 for the headlight assembly, $772 for the radiator support, $350 for a new radiator, $633 for a hood. $212 for a used fender. Labor is about $4500.

 

So she's officially totaled. Insurance is giving us just under $14K for it. Not mad at that.

Dad will NOT be upgrading the '07. They want $6200 to buy it back.

Anybody wanna sell me their RX450h?

 

If you're in an area which has a lot of deer or other animals crossing roads you might look into installing both wind type and electronic ultrasonic animal warning whistles. From company vehicle experience both whistle types usually stop animals in their tracks while they look around to identify where the noise is coming from and often long enough for a vehicle to get past them and some insurance companies offer discounts if whistles are installed.

 

We do live in a very rural area with lots of deer. The wife and I are approaching a combined 75 years of driving experience, this is our first serious vehicle/deer collision. Come to think of it, my mom and dad are both in their late 70s, neither have ever hit one with a passenger car. Dad used to be an OTR trucker, he's smoked more deer with a semi than I have with a gun. And I have shot A LOT of deer. The company he drove for always bolted on 'deer catcher' bumpers to all new trucks before they hit the road. Saved them hundreds of thousands of $$$ over the years.

Where we live, they tend to be in the same places. You get used to seeing them and know where to be on the look out. The one my wife hit was basically in town.

 

Yep, the key is to always slow down and be on the lookout during rutting season. Especially at dawn and dusk.