Tercel Needed (the end of my 86DLX)

[Mad_Marx]

My car was rear ended, while sitting in traffic, by a girl who was too busy texting to pay attention to the road (she didn't even touch the brakes, no skid, no nothing). She was traveling at aproximately 35mph. The back end smashed sent me headlong into the Honda Element in front of me, front end smashed, don't think I'll be able to salvage her, but she'll be great for parts! It was a One owner DLX with A/C and a PRISTINE interior. The Odometer showed 132,000 original miles at time of death.
So now I'm looking for a replacement Terc, I'd like to find a low miles well maintained car (as stock as possible) would like to find one with AC and Power Steering, and it has to be a Manual. I don't do auto. I'd appreciate a heads up, email, pm, or whatever if anyone is lookingfor a good home for a sweet ride or has a line on a good car. I'm still recovering from injuries (I did walk away from this but I'm a little banged up) so I'll be near the pc. Thanks in advance. M_M

[ARCHINSTL]

Wow - you are fortunate! Whiplash?
Where are you located?
Tom M.

[Mad_Marx]

yeah, whiplash, migraines, and some bruises, got my bell rung good. I'm in Boise Idaho, but will travel for the right Terc.

[dlb]

that's unreal! notice how the frame is bent down at the front and back and up in the middle. she must have clobbered you to twist it up like that. bummer for the car but lucky you're as well as you are. these cars are getting harder to find but new bodies are even harder.

the wheel on the honda element looks huge. how much closer to the camera is it than your terc?

[Mad_Marx]

She pounded me good, and didn't even ask if I was ok or say sorry... The honda was about 2' closer to the camera, I was not quite centered on the left side of the Honda, my righ front corner was just to the right of the license plate on the honda. I was lucky to walk away from this, but very sad to lose such a great car that I had so much work into.

[ohcanada_00]

yikes! glad you walked away. I used to be a firefighter and even crashes that dont look too bad can cause serious injuries. Take it easy!

There are a handful of cars on the Seattle craiglist right now but not all meet your criteria. I'll keep my eyes and ears out for you!

[dlb]

no kidding, and for texting...that's f*cking stupid, really. i really hate when people make poor choices like texting/driving, drinking/driving, or driving stupidly fast because accidents like this and far worse occur even though it was completely avoidable. the person at fault knows they are making a poor decision but they do it anyway, and then there is a whole bunch of bullsh*t to deal with. imagine if this girl had killed you and how that would affect the rest of her life, mentally and emotionally as well as financially. she would feel such guilt that she would likely never recover, and for what? writing a text that could have waited until she had arrived at her destination in 15 minutes? complete and utter stupidity.

[Petros]

The insurance will not offer you much for the car, they always view old cars (even classics) as scrap and hate dealing with them.

The car sacrificed itself so you might live. Find another good one and use this for parts. Or better yet turn this one into an ice racing version like another list member did with his. That way you are not using a good Tercel to build a race car.

Try and find an SR5. Here is one in Seattle area, looks like a good buy.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/cto/2241206472.html

Here is a clean one:

http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/cto/2238093913.html

There is one on the Spokane Craig's list that needs an engine (not far from you). He is threatening to sell it to a junk yard (which will give him maybe $200 for it), so make him a low ball offer. Better jump on it and at least save it from the bone yard.

http://spokane.craigslist.org/pts/2235837006.html

[dlb]

two of those have the clinometer!

after my recent experience with the insurance company and talking to friends about their experiences, i think it would be possible for you to get a decent amount of money for the car. if it had such low miles and was in excellent condition and you could prove both of these either through records (your vehicle transfer papers should show the kms on the car at the time you purchased it) or photos (hopefully you have some of the body/interior), you could search through here and find the ads of tercels in similar condition that are being sold for as high as $4000. i'm sure your insurance company won't give you THAT much for them but if you're good at being insistent and refuse to settle, you will likely get far more than their initial offer. a friend of mine did just this recently: a driver plowed into him and wrote off his vehicle and the insurance company tried to give him peanuts for it but he produced ads of the exact same truck being sold for twice what they were offering him. he wound up getting the amount he intended, PLUS his wheels and tires from the written off vehicle.

another friend was getting screwed on lost wages and payments for physio and chiro after an accident. the insurance company wouldn't return his emails so he had to phone regularly to finally get through to the agent. he then dug up a bunch of paperwork from his employer and showed them how much he had historically earned in a regular year and they finally reimbursed him for that. he then argued that he had never needed physio or chiro before the injuries he sustained in the accident and they eventually reimbursed him for that, PLUS $1000 for future visits.

i had to go through insurance to get my terc fixed recently and the estimator at my company told me to pull the damage out myself with a come-along hooked up to a tree--no joke, he said that. when i asked why i couldn't just take it to a body shop he told me that a professional body shop wouldn't be able to match my unique colour, that it would bubble and react, and that this was definitely better suited to a "backyard job"--bullsh*t! i was totally shocked but kept questioning him until he finally told me that i had $2000 to work with to get it fixed.

moral of my long-winded story is don't let the bastards push you around. get what you deserve because damn it, that's why you pay for insurance your whole f*cking life.

[toughtercel]

Last Fall my wife had an accident which other person fault , And yes under value of the tercel (offer me $500), but I took lots of pictures that our car was rust free car and bills,I told them that I spent many month looking for rust free car and paid $1,300 for it so I showed them pictures and what i paid for , they(insurance) said depend on the value of the cars what for sale and might buy from Craigslists , sure enough i showed them Tercels for sale at Washington State because it the only place that are almost rust free cars plus Federal inspection ,( take your pick) they gave up and I receive $1,500 check, I am no BS , or I was plain lucky.
Ohh about her needed physio or chiro , yes has that and being paid for then stop 3 month later but it not over yet about buy out $$.
I would tell them to buy Tercel4WD (rust free) good luck

[toughtercel]

opps

[deejay1272]

Damn, with only ~136k on the clock, you probably have a very valuable 4WD transmission on your hands at the very least. If you do end up parting this vehicle out, then please let us know as I'm sure we could come up with several requests if you decide to take that route.

Sorry to hear about your luck here, dude. I definitely sympathize.

[danzo]

the person at fault knows they are making a poor decision but they do it anyway, and then there is a whole bunch of bullsh*t to deal with. imagine if this girl had killed you and how that would affect the rest of her life, mentally and emotionally as well as financially. she would feel such guilt that she would likely never recover

Sadly, I doubt this would have happened. No to sound like an old geezer, but today's American youth have a bizarre tendency to rationalize out of responsibility. If she would have killed you I bet she would have made excuses until she mentally absolved herself eventually. It may sound crass, but in all seriousness the best thing for this girl would have a good beatin' immediately following the wreck (not accident). Physical pain associated with the behavior may be the only way she will learn to change that behavior (her driving habits in this case).

A few years ago one of my best friends was killed in a terrible motorcycle wreck. The girl who did it was making a left turn across traffic while completely not paying attention, my friend had no chance to react. It was never determined if she was on the phone/texting, but we do know that absolutely nothing happened to her. No arrest, no lawsuit (his family is completely benign), not even a damn traffic ticket. Literally all she had to do was pay the deductable to fix her car. I had some very choice words with the police in the days following the wreck, but in the end it came down to "since she wasn't drunk we can't do anything to her". I don't know if her driving has improved or if she is mentally distraught by the wreck since I don't have any contact with her. I sure hope she learned and has improved her driving, but I doubt it.

[dlb]

man, we're opening another can of wal-mart worms here but i can't resist. this is a good topic.

Physical pain associated with the behavior may be the only way she will learn to change that behavior

i agree with you, danzo. do you remember this?...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_P._Fay

...when that punk kid got lashed in singapore for being a POS and then everyone started crying foul? i was so disappointed in the typical "politically correct" reaction NA generally had because i think it's clear that NA justice systems have little effect on crime. i think if we would adopt a similar style of corporal punishment we would reduce costs all over the place in our justice systems--no feeding the bastards, no housing them, and we would see them a lot less frequently which would mean lower wait times for trials. so regardless of how awful corporal punishment is and what it might say about our society, i think it would provide some real benefits to everyone.

sorry about your friend danzo, that obviously sucks. i hope that girl knows what she did.

[Mad_Marx]

Yeah, sometimes there's nothing like a good ol' fashioned blue collar Ass-Woopin'


Happy to Be Alive, and Happy to have the support of other Terc Lovers. Thanks All!