my truck being rear ended = me needing a new car

[White Comet]

On Tuesday of last week I was minding my own business when my dad was turned up side down. You locals might know about the construction on Manheim pike. I was stopped at a red light with people trying to merge over to where it funnels down to one lane, right in front of the Wendy's. A Ford F-250 slammed into me at full speed. He said he didn't see everyone stopped (he even got out of the truck acting like it was someone else's fault) and didn't even touch the brakes. He was definitely going over the 35mph speed limit so it did some damage. I didn't take any pictures of the guys F-250, but he smashed into me hard enough to clearly total it. The front end was practically gone, he couldn't even pull it off to the side of the road. It was hard enough to push me into the car in front of me too.

Now some background, I have a 2000 Sierra 1500 extended cab so there isn't a whole lot that can mangle it....except for a bigger truck. The car in front of me was a Jetta, and luckily it didn't get too damaged. Since I was on the brakes, it's a lot of weight to push forward, even by an F-250, so the damage to the Jetta was just cosmetic.

Everyone involved n the accident was ok, no one was hurt, just some soreness. I got out to inspect the damage and it looked like mostly cosmetic stuff, but that wasn't the case. The accident was about a half mile from my work so when I got there I had my work's body shop check it out ( I work at a dealership) After looking it over, we found the frame was buckled and the bed was smacked into the cab of the truck. After working up an estimate the body shop said they could fix it at first, but after a closer look they said they could fix it but not repair everything, seeing as fixing all of it would drive the cost of repairs up high enough to total the truck. I told the body shop and the other driver's insurance company (State Farm) that I didn't want it fixed at all if it couldn't be repaired to the condition that it was in before I was hit. The thing is, the body shop doesn't make any money if a vehicle gets declared totaled, so they would rather cut a few corners then see it totaled, but I'm concerned about what's best for me. After lots of headaches the current status is that state farm is having someone go to the body shop tomorrow and look into the estimate to see if it's accurate. So after tomorrow the truck will be declared totaled and I'll need to find something else, but first here's the accident pics.



rear QP mangled pretty well


you can see the one tow hook it bent down



front bumper damage



here you can tell the bed gave the cab a love tap



tailgate and rear damage


magnaflow pipes bent up

Now I will clearly need another vehicle, and I'm looking at two cars in particular. One is a 2008 Civic LX and the other is a 2008 Accord EX-L. I need something fuel efficient, 4 door and preferably manual transmission which both of these are. Here are links to each of the cars.

Here's the Accord
http://www.gojones.com/inventoryDisplay ... =1&size=10

and here's the Civic
http://www.gojones.com/inventoryDisplay ... =1&size=10

Feel free to comment with thoughts and opinions, and vote in the poll I have set up

[sbird1]

Sorry to hear about the truck dude! Good to see you on here too. It's been a while, I believe. As for the replacement: eh, either one. They're both Honda's. With that, it comes down to personal preference. Good luck with the insurance company!

[nissangirl74]

The Accord is another $4K so I guess the question is, which can you best afford? If neither is a problem, I'd go for the Accord. Extra space is always nice.

[Bubba1]

The Accord is another $4K so I guess the question is, which can you best afford? If neither is a problem, I'd go for the Accord. Extra space is always nice.

There is no correct decision. I suspect going from a full sized pickup, the bigger Accord will fell less cramped than the Civic...

[White Comet]

thanks for the comments and thoughts everyone. I can afford either one, I even looked at a new Civic and at my cost it'd be pretty cheap. The Accord is def more, but those aren't the prices that I'd pay. My wife is wanting to get something as cheap as possible with still being reliable and all that to reduce debt. I'd be fine paying more for the accord considering all the extras that it comes with, but the civic would get better mileage (not by too much) and the lower cost is tempting, and I don't NEED leather and heated seats and all those amenities... but I did have leather and stuff in my truck. I'm going into work a little early today so that I can drive both of them to see what I think (both of these are on my used car lot). Another thought is that I don't want to worry this much about a daily. I still have my s13 and my wife's car which is really nice, but for the price difference its pretty nice and the civic in that body style is kinda ugly. They're both certified though (not that I'm really concerned about repairs on a honda, especially that new) but pre owned certified Hondas have 2.9% for up to 60 months. Whew, that was a lot of rambling, we'll see what I think after driving them and what the insurance company says today.

[frapjap]

Glad to hear you're okay man.

I'm going to take your wifes side and say pay down some debts with what you'll save on the Civic vs. Accord. You'll pay it off faster with whatever the insurance company gives you for your truck, too (assuming you own it). Like you mentioned, you already have a toy, this is just your commuter.

EDIT: BTW- how is your brothers third gen?

[MinisterofDOOM]

Current-gen 4-cylinder Accords suck. They've simply gotten too big for a four to be adequate.

[White Comet]

they don't seem to be that big, but I'll check it out. The civic has gotten pretty big and only has a 1.6 in it we'll see though.


frapjap- I agree with where you're coming from, but I'm also thinking that if I get something a little nicer i'll keep it much longer.

as for my brother's third gen, what car are you talking about?

[frapjap]

I thought he was building a Camaro?

[White Comet]

Oh right! I almost forgot about that. He changes vehicles pretty quickly. He finished it, drove it around for awhile and then sold off some of the parts and then the rolling shell. We convinced my grandfather to let us put that 350 in his 1956 Chevy Apache

[alms24sebring]

Dam. The damage looks minimal but you can see how the frame bent when the bed hit the cab. I pictured it alot worse being a big truck at 35 and no brakes. But yes, that sucks. So you guys were blocking one lane of traffic or was it right before the merge?

A friend got in a fender bender in a early 90s carolla and was considered totalled because the very very front of the frame was slightly bent.

[frapjap]

Wow! He took the time to build a pretty solid car and then took it apart again and sold it off? What a tease, lol!

[alms24sebring]

Oh I forgot to vote too. Can't go wrong with a civic man. The only reason why I appose the Accord is because I dont really need the whole giant complicated display thing in the center consule (optional??). Its a nice touch if your looking for that but its not my personal preference for me. I prefer simple small 2 door, 5spd civic. But I cant lie, Accords have come a long way and are great cars to have.

[IBCoupe]

Accord's got 190HP and it weighs almost 3400lbs, or roughly a 1:18 power-to-weight ratio. Civic's got 140HP and it weighs 2700lbs, or roughly a 1:19 power-to-weight ratio. They should ride about the same, but since you're asking us for our personal opinions, I tend to go for the smaller car, all else being equal, but I do a fair bit of driving in urban areas, where smaller means you're capable of doing more. Totally dependent upon your driving habits and tastes. You want more elbow room inside the car? Get the Accord. You want more elbow room outside the car? Get the Civic.

[White Comet]

yeah with small cars, it doesn't take much to total them. Some ice flew off the roof the car and the front end of one of my s13s, it did dent some stuff up, but nothing really bad. They totaled it out and I just bought it off of them. The Civic is nice but I like the Accord is a little bigger which is nice for getting the car seat in and out of, and I just drove the Accord yesterday and thought that with the 2.4 liter is felt fine. I filled out a credit app and we'll see what it looks like.

[White Comet]

Alright, I'll sum this up pretty quickly, but there's been a lot going on the last couple of days. I left off with state farm sending someone out to the body shop to look over the details of the estimate. They came out and afterwards the body shop said they could fix everything with all the correct parts, but I called up state farm and said that I don't even want it repaired anymore because it's worthless due to the severe damage both to the frame and cosmetically. They said they can't just total it out even though it was very close to it, but they said they'd send me the repair check and that I could sell my truck off to get out of it. But in the same day the body shop called again and said that it is indeed finally totaled for good. Which is fine by me less of a headache for me. Now a rule of thumb is you don't want to take the first offer when they declare a car totaled. They offered $9762, but they didn't even look at the truck to take not of its condition and parts, etc so I told them that I need more for it. In the meantime, since the trucks done for, I bought the Accord off of my lot. I wish it had bluetooth but I can worry about that later. the rear spoiler looks nice too, but regardless its a really nice ride and has great pickup for a 2.4l