Corolla Crash Worry

[Rusty Nuts]

Hi All,

I am one of those people that are fascinated by how things deform such as cars in crashes ect (not people getting hurt!!) Anyway the point of this post is :- 

I look on CoPart website (they sell cars written off for/by insurance companies) and of course I look at cars the same as the one's I own.

I am seeing a worrying trend with the corolla, I have seen many cars which are described as having front end damage (written off cat S) and all that is visible is minor bumper misalignment such as this .. 

     

Also seen Even on more damaged cars is the lack of air bag deployment.

 

I can't find anything reasonable on the internet to explain this and I am worried in a minor shunt my car may be written off or a more significant crash my airbags will not deploy.

Anyone on here work in the industry or have experience they can share.

Thanks in advance for your help

 

Carl 

 

[Roy124]

My MiL was rear ended in her Nissan Micro.  I guess it was about 10 years old built around 2005.  The only visible damage could have been buffed out.

The assessor found significant structural damage. 

The slight defamation you see is the car doing its job of absorbing the kinetic energy and not transferring it to the little soft body inside. 

Airbag deployment might be an issue.   Were the forces generated sufficient to activate them?

I had a collision in a Freelander.  The airbags did not deploy even though the bonnet was deformed, other front damage sustained, and the car remained drivable. 

Crash repair was delayed as the airbag sensor failed a test.

So, low g force or sensor failure?

 

[Mjolinor]

It is just a trend and not for any reason I know.

I was the subject of this ludicrous "category S"tendency with my Smart car. Absolutely no structural damage at all and it cost me maybe £150 in used parts to fully repair it.

Direct line refused point blank to come and look at the car and just flatly refused to not made it category S having looked at the pictures I sent them. It cost them £2300 to pay me out and I bought the car back for £170. I am still running the car and have no intention of getting rid any time in the future. It may well be the last car I have for regular use so the category S is of no consequence to me. I have been running this one since about 2016 when I paid £500 for it.

They all shout "green, environment" but to my mind this is one of the worst things they could possibly do for our planet.

I suppose repair cost + viewing cost + paper pushing very quickly adds up to more than not bothering with any of that and jsut writing it off. It has little to do with the actual car, just the cost of all the crap they are forced to go through to not write it off.

Once it is category S then they are clear of any responsibility in the future. Anything other than that and they are forever open to being sued by some future owner 20 years from now because somethign was missed.

[forkingabout]

Airbags will only deploy if the deployment would be useful to protect the occupants, some low speed front crashes just firing the seatbelt pretensioners is all that will be required to protect the occupants. 

Also the vehicle pictured could have been hit while parked. 

[Chas G]

Minimal apparent external damage can be very deceiving.

I hit a car up the back end at about 10mph in my brand new Sierra Saphire.

I had only had the car a couple of weeks and the only apparent damage was the front bumper had dropped a bit. 

The outcome was that the car was written off because the floor pan was creased and front chassis legs were bent.

[Wooster]

I've heard a general insurance company 'rule-of-thumb' is that if the airbags deploy, the car is a right-off. Also, radar sensors in the front bumper get damaged and are fantastically expensive. Recent story of a new, monster BMW SUV had a minor front end bump. The new bumper (with radar sensor) cost £7k.

[Mjolinor]

I think I tend to agree that if the air bags are deployed it should be written off, end of.

I also think that more should be done to stick a written off car back on the road. An MOT does not cut it in my opinion. You can't really do that when they are written off because of the cost of pushing paper.

 

[sportse]

Perhaps they are being safe and writing cars off in case there is any damage to the hybrid systems?

I'd heard recently that loads of Teslas are ending up written off as after an accident the Battery could have been damaged and later cause issues.

I know the parts under the bonnet can cost many thousands in Toyota hybrids if damaged. If they were to fail in the future because of damage and cause another accident it would be bad for the insurer.

Airbags don't always deploy, there are only certain situations where they go off when a combinations of sensors agree to set them off.

[Parts-King]

Modern cars can be expensive to repair, a pair of LED headlamps will be in the region of 2K by themselves. Look at that Corolla at 16.5K value, you can soon see why they get written off, that's without any labour charges, paint and materials at £150 a LTR, jig charges, it soon adds up to 50% of the cars value 

[Dylanfan]

There is also the hire car costs while the car is in for repair!

[Chriss27]

Our Corolla had minor bumper damage and a small crease in bonnet. Cost to repair £4k