After five years of virtually incident free driving, my number finally came up last Thursday. I was in the process of making a U-turn and the the guy behind me managed to hit the left rear wheel well at about 30MPH. I got a little bump on my head from hitting the B-pillar when the car got spun around but that was better by the next day. And I don't think anything at all happened to the other driver.

The damage to the car is pretty localized. The left rear wheel well is crushed fairly thoroughly and the door doesn't open. I took it for a short drive today and it still rolls, but I won't drive it any more because the wheel scuffs on the bent fender if the suspension compresses more than a couple inches. I don't want the tire to shred and cause a much larger problem. I'll include a link to a picture so you can see for yourselves what I'm talking about. (The picture is worth more than anything I can say about the damage.)

The car is a 1985 740 wagon, about 95K mi on the odometer. She's treated me very well since I've been driving her but I'm a little worried that the insurance company is going to try to screw me. (The car's only worth about 3K retail.) It wouldn't be a big deal if it were something I could fix myself but I think this one is beyond me. What do you guys think? Has anyone ever seen something similar in a 18 year old brick? Any creative opinions on what I should do?

Thanks for reading

Tim


Accident Pictures

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Tim Smith '85 745GLE M46 w/90k. Also in the family: 94 854T w/120K.

tim,

my wife crunched my 89 240 sedan this winter. the insurance company totaled it. i bought it back for $200. then i fixed it for $140 with used parts and sweat. the check was for something like $3300. so maybe i'll get a new air compressor. dont give up easily.

dan

Somewhere I saw the word 'INSURANCE' & 'TOTAL'!
Watch out ...BE CAREFUL.
Here in AL, I crunched my 91 940T (gosh, it was a pretty red). OK, so I take it to my local shop, and they make estimates ...over 4K. The insurance lady says, it is not worth it (195K) ...so they total it, give me a SALVAGE title, along with 3K. I buy the parts, get it fixed for a little over 2K, and get me another 940 while it is being fixed.
Come September last year, I go to get tags for both cars. The lady looks at the salvage title, and says "you are not to drive this car, you can't sell it, and you can't get a tag". Wow ...what to do?
Well, the answer was to take out all the insurance, licencing, and bonding of a salvage yard/rebuilder ...and then it could be inspected and the title reversed . ..at a cost of up to 1K for all the stuff mentioned.
Well, I found a salvage yard that I trusted - sold them the car for nothing. It has been sitting there for 5 months - waiting for the state inspector. When he finally does show up and does his job, I will buy it back for nothing, and give the guy 350.00 for his trouble.
One day soon, maybe I will be back in the RED FLASH!

Andrew in AL

depends if you want if functional or pretty....

functional, go buy a dent puller (slide hammer) with attachments & some filler (metal loaded) and some paint and arm yourself with a power drill and some drill bits....im betting you can get it away from the wheel and looking 'about' the right shape....(and get the door opening)

pretty is a body shop job and a new arch welded in (at least)...

congrats on surviving btw...always a GREAT feeling....metal bends - humans dont...

My only advice as far as insurance company totalling the car-

When I was driven into down in Philly the other driver was clearly at fault. The insurance company dragged their heels, and when they finally came back with a number ('88 745T M46) it was close to what I paid for the car, but they had pissed me off so I politely asked how to contest the amount they offered. She told me, and within three hours the rep called back offering another $1300. I took it. Don't say yes to their first offer.

And then stick a baseball bat in between the tire and the wheel well, get some heavy friends to sit on the rear bumper, and SLOWLY roll the car back and forth. This may force the bent sheetmetal away from the tire. Then junk the wheel and tire and see what happens with a new set. This was stolen from an old IPD tip on 'rolling' the fender well to allow for plus size tires. I've never tried it, but obviously it's a little dangerous. So be careful.

It seems like there's a belief that the wheel and tire are guaranteed to be toast. I hadn't thought of this, but now I'm starting to wonder. Is there any reliable way to have it checked for hairline cracks? I'm an engineering student so I understand what happens with cyclic loading on things like wheels with seemingly "minor" damage. (The center cap is bent and some metal has been taken from some of the spokes as well as a 1/4" chunk of the lip.) I'd rather not have the experience of a wheel fracturing and ceasing to roll at 70MPH.

And thanks to everyone who's been responding to this. I'm getting a clearer idea of what my options are, which is exactly what I needed. I'll get the appraiser out here and take it from here. In the mean time, it's a good thing I'm not dependent on my car. 'Cause it's not going anywhere.

Tim
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Tim Smith '85 745GLE M46 w/90k. Also in the family: 94 854T w/120K.

That's not bad at all! The wheel took most of it. Throw the wheel away, don't even use it for a spare. If you'r attached to this car, Make the insurance company restore it ! They cannot legally force force you to salvage... Any "good" body shop could do that metalwork with a minimum of filling (body Putty) and you would be quite satisfied. My Guestemate $1,100. Lots'o'luck!

Re: Insurance Co's; "They cannot legally force force you to salvage..."

Is this a fact? Honest to god? I'm wondering because if it's true I wish I had known this before. My wagon was rear-ended TWICE and both times I got all I could from the insurance and because I wanted to keep the car I had her fixed. However both times I ended up out-of-pocket a couple hundred though the shop I had do the work I thought did a great job.

However, the point is, if what you say is true, I could have just said ... "fix it"!

Your pics don't look bad at all. I got mashed on the WaltWhitman Bridge by a Mercury Mountaineer, going about 60-65 mph, luckily I was moving, although not very fast, the brick decided it didn't want to go over the bridge, so the helpful SUV driver helped me out. Anyway, the rear was totally crunched, totaled, got 1180 for it, bought another for 500 bucks, I made money.... Wahoo.
I wasn't hurt, the brick took it all, another satisfied customer....
Thanks Volvo....
Chuck Jaxel..
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Chuck Jaxel, Pine Hill NJ, Near Philly...

that doesnt look to bad actually, worst case you need a rear axel, and if the wheel well isnt damaged to bad it can be repaired, bad thing is if the insurance company totalls the car out its worthless when you go to resell it.

I say, let the insurance company total it, and buy it back from them.
The car has essentially no wholesale value. It's an 85. There's no need to worry about resale value. If it's worth getting it fixed, it isn't getting resold anyway- it's a keeper. So the only thing it does is add a "SALVAGE" stamp to the title, probably. As long as the car is staying in the family, there's no impact. You argue with them and get the most from the insurance company that you can, then you take the nice check they just gave you and either go get the car fixed or find another one and use this one for parts. In getting it fixed, you can pursue either the full repair route, where maybe a new quarter panel is installed, or you do the minimum to get it back on the road and pocket the rest of the settlement. Lets be really clear- with a car this old, the insurance company wants to total it- they don't want additional claims ("supplementals") coming in after the car's half done at a body shop.
That damage probably exceeds 1/2 the value of the car anyway so one way or the other it's getting totaled by the insurance company.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '86 244DL- 215K, 87 244DL- 230K, 88 744GLE- 198K, 91 244 180K

I agree with Rob. The insurance co will total the car. Find another one and use this one for parts. Its really cool having your own parts car. No trips to the wrecking yard, no shipping expenses, no Volvo dealers. You need a part, just get it and go.
Brad