Disaster Struck. I think my baby is gone. :(

One other quick thought - we've had 2 cars "totaled" in the past few years, in both cases there was interest (myself and a few friends) in buying back the carcass. Generally speaking, the day they total a car, a flatbed shows up and takes the car to Copart (or similar) where it will likely sit outside in the rain, and get picked over. The insurance company lets Copart run the auction(s), sometimes over multiple weeks, meanwhile the condition of the car degrades. One of the cars sat outside, in Miami, during the summer, open to the elements.

IF you consider the "get it back" route, try and get them to agree up front and avoid Copart at all costs.

 

Bummer.

I had an acquaintance get killed a few years ago by a deer that came through the windshield, while his son sat in the passenger seat, unscathed. Death by deer is a for real thing, and who knows, your reflexes may have saved your life, or at least helped you avoid more serious injury.

Sad that your car took the brunt of the damage, but I'd guess a head on with a deer probably would have had the same effect.

Let it go. Negotiate hard with your insurer if you think you're getting the bum's rush, or get an attorney to negotiate it for you.

then go out and grab another one and drive the snot out of it.

D

 

ouch, very sorry to see this!!

 

Really sorry to see this, your 355 is my favorite color! As others have said, it's just a car and hitting the deer would have been worse most likely with that low sloping hood.

 

I'm sure they will total it unfortunately. Heres one with similar damage on IAAI right now.

https://www.iaai.com/Vehicles/VehicleDetails.aspx?itemID=22351505&RowNumber=6&loadRecent=True

I've dismantled 6 Ferraris and dozens of other cars, I'm doing an 02 Porsche 911 right now. I haven't been doing much as of late since my back injury/surgery and I'm still disabled and have to have my daughters boyfriend do the work but I'm still interested in acquiring cars for the future. I see you already have several offers to buy the car if you keep it. I have offered to buy the totals of several owners on here for more then the buy back price and every one of them has just let it go to the insurance co even though they could have made more money selling it private. Go figure??

 

Not an issue for me/you/us though eh Steve if it's coming out anyway never to return! ;-)

The prototype is coming along nicely by the way, now has a v12 heart as well that I am working out how to fit this weekend

 

****.

Like many others I live in a deer populated area. October - November is a mess around here. Auto body shops love it.

Be glad you missed the deer. Had you hit it broad side, it would have come right over the hood and into the windscreen...and lord knows where after that.

Hitting a deer in my 355 or TR8 is a real concern for me as both have the sloped hood and would drop the deer in my lap, or worse, head.

Good thing you are OK. I love that car....hope you get it fixed.

 

As a former shop owner deer season sucked, all the ticks from the deer in the chuncks on the car got a lot of people lime disease. Not me luckily

 

Ticks or not...It is big business around here.

My dad nailed a deer on the way to the office a couple years ago. Ripped the front off his jeep. Insurance gave him a rental car while they fixed his jeep. He hit a deer with that one the next day...

Deer season thins the heard, but it sends them running too.

 

No its repairable as it sits, like is it fixable as a general body shop repair, yes it be done.

Getting all the parts needed is where it becomes questionable. This is where insurance company will total the car, parts cost are so great they just total the car.

Especially the header bar that goes from wing/fender to fender, in front of the headlight buckets. That support is not available anywhere but off another wrecked car.

 

Are you saying under the carpet? Because to find this you would have to disassemble a lot of the car to check.

Got any photos?

 

Yes it is a great season for that kind of damage. shops gear up looking forward to it.
Luckily I was in NJ so had more pedestrians hit then deer.

 

Here's a crazy number.

126,000 vehicle-deer collisions just in Pennsylvania last year. ONE HUNDRED TWENTY SIX THOUSAND!! (10% of the national total, BTW)

Hunters kill 300,000+ deer a year in PA.

That is a **** ton of dead deer per year, and when we left PA, they were everywhere. We had a herd that ran through our woods every night. 10-20 of them. And I was not living in rural PA. I was 30 minutes outside of Philly.

As their natural predators get forced out, we'll just have more and more and more. They're like GIANT RATS. Eating all the vegetation, and then committing vehicular suicide at an alarming rate.

Although have to say I've seen less than a half dozen total down here in Florida, must be too hot for them, or maybe the gators keep them in check.

D

 

I can't recall a single night (in 16 years) heading home where I live and not seeing at least one deer. I love them, but it's scary...

 

Eric - this is painful to see...

IMO, yes, it's done. It can be fixed, but the costs won't align. Maybe with your agreed value they might be on the fence but you would also need to argue diminished value after the repairs as the story would haunt the car's future value.

 

Most likey they will total it due to the foreseen hidden damage. Honestly looks like an easy fix that can come out pretty clean. we called this type of hit a chip shot that was easy to fix and good money. I would take 10 week if I could.

If it were me I would buy it for sure and fix that baby. Virgin means nothing to me.

 

Is the battery damaged, why windows not rolled up?

Wheel pushed back is probably one of.the control arms, theres nothing to them in comparison to the main frame where they bolt up.

Without tearing off everything and putting it on a frame machine and measuiring it, very hard not to think the whole thing is tweeked even just little bit.

You know the adjuster will spend about 5 min looking it over and deciding the cars fate.

 

Tim points out that it's an easy fix for a good shop. He's not wrong, but best of luck finding that "good shop". That's part of the issue. And, it took me 2 shops and months to get a set of wheels refinished properly. Doing this car correctly is a lot of work and attention to detail such as the black under hood accents and such. If you need to paint the front end and doors, well that warrants a full respray and that's going to cost a lot.

To fix this car, the best option would be a person that can do most or all of the work themselves. I doubt any shop would do this flat rate, they will want to do T&M and that's a big blank check....

 

From my experience that car is totaled. Get what you can from the insurance company and start hunting for a new one. You will find one!

 

Totaled my 360 manual transmission and replaced it with a 430 Spider with 20,000 less miles,CPO and factory warranty Apr 1. I was very upset at first, but got over it when I bought the 430. Sorry for your loss, but everything happens for a reason. At least you weren't injured. It'll work out.


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How much did you have it insured for? Makes a difference when they figure to total it or not.

Sure, you can buy it back ($ is probably negotiable) and have it fixed. Then you might be required to get it appraised and they might want receipts to prove real Ferrari parts were used before they'll re-insure it.

You might consider this a good time to upgrade depending on emotional attachment.