1 In 5 Crashed Cars Now Totaled By Insurance Firms, ADAS Partly To Blame

[SC Maintenance]

I think it would be wise to not draw too many conclusions from data during COVID. Too many anomalous things going on. For one, I remember a ton of reckless drivers on the road driving extremely fast during that time.

Yes, that was my point. Drivers got more emboldened and reckless as protective car equipment got better?

 

[Pew]

Yes, that was my point. Drivers got more emboldened and reckless as protective car equipment got better?

Poor training too. Public schools are starting to remove drivers ed (if they even had it), making families rely on driving "schools" who don't teach anything except how to pass the driving test.

 

[ripcord]

Yes, that was my point. Drivers got more emboldened and reckless as protective car equipment got better?

My feeling at the time was the high speed driving coincided with the lack of traffic gumming up the freeways.

 

[64bawagon]

Don't think Bluetooth equipped infotainment systems were widespread in cars until 10 or 15 years ago so not sure how accurate that is.

Its accurate in that the vehicles I am talking about are late model and around 5yrs or less. Up here a 10 year old car is easy to spot by the holes along the bottom of it.

 

[k1xv]

I had an incident about 10 days ago. I was driving home from a luncheon, about a 35 mile drive. Within 6 miles of home, I started feeling funky. About 3 miles from home, on my rural deserted country road, I went off the road after I blacked out. The car went down a small embankment and over a bunch of large rocks. Aside from body work damage, it was leaking fluids from the drive train.

I was totally uninjured (wearing the seat belt) and the airbags did not go off. EMS came, said I was looking pale and took me to the hospital. On the ride my Blood pressure was 60 over 40. My mixture of meds had recently changed. I was in the hospital for observation for 3 days, and at home am wearing a heart monitor and am under a self imposed 2 week no driving period in the event I have a relapse. My BP has been running normal.

The car was my 2019 AWD RX350 Lexus, with only 31,000 miles. I am hoping it is totalled, because I think the drive train took a significant hit.

I just got the call from the insurance adjuster. He is declaring the car a total loss.

Fortunately, my auto insurance is with a company that is very good on claims. I shop insurance not on the lowest premium. They are all in the same ball park. I shop based on what company pays claims with the least fight and red tape.

 

[k1xv]

I hope everything checks out ok. I’ve been battling serious afib for the last few years. Last year around this time I started feeling weird and was just a couple blocks from the ER. When I got there my heart rate was 35 bpm and was immediately admitted and after several cardioversions and two ablations over the past year I am doing great. (Knock on wood)
My blood pressure has been on the low side my entire life. It averages around 106/64.

The Lexus of course will have a great residual value so odds are it’s repairable but the important thing is that you are ok. Best of luck.

I also have AFIB. My heart occasionally skips a beat, but has not caused blackouts. I am wearing a heart monitor for two weeks at home, and seeing a cardiologist soon.

 

[burbguy82]

Of course vehicles are safer than they have ever been preventing wrongful death lawsuits......

right. but that will have no impact on the premiums, it never goes down.

 

[alarmguy]

Preventing deaths is super good. Lawsuits or not.

It's easy to insure you wont get hurt in an auto accident. It just depends how much price premium you want to pay for the car.
Last thing I look at when buying is the safety record. Looks, features, insurance cost and price rule... Its easy to scare the public ... then again, I ride a motorcycle and yet, still the odds are I will die not from an auto accident but from a medical mistake made by a hospital any time you are in one for any reason.

We ourselves drive up the cost of cars, what is an auto insurer to do? People buy a $50,000 car and it can get wrecked by any act of nature, mis-use, theft, anything. With these cars now rolling pieces of technology almost impossible to fix cheaply.

Din't misunderstand me, I am for safety features, heck yes its kind of nice to know no matter what happens to our SUV in a auto accident I will be instantly completely wrapped in an air bag but I dont understand why I seem to never have paid a lot for insurance, so I always blame others who do for risky habits I guess or overly expensive cars. I dont know. I carry A lot of liability including max'ed out uninsured and underinsured and I drive reasonable late model cars that I buy used, typically I consider a new to us car as hbeing purchased with less then 25,000 miles on it. In well over a decade or more I never paid more than $1000 for a full year for two
automobiles total cost. Give or take $75

I do agree it is good for government to police these insurance companies since it is government who mandates you buy insure in order to drive on public roads.

 

[burbguy82]

In a recent thread we were talking about the rising cost of car insurance and was reminded of it when I saw this article. It reports that 20% of the time a car
is in an accident it now results in a total loss because of the increasing complexity of vehicles.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/new...as-partly-to-blame/ar-BB1nunMd?pc=ACTS&ei=181

I have the answer to this:

get rid of it.

 

[greenjp]

Good point made earlier about the increasing average age of vehicles. If your car is only "worth" $5,000 it doesn't take much damage to exceed the value.

ADAS sensors I'm sure are expensive, as are headlight modules, body and hood panels, and the numerous airbags that go off in a moderate or worse accident. As others have said if this stuff protects the occupants it's all worth it. Automatic braking especially.

I posted in the Automotive General board about my old 2006 Accord getting totaled a month ago, no fancy features on that bad boy but we did have 4 airbags go off. My broken sternum is still healing but otherwise me and my 12 and 14 year old daughters got out of the car without any serious injuries.

jeff