don't want to buy a car but a deer hit my teen...

[Anonymous]

We had our teen driving our 2012 Prius with 75,000 miles on it. It was the perfect hand me down car for him and no one would be driving it next year when he goes to college, but we would have likely kept it for our next teen driver the following year. I drive a 2012 Odyssey that I just put 2000$ into with plans to keep for another 2 years and my husband has a 2020 Tesla 3. All cars are paid for. Teen and Prius were hit by a deer Friday night and I am crossing my fingers that it will be fixable, but I give it 50-50. Airbags did not deploy though. what are the chances this is fixable? I am reading horror stories of car prices right now. What are my other options here---Uber for six months and hope that car prices drop---find a car from a friend/acquaintance that they need to unload--something from carmax---pray---??? any thoughts welcome...

[Anonymous]

If “hit by a deer” you mean “hit a deer”, then buy a used car.

[Anonymous]

If it were my family, I would share the cars we already have.

But if you all need your cars regularly and at the same time, and can't use public transport, and can afford something else, I would buy a new, reliable Japanese model for the family's use (future drivers and yourself, since your car is getting on too). Don't buy used at today's prices and already owning an older car.

[Anonymous]

If the car is not fixable don’t you get an insurance pay out for the value of it?

[Anonymous]

Why does he need his own car?

[Anonymous]

Your car is probably fixable even if the insurance company labels it “totaled.” When this happened to us we took the insurance company payout, kept the car and put an extra $1500k into fixing it. We take really good care of our cars, so it was worth it to us to keep what we had even though we had to pay extra to do so.

[Anonymous]

Was the deer killed?

[Anonymous]

Lol - hit by a deer! 🤣
Like the deer had it out for your kid

[Anonymous]

Did you get the license plate of the car the deer was driving?

[Anonymous]

You all have a very external locos of control

[Anonymous]

Having also been hit by a deer, I empathize with OP. The deer that took out my CRX literally leaped onto the hood with malice aforethought. It was no accident. It was suicide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your car is probably fixable even if the insurance company labels it “totaled.” When this happened to us we took the insurance company payout, kept the car and put an extra $1500k into fixing it. We take really good care of our cars, so it was worth it to us to keep what we had even though we had to pay extra to do so.

Thank you for this idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lol - hit by a deer! 🤣
Like the deer had it out for your kid

My niece hit a deer recently and my sister sent me a text saying the same thing: "Niecey was hit by a deer." Some people think their kids are so perfect they can't even let them off the hook for an accident. OP: it was an accident, but your kid hit a deer, not the other way around. It's okay.

[Anonymous]

Look into salvage and rebuilt title requirements if you consider repairing a car that has been totaled. Some hoops to jump through and it will affect resale options (though thus may not be such an issue in this scenario). One description here: https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/car/rebuilt-vs-salvage-title/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your car is probably fixable even if the insurance company labels it “totaled.” When this happened to us we took the insurance company payout, kept the car and put an extra $1500k into fixing it. We take really good care of our cars, so it was worth it to us to keep what we had even though we had to pay extra to do so.

Thank you for this idea.

Will the insurance company still insure it?