Daughter totaled her car. I'm trying to help her figure out how to proceed, what does the hive say?

Saturday my daughter hit some ice and her 2010 corolla drove down an embankment and flipped onto its roof at the bottom. I thought it might be salvageable unless the roof was caved at the windshield. She is ok. To see her you would never guess she ended up upside down at the bottom of a bridge.

The roof is caved in where the top meets the windshield so it will not be worth fixing and she has liability only car insurance so insurance won't do anything. We already had it towed to her house and there it sits in the garage.

The car was in perfect shape for a 10 year old corolla with 80K miles on it before the accident. Is there any alternative to towing it to the junk yard and getting $100 bucks for it? Or should we cut our losses and junk it? it rolls, but we haven't started it up because I want to check it still has fluids in it since it has been upside down for over 18 hours.

Learn me some stuff please?

Should be worth a grand or so for engine and transmission. Part it out on facebook marketplace. 

I'm glad all people are well and intact.

If it runs (and hopefully drives down the road and back) then you should get more than junkyard value for it on CL. If you can't/won't start it then it's probably not worth much more unless you want to pull it apart yourself and sell off the bits and pieces. 

I wrecked a couple of cars when I was younger. We parked them out back. Stole/sold pieces off of them to keep other cars running for a year or two, then junked them. Not everyone can keep a rolled car in the back yard long enough to part it out though. 

In reply to wheelsmithy :

Literally my first thought was if I had to buy an engine and trans for the thing it would cost like 6 grand. Should be worth something. Thanks for the well wishes!

I'm glad she's ok, that sounds like a rough day. If you have the time and space I agree that parting it would be the way to go, If not selling it as a donor privately likely would be better than junking it.  

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Thank you. I was thinking the same thing. My problem was I had no idea if I could do that with a car that will never be able to be registered again. I plan to find out if it will start/drive next weekend.

If I can sell it like that what do I do with the title? just sign it over because they could never register it anyway?

In reply to Wally :

Thanks, it was rough. My wife was on the phone with her when she went off. She was on speakerphone and I was in the room. When she hit the ice and went over I had never heard her scream in real terror like that before. Fortunately the car behind her pulled over and came down to help. those people were so amazing, they cut her out of her seatbelt and waited with her till ems showed up.

In reply to gunner :

Technically the car has not been written off as that requires an insurance company involvement. One could build a new 2010 Corolla under the clear VIN tag.

If you float around here long enough you'll see a running driving suuuuuuper wrinkly engine donor or two show up in build threads. Yes, you just sign over the title like a normal sale but expect that the title will never be transferred with the state. 

In reply to Rons :

Wow. that seems shady as berkeley. Good to learn that though.

It sounds like you may need to find a dead Corolla of the same year and put your running gear into it.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Oh Jesus. I swear if I had some land and it runs I would kick out the windshield and use it as a farm toy.

In reply to gunner :

I'm curious how the insurance company could or would total the car.  They only covered it for PL/PD - their obligation was, were another vehicle or property to be damaged by your daughter's car, the owner of that vehicle or property would be made whole (up to the limits of the policy).

So far as I know, a car is 'totaled' when the cost of repair is near to, or exceeds, the value of the vehicle.  In this case, the insurance company is not going to repair the vehicle or even make an estimate of the cost of the repairs.  This should mean a clear title...

Of course, YMMV

In reply to CJ :

You are correct and accurate. They didn't look at it due to the fact that they were not liable for repair, I am literally using the term totaled because the experience I have dealing with claims adjusters has been that structural repair of repairing the roof to accept a windshield  and be sound structurally would cost well beyond what the vehicle is worth.

If this may not be the case, I would interested to know.

In reply to Brett_Murphy :

That is the one option I had not considered. interesting.

If it still runs and drives, it could be fixable. There is no reason that it could never be registered, since insurance did not total it. Even if a car gets totalled, it can still be registered and driven if the required repairs are made. Should easily get $500 or more on CL as is if it starts/drives. Sell it with the clean title. Go with them to the title office and make sure new owner transfers title into their name if you're worried about it.

If you can get some pics we can give opinions on the repair ability.  Replacing the roof is potentially an option.  

My kid rearended a minivan and totalled off his nice little pickup. We dragged it home and sledgehammered it back into shape and hit it with some spraybombs. It is no longer pretty but it beat the heck out of the financial hit to claiming insurance or replacing it. Especially after cutting a check to replace the minivan.

In reply to Sonic :

no E36 M3? ok. give me a minute.

I was on the scene literally less than 2 hours after it happened. It looked as if it had ended up right side up it could have been driven out. berkeleying black ice.

I came here to espouse the virtues of the motorcycle life but, this isn't the proper thread.

I'm not sure what the parts on that car are worth, or how long you'd have to sit on them before you find buyers, but I would advise the same thing I generally do whether I have a clue or not: Know your options. I get that that's why you're asking so what I mean is know what the junk yard will give you rather than just guess. Is there anything special about her car? People here are a good place to start in figuring out if maybe the seats out of her car are a sometimes desirable direct bolt-in to something else. There's also the non-enthusiast market of people just looking to fix their own car and a running drivetrain should easily get you a tidy sum if you're willing to do the leg work of lining up a buyer. Brake calipers might go for $60-75. Door panels, mirrors, and interior trim might have surprising market if you can find the people. Or pull them off, clean them up, and put them on eBay. Basically, I'm in the "you can probably part it out for more money" crowd but that assumes you have the time and desire to put in the work to part it out. The next step from there is sell it intact and let someone else have the headaches and storage problems.

gunner said:

Is that an optical illusion or is the a-pillar really separated/broken in two?