stevesmax

Hey, im a long time lurker, sometimes poster in these parts, but after a slight altercation with a truck a while ago, my Insurance has decided to write my Maxima off as being uneconomic to repair, so as of probably Wednesday next week there will be one less 4th Gen Maxima in the world. It will end up in a wrecking yard no doubt so will end up helping keep other 4th Gen Maximas on the road. Its a stock New Zealand sold 1999 Maxima 30S.Touring, just rolled over 250,000km last week (156,000miles) and still in pretty good condition. Will be sad when they take it away, but I am getting paid out the amount I paid for it in November 2011 so not all bad news. The damage is mostly confined to the right rear door and wheel arch with some scuffing to the side of rear bumper. I also own a 5th Gen Maxima, but thinking of replacing my 4th Gen with another one or perhaps a JDM import 4th Gen shape Cefiro Station Wagon. Will see what happens.

Damage doesn't actually look that bad, but here is some pics
The good


The bad


Up close

max ride 41

iTrader: (4)

i've had far far more damage to my max on 2 different occasions and i got her fixed. that's a door and a little quarter panel repair. no reason not to get that fixed...

TLMNICK

iTrader: (1)

I would buy that back from the insurance, and repair it. That's not much damage at all.

Turbobink

iTrader: (2)

Either that or just pull your claim.

That damage resulting in a total loss is B.S.

It's your car ... you're entitled to keep it.

If your insurance carrier doesn't think it's worth repairing, that's their call.

If YOU think it's worth repairing ... that's yours.

It's still YOUR car until $$ is accepted.

You can back outta this at any time until $$ is exchanged.

JoshG

^ I agree with the posts above... I had worse damage than you on the quarter panel and it was $800 to repair, but it was out of my pocket rather than insurance.. but still. insurance thinks its not worth repairing because they want to hold their $, it would be cheaper for you to repair it imo, insurance is a joke when it comes to small amounts of damage, But if the whole rear end was smashed.. then yes. There is a fine line between "total loss and un-repairable " and "small amount of damage but we'll probably total it even though it can be fixed"

lmfao, are you freaking kidding me? insurance is totaling out that?!!? thats got to be a joke, this is why all perfectly fine running cars are going to waste cause of this tiny amount of damage...

I say buy it from them and repair it..the rest of the car seems to be in great shape and would probably be cheaper to go this route..if not, I would just give it away to someone rather than going to the junkyard honestly. someone could use that car.

JvG

I would collect what money I could from the insurance money, while I keep the car.

You could decide to spend some of your money and repair the car. That applies if you care about how it looks.

You could decide that this is a transportation vehicle, drive it an additional 100k miles This would be the most cost effective option.

Or you could attempt to repair this yourself, learn by trial and error.

Or someone will fix that for you for less than shop rates, or at least make it look better.

You still have a good car DRIVE IT!!!!

Turbobink

iTrader: (2)

There's the rub.

If you want to keep the car, you can't accept any $$ from insurance.

Unless of course you plan to pay the insurer back.

JvG

Perhaps in your state.

In other states, the owner is offered two prices.

The higher price involves taking that check and giving the car to the insurance company.

The other option reduces the higher amount minus the value of the car as scrap. The owner can collect the difference, and still keep the car. Which is fair. The owner collects on the reduced value of the car due to the accident.


The ultimate choice is up to the owner.

I have no clue what the options are in New Zealand.

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Your insurance company totaled the car for that? Perhaps you should shop around for another insurance company in the future.

Pull the claim, fix the car and continue to enjoy driving it for another 100k miles.

stevesmax

Our insurance doesn't give us the option of being paid out or partly paid out in return for keeping the car. When they are written off, they get deregistered and go to a damaged vehicle auction, and will usually be purchased by a wrecking yard. From memory, insurance will write off a car if the repair is more than 80% of the insured value. Unfortunately the damage is a little more than what you can directly see, there is damage to the underneath side of the wheel arch and also the upper side you can see when you open the door. I had the car to another panelbeater to see how much he would charge if I paid for it, and it wasn't really that much cheaper than what the other panelbeater quoted for the insurance, which is virtually the payout value, so I cant really justify paying for it myself.

vqmaxman

Agreed, i am shocked with that much of damaged that's totalled. The insurance is pulling in a quick one. The year and mileage alone shouldn't push it over the loss.

TLMNICK

iTrader: (1)

When I wrecked my 4th gen, I had the WHOLE front smashed. They wrote it off, and I bought it back to rebuild. I brought it back to life, and 8 years later I still have it. Insurance definitely shouldn't total yours for that small amount of damage. The door and quarter can easily be repaired.