Have You Ever Totaled a Vehicle?

Have you ever totaled a vehicle? If so, what type?

  • Aircraft

    Votes: 8 7.9%

  • Car or Truck

    Votes: 49 48.5%

  • Motorcycle

    Votes: 8 7.9%

  • Boat or Other Watercraft

    Votes: 1 1.0%

  • None

    Votes: 47 46.5%
  • Total voters
    101
Yep, a 1959 Studebaker Lark. Owned it for 4 days. I was 15 and went to get my GF and take her 'for a ride' hehe. On the way home a drunk ran a stop sign and plastered me in the left rear door and fender. Since the car was only worth about $150, totaling it wasn't very high on the meter. Usually you hear about the drunk walking away without a scratch. Not this time, he was pretty messed up by the time the ambulance got there he was in rough shape. I got a knot on the head, and GF got some bruises, but nothing serious.
 
I tottaled the first one when I was 12, so I was not yet a teenager..
 
I totaled new Toyota truck. I took delivery of it at 11 PM. Drove it home a hour away, woke up at 4 AM, on the road to work and feel asleep behind the wheel. I hit the K rail and rolled it on the 101 freeway at Calabasas around 5 AM.
 
FormerHangie said:
I did have a friend who totaled a boat. It was about 1974, and his dad bought one of the earlier jet drive boats, He and his dad were out one day, zipping along when said friend backed off of the throttle completely, not realizing that his steering was also going to be cut off. Boat made a surprisingly hard turn into a seawall before his father could correct him.
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Ouch. Hoping both weren't too badly injured :nonod:


Luvrv8 said:
I totaled new Toyota truck. I took delivery of it at 11 PM. Drove it home a hour away, woke up at 4 AM, on the road to work and feel asleep behind the wheel. I hit the K rail and rolled it on the 101 freeway at Calabasas around 5 AM.
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Holy crap
 
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I totaled a Chevy S10 one day when a plow whipped a u-turn across two lanes of traffic starting from the far right lane when I was in the left. Just had no way to get stopped on the glare ice. I hit him dead on the left side of his truck, right into his tank of diesel actually.

They were trying to treat it as me "rear ending him" which I found interesting since well I hit him dead on the side of his truck and that's pretty damn hard to call a rear end IMO.

I was pretty annoyed with the insurance companies that stated I was at fault. I battled them for awhile then stopped bothering since in reality I lost like a $1,000 truck in the incident. Interestingly enough, I discovered about a year later, that the other insurance company finally accepted fault and it's coded as not-at-fault on the insurance search. I could have probably hit them up again to try to collect on the loss but was pretty tired of talking to them by then.

Not really sure how it went from me being "at fault" to later me being "not at fault" without anyone telling me that. Probably something the insurance companies worked behind the scenes I guess. Perhaps the driver of the plow later tried to make some massive injury claim that caused my insurance company to actually try.

Now I'm annoyed enough thinking about it I wonder if I could try to collect again four years later? lol
 
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Yes, several, when I was drinking heavy. late 59-68, married and kids none after that.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Does someone else totaling it by running into you count? If yes, yes, if no, no.
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:yes:

I've been involved in two traffic altercations where my vehicle came out with repairs and the other was totaled, 27 years of driving.
 
Would you consider this totaled?


This is not an accident, it was the result of an in flight fire at 14,000'
and yes, I was on board.
 
I have never been in a wreck, not even a fender bender. Well unless you count my motocross racing days.

I can remember a few close calls. One I am coming around a blind corner at maybe 35mph. 2 lane city road with a very narrow shoulder and trees on either side. I see a car at a stop sign on my right side, poised to turn left across my lane. Young girl driving and her mom in the pax seat. She starts to turn across my lane and then looks back in my direction. When she sees me, instead of hurrying it up, she just freezes up and stops dead, in the middle of the road. Blocking my lane and 1/4 of the opposite lane. I remember the deer in the headlights look on both her and her mom's face. I was driving a V8 grand cherokee lifted 4" with 33" mud tires. It was a real task to swing to the inside of the turn and drop 2 tires on the shoulder to squeeze in between the front of her car and the trees. Those tires were really howling
 
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I did get into an accident when I was 17, but it was not totaled. Punched out a headlight when someone turned left in front of me. Also technically not my fault, but I perhaps could have been driving a bit slower due to decreased visibility (obstructions).

The next accident was 15 years later, also not totaled.

And that's everything for over 30 years.

I've "totaled" cars myself that were just too broken to be worth fixing. Did that to my VW recently. It works OK, but lots of little things break on that thing, and the clutch recently wore out. I don't really want to go through the trouble of fixing it only to have 50 electrical gremlins to chase down. For a $1300 car. I'll get another.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Does someone else totaling it by running into you count?
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Does totaling someone else's car count too? :lol:

The crazy lady who hit my truck and left a smudge on my big "cow-catcher" bumper totaled her car since she ripped the whole right side of her Saturn off, like peeling the lid off of a can of sardines. :hairraise:
But I doubt that she learned her lesson about NOT turning right from a left-turn lane. She did not seem like the kind to consider a lesson learned.
Btw, that was the day I bought a pair of 18-wheeler air horns and installed them a week later. Crazy people need to stay away from me. :D
 
Now that I think about it I also totaled my Kawasaki ZRX1200 many years ago. I laid it down to avoid going over the side of a car that made a turn in front of me coming on the street I was traveling. Luckily I had many witnesses who confirmed this to the police as the car owner was swearing it was not her fault because I hit her. That bike was only 4 months old.

The bad part of insurance claims for me is I sleep with my agent, if the rates go up I hear about it. For some reason the Toyota accident never raised our rates and the bike deal was not my fault, the other company paid what I paid for the bike less tire wear.

The look of the CHP officers face was priceless as I think he was expecting a ton of excuses. As I was being loaded in the ambulance he asked what happened, was I cut off, did a animal jump in front of me etc. I said I fell asleep and hut the center divider and rolled it. I guess they don't hear much honesty.
 
champ driver said:
Would you consider this totaled?


This is not an accident, it was the result of an in flight fire at 14,000'
and yes, I was on board.
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jesus. You can't post that and not tell the story :) That looks like my worst nightmare
 
All I gots to say in this thread is..... Keep it up... It's drivers like you guys that keep me supplied with inventory and customers.
 
Kiddo's Driver said:
Not an accident? Someone intentionally set the fire???
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It was not an accident because of lack of piloting skills, it was an in flight fire at 14,000' and a normal landing on a runway was made. The only damage to the plane was a deliberate steering of the plane into a snow bank by the side of the runway to stop the plane because the brake lines were already burned through and the cabin was filling up with smoke.
The nose gear folded back and all three of us made it out without a scratch, the fire did all the rest.
 
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I have been driving for 43 years now. I have had only two accidents as a driver. Both times I was sitting waiting at a red light and was hit. One from the rear, one from the front. My vehicles were driven away.

Now, I did total 4 race cars, but on a track, not a public road.
 
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