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-   -   Accident Car: Keep it or Sell it? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/204223-accident-car-keep-sell.html)

One of the worst nightmares is hearing that your father is involved in an accident and the car which he was driving got toppled.

Ever since I followed the Team-bhp S-Cross thread, I was convinced that it was the car to replace my old 1st Gen Swift. I tried my best to convince my Dad to go for the 1.6 variant, but had to settle for the 1.3 variant since majority of the driving was to be done by my father and the extra power would not be needed for a sedate driver like my father. November, 2016 was the time that I got S-Crossed. By the way, it was the first production model having the new alloys. clap: During the initial One and a half years, I was the primary driver of the car. It crossed the 50,000 km mark within the 2 year period. During that period, my father met with a minor accident once, where in the middle of the night, a construction zone in a dark state highway of Haryana was at fault. The car crashed onto the huge pile of dirt and got out with badly damaged front Bumper.

Fast forward to June 2018, I had to move out of the city for further studies and hence my father became the primary driver of the car, even for long distances.

D-Day: Yesterday afternoon, I got a call from my mother informing me that my father has been in an accident. He was in a slow moving traffic in the rural parts of Haryana when suddenly a bicycle rider came out of nowhere (Came from behind a stationary truck). In order to avoid hitting him, my father quickly steered to the right and in a matter of moments, he was upside down, with the car doing full 2 rounds of spin on its roof. Since he was not driving fast and had his seat belt on, he managed to come out of the incident unscathed.

The car though, it got badly damaged. Since I was not present there, I only have 2 images of the incident and am not sure about the future of the car.


So the actual dilemma: Even after getting it repaired from the official service center, How safe would the S-Cross be structurally? (Considering the frames took the brunt of the toppling)

Either we can opt for selling the S-Cross (which has been a gem of a car since the past 2 years) and go for a smaller hatchback or keep the S-Cross.

The car is used primarily for long journeys on the high speed Delhi-Amritsar highway and hence I'm not sure about the structural strength going forward.

The roof and A-B-C Pillars seem mostly intact, I would say you should keep it (repaired). S Cross is a solidly built car unlike other Marutis and it shows in your case too. Even after 2 full spins, its roof is intact and pillars are not crushed!

All the best, God bless!

^^ Agree. Seems to be more of body hits than to the frame. Infact your A & B & C pillars seem quite intact from the photos you have shared. Probably sharing more pics from all directions might get you better detailed views.

Agree with above two assessments - damage looks largely cosmetic. If there's no obvious 'hairline fractures' to the pillars or the roof structure, it should be fine to just fix it and continue using.

BUT, is it supposed to roll-over that easily (guess more details will add clarity on this). Does the S-Cross come with a rollover risk assessment/propensity? If the roof integrity is compromised, any future rollover could be lot more damaging.

Looks cosmetic and it happened at a low speed.

Do the doors open and close normally? If so, you should be ok.

Has the repair assessment and estimate been prepared? Apart from the rear bumper, looks like almost every other panel will be replaced. Add to that, possible mechanical damages to the under body and under the hood. This will also give you an understanding of the extent of damage.

Before you have to decide, would be a good idea to check if this qualifies for a total loss, for the sheer cost of repair.

Whether you want to keep or sell this car after repairs also depends on how you feel psychologically about it: driving around knowing this car has suffered a crash. Of course, people have continued to use their cars after much graver crashes.

As of now, the repair assessment is yet to happen. Since my father would be out of town during this, we are relying on the surveyor to give us a fair review.

From what my father remembers, he swerved to avoid the cyclist and subsequently he hit the wall of a small bridge with the left rear end. This somehow caused the car to roll over. The hairline fractures are the only thing that bothers me. I don't know if there is any way they would be able to detect the presence of any hidden damages.

Since I'm not present there, I would not be able to comment on this.

Make the insurance assessment done and then take a call. From the looks of it they might offer you a chassis replacement, then take it and move on. Again many if's and but's, so wait for insurance to confirm.

You mean the complete monocoque shell? Does it come as a spare?

Yes, it does. For basic Marutis, it is priced in the vicinity of 1.5 lacs.

Coming to this thread, if we go by the pictures, the pillars seem to be holding good indeed. But something only a physical inspection can confirm. This car is repairable by all means and you may go for the same, given the damage is cosmetic only. I am slightly in doubt about the LHS 'A' pillar going by the picture posted. A LHS side profile picture would be helpful. Hope there is no damage to the engine and transmission.

Regards,
Saket

Yep its around 3-4Lac for the S-Cross and was offered as a option after a under-body damage case. Everything else gets removed and put in the new shell but it generally takes a long time.

I only have these images to go with. At the time of giving the car away to the service center, the engine and transmission seemed to be fine.
Will surely inquire about this.

Any updates on the inspection, assessments, and potential estimates? Do keep posted.

If the pillars haven't collapsed, the doors open and close properly, repair it and use it! From the looks of it, just some panels need to be replaced. Speak to the workshop manager, ask him for his opinion and let us know.

OT: In 08 my folks were in a similar accident and the car toppled. A decision was made to replace the entire shell since the insurance Co. didnt want to write it off as a total loss. The Maruti dealer got a new shell with doors(available only with the base coat), painted it and transferred all the pats from the damaged vehicle to the new shell. The whole process took slightly over 1 month.
The car was a one month old WagonR costing 4L. The total repair bill was around 3.25L and we had to pay around 53k iirc.

In hindsight, we should have pushed for a total loss. The local RTO will give you a new chassis number that has to be punched into the new shell. This would drop the value of your vehicle big time. When you want to sell it, people will look at it as an accidental vehicle and either walk away or low ball. We had to sell the car for a song.

Cheers!

I'll only be able to comment on this by Monday since my father is out of town till then.
We've already had to sell our Maruti 800 about 10 years ago at a huge loss due to the door being replaced, some minor repairs and as a result the whole car needing a new paintjob. Will be pushing for total loss but let's see how it pans out.