Here comes the vultures.

 

i got dibs on seats!

 

Both of those are pretty bad...I hope you guys get through this with a positive outcome - Good luck!

 

21st Century Insurance pays 100% of cost if it's totalled in the first year of ownership.

Another little known fact (at least here in California) is that you as the owner have first buy back rights! So they settle with you and pay you whatever the "totaled value" is then you have the right to buy it back at salvage value (Harley motorcycles are usually right around $400 to $500)....I can't imagine it would be more than $800 to $1000.

Then you take it and part it out. All of us are needing extra parts, motor, tranny, wheels, interior, etc. Something to think about.

 

sorry to hear about your accident! such a shame to see a beautiful HD like that get crushed
hope you're okay and everything goes well

 

My experience driving on Los Angeles freeways leaves me with impression that there is difference between truck drivers and SUV/minivan drivers. I have seen many more SUV/minivan drivers driving as if they are in the (sports) car than I have seen truck drivers. I guess majority of truck drivers realizes they do drive a truck, not a car, while quite a number of SUV/minivan drivers "recently graduated" to their vehicle (especially after these heavy incentives), never gave a thought it might handle differently, and on top of that their attitude got worse because they feel bigger/stronger/less vulnerable than guy next to them. In other words, they are driving less carefully than before in a vehicle that needs to be handled more carefully than their previous one.

ZoranC

 

damn your truck got F'ed up,glad to see your alright though.

 

moomba......drop me an email..
sc300turbo@aol.com

 

zoranc,

I see that as true of the f250 class trucks and up, but not in the f150 class trucks (ram 1500, chevy 1500 etc etc). I think the suv is just more abundant than the truck so its more common to see the problems with it. And yes the illusion of safety is there. The thing i was alwasy afraid of with trucks was i thought the visibilty around the vehicle was worse than with cars but that turns out to just not be true, i havnet found a car yet that competes in terms of how well i can see around the car, with that i would think there would be less accidents but

 

I would partially agree with you. Yes, I do see some crossover of SUV mentality to drivers of trucks that are F150's size or smaller. However, I believe there is still quite a percentage of "F150 truck" drivers that are well aware what trucks are not designed for, but without statistic figures we can not know the truth.

As a side effect, they care less if they end up in the accident due to their fault. Which means they care less about safety of others around them.

That is correct. I did drive truck before, for few months, it just was not mine, and ever since then I wanted to have that visibility back again. Visibility when driving is very important to me, to a point that I will not buy a vehicle if I don't like visibility from it.

Now you speak as if you don't drive in Los Angeles. When was last time you saw anyone here use side mirrors to check before lane change, turn head to check blind spot, or use rear view mirror for anything but looking into their own face? Having better visibility will not change how they drive.

ZoranC

 

thats a good point, i always check my blind spot unless im driving faster than traffic in which case im waiting for you in my rear view unless theres an on ramp, and even then i dont worry to much because no one comes up an on ramp at 80. But your right many people dont, sometimes i look at the car in front of me and can see the persons lap (or chest if im lucky) in their rear view, im like WTF i should see you face. But like i drove the nissan Z, and i was scared simply because i feel like i can see if theres a car next to me or not, so although they dont check much, if they happen to see, im sure its better. In all i think La has mostly decent drivers its just a certain percentage that ruins the reputation.

Your right about the minivans, i saw some old man speeding like hell in one today, i thoght that was funny. My only other thing i hate about drivers out here are the ones that sit with their chest at the steering wheel, Their gonna gain a punctured lung from the airbag if they every get in an accident. Not to mention the tards that drive leaned all the way back with thier head barely above the edge of the door, tards

 

Might be, but I am not so sure. My perception is that situation is getting worse and worse as years are passing by. I don't know who is giving these people driver licenses, but it seems they are given out way too easy, if they have them at all. I can tell you tons of horror stories, and I am sure you can tell me too. Beside horror ones there is quite a number of those that left me amazed. Beside people that do make up, shave, brush teeth, etc all while driving at 70+mph (they are so common) I have seen:

- Guy that is trying very hard to stay in his lane because woman next to him has her head in his lap bobbing up and down looking for a All that at decent speed down 405 South at Sepulveda Pass.

- Guy that is changing his pants.

- Woman that keeps cruising at 80+ mph down 405 South at Ell Torro Y although she is so spaced out that her head keeps falling down every few second and is completely oblivious to my horn I am on for last 5 miles trying to get her attention so I can have her pull over to safety.

- Woman that is doing 75+ in middle lane with one hand on cell and other hand outside window holding a cigarette. What she is holding the wheel with? I don't want to know.

- Guy that is reading book while driving at full speed.

- Guy that spread out Wall Street Journal in stop&go traffic. Do you know how much you see when you have WSJ in front of your face? Nothing. Plus you need both hands to flip the page if you are in the car.

- Guy that is checking out his directions. Only thing is he is holding them at eye level.

- And last, but not least, guy that was playing with his monkey in stop&go traffic on 405. Few years later I read in LA Times about guy that did same thing but ended up due to it in accident (he was having so much fun that at big moment he digged in his heels which means he slammed on both gas and brake at the same time). Oh, boy, try explaining that to insurance company.

ZoranC

 

Ive seen a good portion of those, changing pants isnt one, and the ones using the cellphone in one hand and cigerette in the other are using their legs to steer, reading a book of magazine amazes me, im not sure about that. Playing with your own monkey i havent seen, but someone playing with someone elses monkey i have. I almost crashed

And yeah the licensing process is really easy. I shouldnt have recieved one, but luckily i learned how to drive pretty fast, i drive fast, but im not stupid, and im driving, nothing else, no eating, no nothing, and i always keep record in my head about cars around me. But when i took my test, i had only done 1 hour of drivers training because my instructor was late so many times. But i still passed (one more point and i woudlnt have). The ceos wife at my company passed the test (she was licensed in canada but not here) without once checking her blind spot, she didnt know she needed to do that so she never checked, they still passed her. That i think is probably the single greatest cause of accidents, at least its the biggest cause of all my near accidents.

 

Changing one or more lanes without checking is almost guaranteed accident. I have had many close calls due to other drivers doing that, and two of them were so close that I am still surprised I managed to avoid them. My blood still boils when I remember them because if, heavens forbid, I didn't manage to avoid them they would have resulted in extremely heavy injuries, if not death, for me and/or my wife.

First one was woman driving at approximately 80mph cutting across 3 lanes from right to left while talking on the cell phone and having her head turned toward right (she was looking in opposite direction of where her vehicle was going!) and she was heading straight into passenger door where my wife was sitting.

Second one was 18-wheeler (yes, literally an 18-wheeler) going again from right to left across two lanes and straight into my lane without noticing me at all. Even worse, I was limited in maneuvering space because on my left is a wall, and if I start breaking I am going to get squashed by his tail. I was forced on the shoulder between him and wall because he keept moving more and more into my lane! He didn't notice me until I was able to even out with his cabin even though I was laying on the horn all this time!

After that I promised to myself to install in each and every one of my vehicles additional, "wake up the dead" kind of, horn for emergency situations like this.

ZoranC

 

If the insurance company will not total it, or repair it to your satisfaction I would bring up "diminished value" and retain a lawyer if necessary.

No matter what happens, if you retain the vehicle, your resale value has been significantly reduced.

Good luck!