My poor Meepster was injured on the way to work this morning

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RobbW

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 8, 2013
Messages
427
Location
Elgin, IL
Driving to work this morning, another driver in the oncoming lane decided to try and turn left in front of me. Despite my best efforts at braking hard and swerving right, I was not able to avoid a collision. Fortunately, there were no injuries, but my Meepster is going to need some TLC. The damage appears to only be to the body. At least I can't see any mechanical or frame damage. I was still able to drive her to work. However, I cannot open the driver door. So, must climb across the cockpit to get in or out.

The other driver was totally at fault. So, their insurance should cover my repairs. However, that still means I'm going to be without my little EV until it is repaired. And, unfortunately, she will probably never be the same again. And there will forever be a black mark against her on CarFax. Anyone else been in an accident that required repairs to their i-MiEV? How long did it take you to get yours back? Since the i-MiEV is relatively rare around my area, it's not like the repair center will be able to jot down to the junk yard and pick up a spare door and quarter panel and just paint it to match. I assume they'll have to order OEM parts from the manufacturer, right?! Which, of course, means longer and costlier repairs.

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:eek: :cry: :cry:

I can't really tell, but I take it your airbags didn't deploy. Sorry to hear it and I hope that repairs are quick. The most difficult repairs (besides emotionally) will probably be the metal behind the rear door since it can't be easily replaced.

I almost had that happen to me yesterday, but one of these days I'm going to get rear-ended from somebody impatiently in a hurry with no regard to the speed limit (or physics).

What is that emblem stuck to the side from? Was a mailbox involved?
 
Sorry to see the problem with your I-MiEV. I wouldn't doubt that it will be totaled with the amount of damage and the replacement parts cost. I would think you have some damage to the unibody structure where the front fender attaches. Also, look closely at the plastic radiator support near the headlight and make sure it isn't cracked. That part is a real pain in the butt. That being said I have almost everything you need from an SE to fix it. Except for the rear quarter panel I have both doors (complete) the fender, headlight, complete front bumper assembly, bumper reinforcement, radiator core support, wheel and tire (and complete front suspension if needed). I also have the entire front of the unibody if any brackets need to be cut off to fix your car. Unfortunately, the parts are Pearl white. If you could buy it back at the right price from the insurance company, It might be something to consider putting back together. Do you get a "ready" light and the car can be driven? Then you don't have an airbag, G switch, or pre-tensioner problem which really zings up the price that would guarantee a total.
 
siai47 said:
Do you get a "ready" light and the car can be driven?
RobbW said:
I was still able to drive her to work. However, I cannot open the driver door. So, must climb across the cockpit to get in or out.
I would say that's a yes. The headlight looks like it wasn't damaged (the sail window isn't broken either). It looks more like a sideswipe and barely damaged the bumper, so that bracket may be okay.
 
Yeah, she can still be driven. Ready light comes on, and she still zooms, albeit with a little knocking from the sidelight flapping in the wind. Airbags did not deploy. Only true annoyance (other than the accident itself) is having to climb across the passenger seat to get in and out of the car.

I'm going to be very distraught if they consider this a total loss! It doesn't look like THAT much damage. But if parts are that hard and expensive to come by, then I can see how they might consider it totaled, I guess. But that would completely suck! I can't imagine I'd get enough insurance money to buy another one in as-good condition. It might be enough to put a sizable chunk down on a new car, but I'm still making payments on this one! Even if I were to get enough to pay off the Meepster (doubtful), that still puts me in the position of having to buy a new car... from scratch! And no one's going to take a damaged i-MiEV in trade for any respectable amount of trade value.
 
PV1 said:
What is that emblem stuck to the side from? Was a mailbox involved?

No mailbox. It was a Mickey Mouse auto emblem. I had matching ones on both the driver and passenger-side front quarter panels. Our family is a bunch of Disney fanatics!

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Ouch Rob
I feel your pain. Glad no one was hurt .
If it's not a right off by the insurance - what could be worse is the time it takes to get it back on the road again.
 
sandange said:
If it's not a right off by the insurance - what could be worse is the time it takes to get it back on the road again.

That's what I'm afraid of. The cost and time involved in procuring parts is going to mean a looooooong wait to get her back on the road.
 
Oh, that would explain the adhesive to the left of the emblem.

I agree, I wouldn't consider that a total, either. I had a minor collision 3 years ago with the Cavalier, and it was cheaper to repair the damage myself than claim it through insurance. During the actual collision, speeds were quite low, and the only damage was spider paint and a broken headlight on my car. The other car, also a Cavalier, only suffered surface damage to the rear bumper. $80 on eBay for new headlights, and my brother popped the dent out of the bumper. A couple of times over with wax and you could barely tell there was a collision. So, I wouldn't consider a fender, mirror, two doors, and some dent removal "totaled".

It's amazing how much aerodynamic drag there is driving around without a headlight assembly.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lxfphydw02r3ayv/AACeqSTsvN2tc1q-UqGbrcbja?dl=0
 
Pretty sure both the front fender and the front door will be replaced when it goes in for repair. It shouldn't be too difficult to get a pry bay in between them and open up a crack large enough that you can use the front door - You won't be hurting anything that's not going to be replaced and it should enable you to drive it for the (hopefully) 2 or 3 weeks it will take your dealer to come up with the repair parts. Once they have all the parts on hand, it shouldn't take them more than 4 or 5 days to fix the car

Don
 
I looked behind the fender on my car. It's pretty open behind it. There are about 5 bolts holding the fender on, two of them are probably smashed (right about where the crease is the worst). You can reach these bolts by removing the inner fender plastic (and the wheel to make it easier) and just remove the whole fender. There is one bolt by the top door hinge, and you will have to open the door to get to it. Besides the bracket and the side light, I'm willing to bet that there's only cosmetic damage in that area.

Given that Siai47's spare parts are the wrong color, contacting Ben Nelson and inquiring for parts might have some merit if new parts cost too much. He still has the flood i-MiEV.

Maybe you could work the fender away from the door and just remove it completely, based on Don's advice, that way you can at least use the driver door.
 
RobbW said:
PV1 said:
What is that emblem stuck to the side from? Was a mailbox involved?

No mailbox. It was a Mickey Mouse auto emblem. I had matching ones on both the driver and passenger-side front quarter panels. Our family is a bunch of Disney fanatics!

31uyfWSYf8L._SY300_.jpg

I knew it when I saw it, my spouse is a Disney Freak to the extreme. We are also members of the Disney Vacation Club and go to the resorts and parks at least once or twice a year. We have gone as many as four times in a year.

I'm sure your car will be fine, it looks bad but I've been through this enough times to know they'll put it back together again. The worse I had was my 2002 VW Jetta GLX Wagon that was plowed by a soccer mom in her minivan. It crammed the back end into the rear doors. Somehow, they got that fixed. When I turned it back in for the the end of lease, I wasn't dinged for it. I've been told by the autobody guys that it has to be 80% of the damage of the car to be totaled. We bought these cars at a high price so it will take quite a bit to total this car. When my Civic was plowed, I saw a brand new Accord that had been T-boned on a test drive. This was before side airbags, so they had to cut the entire drivers side off the car and put a new one back on. It was crazy, but they said they had to do it, it didn't meet the 80% requirement. I wouldn't want that car.
 
Okay, so just for shiggles, I decided to look up the 2014 i-MiEV just in case my Meepster is totaled. I wanted to see my options for getting a new i-MiEV. Let me get this straight... there are basically NO options available in the 2014 model?!?!?! I can't get the navigation system or the upgraded sound system? Great, they finally add a butt warmer to the passenger seat, but that hardly makes up for the features/options they have taken away. What gives?

If they total my 2012 i-MiEV, I was thinking I'd most likely "upgrade" to the new model. However, it doesn't appear it's much of an upgrade. Actually, quite the opposite it seems.
 
PV1 said:
...contacting Ben Nelson and inquiring for parts might have some merit...
Actually, I was thinking that Ben might be interested in your Meepster should your insurance company 'total' it. Don't relinquish possession too quickly and if they do total it, do let us know what the buyback price is. I was shocked a couple of months ago at how ridiculously low the buyback price for my Gen1 Honda Insight was!
 
RobbW said:
Let me get this straight... there are basically NO options available in the 2014 model?!?!?! I can't get the navigation system or the upgraded sound system? Great, they finally add a butt warmer to the passenger seat, but that hardly makes up for the features/options they have taken away. What gives?
I think they discovered very few buyers were willing to ante up an extra $2700 for the premium package that you have on your car - It bumped the sticker price of your car to about $34K

Instead, they took all the popular options and made them standard - It lowers the price of any car when all you need to build is a single version with no options and the single biggest thing they could do to sell more cars was . . . . lower the price!

I'm guessing you wouldn't have ponyed up $34K if that was the best price you could find for your car? Very few of us would, so Mitsu wised up and deleted packages that did not sell well. What made them think a car with a 60 mile range needed a navigation system in the first place I'll never understand - But I think they understand now that it wasn't a good idea

Don
 
Don said:
What made them think a car with a 60 mile range needed a navigation system in the first place I'll never understand - But I think they understand now that it wasn't a good idea
Don

Oh Don, don't be so curmudgeonly! :roll:
I'm more a bring-your-own technology kinda guy, but the infotainment system that automatically records every CD you insert is very cool. I've watched several movies, broken up into 20 minute episodes during DCFC road trips. The nav system may be subpar in that it doesn't get automatic updates or even include public EV charging stations, but I've saved many public charging stations in it. This simplifies daily route planning and also greatly enhances spousal confidence for solo expeditions. The real-time traffic gets us around urban congestion, and quickly calculates detours, which is useful even in fairly familiar places. I no longer get anxious phone calls when she hits a construction zone.
The backup camera is also very useful, whether viewed as a safety or 'productivity' enhancement. The wife does get scared by my speedy backwards drivin' tho...
 
I apologize for the delay in posting any updates. This past week has been a little frustrating on many fronts, not just with the car. So, here's what's going on:

We originally filed the claim on my vehicle through the other driver's insurance (All State) since it was totally her fault. The accident was on Wednesday, Sept. 17. My insurance (Geico) helped me open the claim with All State the same day. Geico told me that I always have the option of coming back and filing through them, and then they would seek reimbursement through the other company when all was said and done.

I took my Meepster in to the All State adjuster for inspection and repair estimate on Friday, Sept. 19. Unfortunately, the i-MiEV is not in their estimating software's database. So, he had to write up the estimate completely by hand. He came up with a repair estimate of about $5,200. He warned me that it was a total ballpark figure and that the costs would certainly increase once I took the car into a body shop and they started ordering the actual parts. He also told me that I had to wait until I got the okay from the All State claims rep before I could take it in to get repaired. The claims rep had to finish his accident investigation before giving the okay.

That same Friday afternoon, I got a call from a new claims rep at my Geico insurance. They had transferred my case to him. He did the standard recorded interview with me and went over all the facts of the accident. He told me that the other driver was apparently trying to provide a different narrative of what happened, but he did not know at the time what kind of story she was trying to tell. He just wanted to make sure he got my side of the story fully documented.

The next Monday, Sept. 22, I got another call from my Geico rep. He said that All State was making an offer to settle the case claiming 90% responsibility on the part of their customer, and put 10% responsibility on me. I was speechless. I was trying to figure out how any of this accident could be even remotely partially my responsibility. I was driving south on a straight road. She was driving north on the same road and was stopped waiting to turn left onto a side street. There are no stoplights or stop signs or yield signs or anything at this intersection. I had complete and total right of way to keep driving south on this road as I was doing. She turned left into my car. My Geico rep said that after reviewing the damage photos of my vehicle that I had uploaded to my claims file and reviewing the intersection where the accident occurred on Google Maps and hearing my narrative of what happened and having the police report that indicates the other driver failed to yield and was at fault, he had no idea how the other insurance company could possibly have a leg to stand on to accept anything less than 100% responsibility on their customer's part!

My Geico rep said that what is going on is the other insurance company is nit-picking every detail of the accident to find any way to push at least a small portion of the responsibility back onto me so they don't have to pay out 100%. What they are probably basing their 90% claim on is the recorded statement I had given to All State. They asked what the speed limit was where the accident happened and how fast was I going. I had said that I believe the speed limit was 35 mph, and I think I was going about 37 mph. So, my admitting to going 2 mph over the speed limit is what they are going to use to shirk some of their customer's responsibility in the accident. My Geico rep said they are going to counter All State's 90% offer and offer to settle at 95%. If All State doesn't accept the 95% offer, the case will go to arbitration where my Geico rep warned me that it would be totally up in the air as to how it would settle out. It would all depend on who hears the case in arbitration and what kind of mood they are in that day!

Anyway, in light of all this, my wife and I decided to go back and run the claim through our Geico insurance just so we could hurry up and get the repairs started sooner and hopefully have the Meepster back on the road sooner. So, we scheduled another vehicle inspection at a Geico Auto Repair Xpress shop. This was very convenient because all you have to do is drop off your vehicle, and you theoretically don't see it again until it is repaired and ready for you to pick up. It's a one-stop shop for the inspection, estimate, and repairs. We dropped it off the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 23. The next afternoon on Wednesday, I got a call from Jeff, the Geico adjuster at the shop. He said that normally they try to get the owners an estimate the same day of the vehicle inspection, but since the i-MiEV wasn't in their estimating database either, the estimate probably wouldn't be available until the next day.

The afternoon of Thursday, Sept. 25, I got another call from Jeff at the repair shop. He said that they had disassembled my Meepster in order to perform a complete inspection and estimate. The estimate was currently sitting at about $7,900. He said there are three parts that they are having a very difficult time locating: the driver's door, the driver's mirror, and the indicator light in the left front quarter-panel. With the rarity of my vehicle, he said these parts are not available at any salvage shop. There are trying to get in touch with the manufacturer to see about getting spares. It's probably going to take a long time to get the parts to repair my car. They will know more the next day.

Late in the morning on Friday, Sept. 26, I got a call back from Jeff at the shop. He said they were able to locate only ONE spare driver's door in the entire world. It is in Europe. He said it would probably take about 30 days to get it shipped overseas. And if anyone else has already ordered the same part, they would end up having dibs on this one driver's door. He said the other two parts are not available anywhere in the world. They have contacted the manufacturer, and they said they will be doing a new production run of the parts to make more spares. However, they don't know how many new spare parts they will produce or when exactly they plan to do this production run. It is possible that with the production time and the time it takes to get parts shipped from overseas, it could take up to six months to get these parts for my car. And, like the driver's door they located in Europe, if anyone else already has these parts on order, they get first dibs.

Jeff said that in light of all this, Geico is willing to make a settlement offer to write the vehicle off as a total loss. He said that normally they base the value of the vehicle off similar vehicles available for sale in the local market. Since there are no similar i-MiEVs available locally, they had to perform a nation-wide search to calculate the value. He said that Geico calculated the value of my i-MiEV at $13,216. With my $500 deductible, they are willing to cut me a check for $12,716. They will then try to get my deductible reimbursed from All State.

I ran a pay-off letter through my Mitsubishi Credit account, and I still owe $20,781 on my car. So, I would be left with $8,000 that I would still have to pay out of pocket for a vehicle that I know longer own. Unfortunately, I refused the GAP insurance that Mitsubishi offered me when I financed the i-MiEV. Geico doesn't even offer GAP insurance. And the other driver's All State insurance does not have GAP coverage. I printed the pay-off letter to PDF and uploaded it to my Geico claim file just to make sure they have it on record how much I still owe.

Over this past weekend, I got an email from Jeff at the repair shop. He apologized and said that he had forgotten to include all the options on my car when he submitted it for valuation. He re-ran the valuation with all the options, and it came back at $14,482. That still leaves a significant amount I owe out of pocket if I accept the settlement. He said I could try submitting a request for a settlement on a total loss through the other driver's All State insurance and see what kind of value they come back with.

This morning, I replied to Jeff's email saying that after discussing the situation with my wife, we just cannot afford to pay $7,000+ out of pocket for a vehicle we don't own. As painful and inconvenient as it will be to be without our beloved Meepster for six months or longer, we want to go ahead with the repairs. I told him that I was aware of another i-MiEV owner from this very forum who probably has the parts needed for my repairs. If this owner does, in fact, have all the parts they need, I told Jeff I could put him in touch with the owner if the Geico repair shop is willing/able to procure them from him and paint them to match my car.

I am still waiting to hear back from Jeff after telling him we want the Meepster repaired. I'm wondering if they will go ahead with placing the parts orders or if they will try to come back with a higher settlement offer so they don't have to be inconvenienced with the repair.
 
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