brave-grouse-2285/10/2026

Barely-new car might be totaled after guy drove through a painted median to hit me??

I'm still kind of in shock so bear with me. Got into an accident last week and I am genuinely losing sleep over this.

Had the car for maybe six weeks. Six weeks. Still has that new-car smell. And now insurance is floating the word "total loss" and I feel like I'm going to be sick.

Here's what happened: I was pulling out of a shopping center, waited for a gap in traffic, a driver waved me through, and I started my turn. Another driver — instead of sitting in the backed-up lane like everyone else — decided to just drive on the painted center divider to skip ahead to the light. No lane there. Double yellow lines. Just solid paint and diagonal stripes. That's where he came from. He clipped my front driver's side pretty hard.

Police came. Report has a couple of factual errors on it (wrong intersection noted, one detail about my vehicle is flat-out wrong) and I'm honestly not thrilled about how fault is listed either. I'm going back to the precinct this week to try to get that corrected.

As for the car — yes, the front end looks rough. Hood is crumpled, one headlight assembly is gone, and an airbag went off. But the cabin looks fine, it drove (slowly) onto the flatbed, and structurally it seems okay to me? Insurance is acting like it's already a done deal that it's totaled.

I don't fully understand how a car that's barely been driven suddenly isn't worth repairing. Is this normal? Am I naive? Can I push back on a total-loss determination? And honestly — should I even be dealing with his insurance or mine right now?

Any guidance appreciated. I'm so overwhelmed.

9 replies

Most helpful first

warm-marten-1195/10/2026
Ugh, this is almost exactly what happened to me two years ago. Brand new car, some guy did something stupid, and suddenly I'm fighting an insurance company over whether it's repairable. The airbag deployment alone can push a car toward total loss because replacing the whole airbag system is expensive — labor plus parts adds up fast on newer vehicles. Doesn't mean you can't dispute the valuation though. I did, and it actually made a difference.
- warm-fox-4785/10/2026
  On the police report corrections — when you go in, bring photos if you have them, your registration, and anything else that directly contradicts the errors. Be calm and factual about it, just point to the documentation. Officers can amend reports, it happens. What you probably can't change through that process is the fault determination itself — that's more of an insurance/legal dispute. But fixing the factual errors (wrong intersection, wrong vehicle info) is absolutely worth doing and should be pretty straightforward.
clear-otter-8625/10/2026
Do NOT just accept whatever number they throw at you for the total loss value. They will lowball you, especially on a newer car where they don't have a lot of comparable sales to work with. Get your own comparables — search listings for the same year, trim, and mileage in your region and screenshot everything. You can counter their offer with actual data and they have to respond to it.
- daring-stoat-7765/10/2026
  So a few things from the inside: airbag deployment is a big deal cost-wise, and on a newer car the parts alone can eat up a huge chunk of the vehicle's market value. The threshold for total loss is usually when repair costs hit a certain percentage of the car's actual cash value — sometimes 70-75% depending on the state, sometimes higher. The frustrating part is that a car being "new to you" doesn't always mean it has high ACV in their system. They're going off market value, not what you paid or how attached you are to it.
  
  Also — those errors on the police report, go get those fixed ASAP. A wrong intersection or wrong vehicle info can genuinely complicate a liability dispute later.
- tidy-vole-9615/10/2026
  Not legal advice, but the fact that the other driver was operating outside of any marked lane is genuinely significant for a fault dispute. That's not a gray area kind of thing — there was no lane there. If you have any dashcam footage, witness info, or even photos showing the road markings, hold onto all of it carefully. The police report errors are worth correcting but the underlying facts of where each vehicle was positioned matter more. Talking to a PI attorney for a free consult wouldn't be a bad idea given the fault dispute.
- wise-lynx-8735/10/2026
  Please make sure you've been checked out medically even if you feel okay right now. Airbag deployments are a lot on your body — the force of that alone can cause soft tissue injuries that don't show up for a few days. Adrenaline masks a lot in the immediate aftermath. If anything starts hurting in your neck, shoulders, or back, don't wait it out. Go get seen and make sure it's documented.
patient-elk-7995/10/2026
Stop dealing with his insurance directly. Let your own insurer handle the back-and-forth for now, especially while fault is disputed. His insurance's job is to protect him, not help you. Your insurer has more incentive to fight for your interests here, and if they recover costs from his side later, you get your deductible back. Keep all your communication in writing from this point forward too.
humble-fox-8605/10/2026
I know it doesn't feel like it right now, but the fault situation actually sounds pretty defensible given where his car physically came from. You may be more in the clear than the current report makes it seem. Hang in there — a lot of people start in the same spot you're in and end up in a much better place once the full picture gets sorted out.
curious-seal-6445/10/2026
Were there any other witnesses besides the driver who waved you through? Because that person's account is going to be really important here. Also, do you know if there's any traffic or security camera footage from that intersection or the shopping center? That stuff disappears fast — like within days sometimes. If there's any chance of footage existing, someone needs to be requesting it now.