Totalled? Not my Boxster thankfully but my beloved 1996 Tacoma
 

In what seems to be a common occurrence for members of this forum, my 1996 Toyota Tacoma was severely impacted at 12:06 AM this morning while it was parked in my girlfriend's driveway...

She lives on a 4 lane highway with a turning lane (so 5 lanes) with a 45 mph speed limit. Last night a car was driving on the opposite ride of the road at about 50 MPH when another car exited a parking lot right in front of the first car. They hit, and the 50 mph car cross over the 5 lanes and into my GF yard where she hit the back of my truck and drove it forward about 20 feet into a glancing collision with the side of her house.

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The fun part? The at fault driver only has $15,000 in property damage insurance. Welcome back to FL... I guess I should be happy they have insurance at all. This is the third not-at-fault incident in the year since I have been back here... Prior to this.. no incidents.

The other two cars are massively totaled with no hope of saving, the at fault car was a Camry and the whole left side is wiped out with the front totally destroyed. The other car was a 2002 Passat and the front and right sides are destroyed, with my GF yard full of chunks of what looks like broken engine casing.

I really hope they don't total my truck, I bought it new in 1996 and it has been trouble free over the last 200,000 miles, and I planned to keep it until the day I died...

It still drives, I took it down to a collision shop to see what they thought. They are going to let me know...

Hook me up with some tips: is there any way I can help compel them to not total my truck without declining to file a claim? It still drives, I wouldn't mind fixing up the major damage and living with some cosmetic damage as long as I get paid :)

Thank you,

Steve

Hell, if the frame is still straight and the alignment good, run it. :) Perhaps pound it out by hand and keep on going.

Find an auto recycler to get a bumper and hammer out the rest. Real bummer but you should be able to keep it running.

Did you see the TopGear episodes about the indestructible Toyota pickup?
This car can take much more of a beating.

Sorry to hear bout your truck.

Yes I did!

The drive train seems good and there is only some minor rubbing from the front right if I brake hard. I could pull some dents and be happy, especially if I could get some $$$ out of it. Searching on cars.com, ebay motors, etc... most examples of 96-2000 Tacomas like mine seem to be selling for $4,000+. I would be happy to take $2500 and fix it myself :)

My son was hit from behind a few years ago in an older infinity I30 and I was able to get the other ins company to give me cash, keep the car and not have iit listed as totaled/salvage title.. I did get full cash value for the car., around $3500. I had the trunk fixed and pocketed the difference

Sweet, that would be ideal for me, I found a bumper today for $75 locally, I could put that bad boy on, pound a few dents, and be back on the road hopefully with some $$$ in my pocket :)

I also have been looking for replacements, but people generally don't seem to want to sell their old Tacomas, and when they do it is for $4000+, even for a 96 with 200K+ miles.