Expert: Bennie719 - 5/20/2008

Question
Bennie,
I was involved in an accident recently when I was making a left turn and a speeding vehicle hit me on the left side of my 9-month old 2008 Honda Civic. The rear passenger door smashed in and the glass broke completely. The airbags on both the rear and my side popped up/infalted. Though the cops gave me a warning and the other guy a speeding ticket, technically, they said I was at-fault. Though the police report is not ready yet, my insurance company suggested that I claim through them, which is fine with me.
However, they seem to be taking quite a long time to have the vehicle inspected. While they said in the intial assessment that it is most likely a total loss, later they said that it is a borderline case.
If they do not declare it as total loss and I'm not comfortable driving it again, what will they do? Is there a chance of them listening to me? How much say do I have in this matter?
Please advise.
Thanks.
J

Answer
Hi Jaya,
Sorry to learn of your accident, glad to see that there were no serious injuries.  Perhaps the airbags saved the day.

Unfortunately, you have no legal say in the matter of total vs repair.
The legal wording of the insurance policy clearly gives the insurance company full power to make all decisions regarding this issue.

Based on past experiences, the airbags are probably the items that is making the car a borderline total.  Simply replacing the airbags is
very expensive.  There are between 18-30 impact sensors located on your car.  When they sense an impact over a certain limit, they fire a small explosive device which is transmitted to the various airbags and cause the necessary ones to deploy.  Everyone that exploded must be replaced.  This is an extremely labor intensive job which requires tracing each sensor from it's location to the airbags and then replacing the ones that exploded.  I have seen many cars valued at over $12,000 with body damage of less than $500 be totaled simply because the airbags deployed.

I hope that you found this information to be helpful.
Your feedback by rating my answer will be appreciated.

Sincerely,
Bennie
San Francisco Bay Area