I was in an accident recently with my xA. Thankfully, no one was hurt. The person who ran a red light clipped my front end, tore off the entire front bumper, and crushed some of the front end and buckled the hood. My car is currently in a Toyota body shop. On my last status, they told me the frame rail was damaged and under repair. I thought that if the frame was damaged or bent, then the car should be considered totalled. Am I incorrect? Or is a "frame rail" different? If you can offer any advice, please do.

Thanks,
Ohtar2000

 

you'd be amazed what the dealer is/can/will be able to fix.. the car is only totaled if cost to repair exceeds 75% of the value of the car.

 

first...its not a true frame, its a uni-body.
they can relpace any part of the car as long as it does not exceed about 80% (of the value) of the car before being totaled.

 

yeah they can replace that.

 

Did your airbags go off?

 

Surprisingly, air bags did not deploy. I was at a stop, or very nearly so since I was just starting to make a left turn into intersection. The other car swerved in front of me and the driver side of the vehicle is what clipped the front of my car. Just so happens, the Scion dealer who sold me the car drove by, thought he recognized me and gave me a call later to confirm. Gotta like the Scion folks! I think because it was not head on, the airbags didn't go off. Personally, I think I would have been hurt by a deploying airbag.

 

Repair costs for Toyotas must be pretty high. In my collision, my fog lights and head lights were left intact. The airbags did not go off. The hood buckled, the front bumper was munched and one fender was bent up pretty bad.
The dang thing tuned over and ran even with all that front end damage.

My car was totalled by my insurance due to "frame rail" damage. I'm guessing the repair cost for the vehicle was pretty high because it didn't look that bad.