I just hit a deer at around 55 MPH. The car is pretty banged up. The passenger headlight, fender, grill, hood, and possibly the door are all damaged. The airbags did not deploy. The car is still drivable.

I have just over 77,500 mi on the car now. I believe the bank valued it at around 28K when I bought it a few months ago when it had 72,000 mi on it. Hopefully this doesn't total it out but I know these parts are not cheap. Plus, I'm worried about color matching. I'm not sure how well they will be able to blend the paint...

And I just managed to get an appointment set up with the carcare nut on the 22nd. I guess I'll probably have to cancel that...


Pictures in spoiler tag.
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Nyaa

Sorry to hear about your accident. Glad you are safe. If I had to make a bet I would advise you to kiss her goodbye. Based on the damages you listed I will be very surprised if the insurance company does not total it. Sorry

Dennis

 

I know you probably want to keep the car, and I don't know how long you want to keep it, but the resale value will really be diminished when you go to sell or trade it in.

 

That's what I'm afraid of. I included pictures in the spoiler so you can take a look.

 

I was planning to keep it a long long time. Honestly, I wanted to hang on to it until I'm too old to drive lol, even as I buy other cars. So I'm not really worried about the resale value.

 

Might be dead from that depending on paint costs/how particular you are wanting it to match

 

This was $9800.00 deer hit... Whole front right, fender, bumper cover, fog lights, grill, hood. Replaced with all new parts. Keep that car forever!!! I just cross 305,000 miles!!

 

​​​​​​Well, I guess it depends on what the insurance company says. To be honest, if I can save it by throwing a little of my own cash at it I will. I don't know how that whole process works. To be honest, I've never had to make a an accident claim on my insurance. The only time I ever wrecked a car was when I was in my teens and only had liability lol.

Thank you for that. It gives me a bit of hope. How old was the car and how many miles did it have on it at the time?

One thing that does concern me is this is an F Sport. I'm assuming the front bumper costs a lot more.

Upon closer examination I think the door might be okay. I can't open it safely without risking damage because the fender is pinched on top of it but it looks like it is just ever so slightly touching it. So maybe it just needs a tiny bit of paint touch up.

 

If the car is considered totaled you have the option to take cash and keep the car but the amount will obviously be lower than if the car is totaled and towed away. Many people do this so they can keep the car and fix it themselves, or fix some things and have a body shop do others. My prediction is insurance will consider the car a total loss.

 

Question: How old was the car and how many miles did it have on it at the time?

That was in Sept. 2017 with ~120k on the car...
The back story was that in July of 2017, ~250 miles earlier, we had this deer hit for $8400.00.

Needed the hood, grill, front bumper cover, crossover bracing under the hood and some light body damage on the driver door from where the deer cartwheeled over the car and took the drivers mirror off.
Wisconsin flying deer for sure!
They painted the entire front clip including the drive door.
Insurance fully covered both accidents, to the tune of $18,000.00
It was like the paint wasn't even dry when I called on the second hit.
Super excellent work by the body shop.
It's been an excellent car to drive... So, keep that car FOREVER!

 

That's really not much damage, you're better off to just pay for it yourself if that keeps it off the carfax.



Dodged a bullet there

 

Glad to hear you are OK. If there is no frame/chassis damage or damage to suspension or engine components, you may want to hold on to the car and get it fixed even if the insurance company totals it. You cannot find a comparable car or ride for 20K (my damage estimate). After all, you were planning to keep it for a long time. Good luck.

 

your insurance company works for you, it would be different if it was the deer insurance co.
guessing deer had no insurance. you should be fine

 

Thanks for all the responses everyone.

I'm going to stop by a few different body shops this weekend to get some estimates. I'm anticipating at least $10,000 so I'm thinking the car will be totaled. As much as I want to keep the car, I'm not too keen on buying it back and fixing it myself as then I will have a salvage title and something I can't put full coverage on. I don't want to have this much money invested in something that I could hit a deer again and just be screwed. I am absolutely dreading the process of trying to find another one of these with this kind of mileage, this particular spec with adaptive cruise, a full dealer history, minimal owners, this color, this condition, etc. As It is, I had to have this one shipped all the way from California to Wisconsin because it was so hard to find what I wanted in the first place!

I priced out a few pieces on Lexus parts. Of course, the cost will be greater since they are only MSRP. There may be more damage that I can't see yet, like some kind of support structure. I'm afraid to open the hood because it may not close again.

Here are the prices so far:
Fender $560
Hood $980
Headlight $3,600
Grill Molding $428 -$488

I haven't checked the windshield washer thing that pops up yet either. That's totally missing now. Plus, now my check headlight system light is on. So I'm guessing once the light is installed it will have to go to the dealer to be recalibrated.

So I am already over $5,600 just in known parts alone. If the door skin needs to be replaced, that's another cost but I'm hoping it isn't damaged beyond maybe a small scratch. Paint and labor is easily going to be another 5K. I'm pretty sure this car is totaled. ☹️

I'm sure insurance is going to just go off Kelley Blue book which only values the car at 20K despite the fact you can't find one of these for 20K in this spec with the mileage. Kelley Blue book is such a joke. It really does not account for actual market value.


EDIT: Do you think it is possible to find a body shop that would work with me and source used parts? That might be the only thing that could save this car. Paying 700 or so for a headlight on eBay versus $3,600 new could make a big difference... Or maybe the insurance company will let me just buy the headlight out of pocket to keep the cost down? EDIT: I just looked it up. Apparently insurance companies do allow you to do that. That gives me hope.

I'm already discouraged looking at replacements. For what I paid, I'm looking at over 100,000 miles with no adapter cruise, interiors with noticeable wear, and no tri-beam headlights with AFS.

 

A body shop may or may not like using used parts and may not warranty some or all of their work. You could also find someone that fixes up and sells wrecked cars. They wouldn't care if you wanted used parts. I've come across a few that do great work. Much cheaper than a regular body shop.