2013 SV Crashed

Hey everyone! I've only posted a few times on the forums when I first joined (funny how life gets so busy lol) but I wanted to share for those who want to see first-hand how safe the Leaf can be.

I was going through a green light with my wife over the weekend and was t-boned by a Toyota Tacoma who ran the light (dashcam footage shows our light was green for a full 5 seconds before impact). The speed limit there was 45 and I bet he was going every bit of it. Spun me around in the middle of the intersection almost 180 degrees. Other than not being able to open my door, I couldn't notice but 1-2 inches of interior intrusion in the front or back. The misses and I came out with only minor aches and bruises thanks to the airbags deploying and the great engineering for the side-impact.

I'm fairly certain it is going to be totaled given the resale value of the Leaf but I wanted to make sure to share this as I know I have been combing through pictures of crashed Leafs for estimates and similar accidents. We'll see what the future holds, especially since the new Plus is on the horizon!

Thanks for sharing, and I'm glad to hear that the car protected you two.
It was about time for a new EV anyway ;-)

Glad you two are safe. That's no small collision.

I am glad you are both OK. The Leaf is a heavy car that does well is crashes. I am fairly certain it will be declared a total loss because the other driver's insurance company will look at the low "Blue Book" values and decide it is cheaper to total than fix.

GerryAZ said:

I am glad you are both OK. The Leaf is a heavy car that does well is crashes. I am fairly certain it will be declared a total loss because the other driver's insurance company will look at the low "Blue Book" values and decide it is cheaper to total than fix.

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It really did well all things considered! Indeed, the adjusted contacted me and it was declared an "Obvious Total Loss". Adjuster said he only went inside to check mileage, but made the assessment from just the outside.

My Grandfather's Comet got hit like that when I was in my late teens. I bought the car for $200, IIRC, and used a winch to pull the center pillar back out, then installed one or two used doors (I forget) and subsequently drove the car for a year. That compromises the safety if another similar impact occurs, of course...

Were you on your first battery, or did you have a replacement? How many bars did it have?

Comet, haven't heard that name in a while, I had at least one of those :lol: pretty decent compact car of it's time.
Speaking of accident damage to a Leaf......my wife recently was driving our '13S Leaf and due to traffic in adjacent lanes was unable to swerve out of the way and ended up driving over an aluminum floor jack, which I'm guessing fell out of the back of a pickup truck :x She ran it over doing probably 50?? mph and pulled off to the shoulder as soon she could. She said the noise was horrific and after pulling over she was initially unable to start driving again. She said the car wouldn't go. I'm guessing the jack got wedged under the engine area, keeping the wheels somewhat off the ground. After a bit of back and forth she was able to get moving again. She got out and took a picture of the beat up aluminum floor jack, moved it off to the side of the road the best she could(she said it was quite heavy) and continued the 3 miles home.
Unfortunatly the hood was popped up(looked like it was 1 notch up but no way to get it to sit flush with the rest of the car) although the charging door was fine. The under car fiber aero liner was flipped under the car so I had to cut it off roughly under where your feet probably sit. The plastic air dam was also broken and dragging on the ground so I had to cut the parts off that were dragging to be able to drive it without it dragging. The bottom of the radiator also had a slight deflection, probably a half inch bow but no leaks. The jack looks like it stopped right before a nut that had a drop of green transmittion fluid?? hanging from it. I tightened the nut and it never dripped again.
The body shop said the front cradle?? the part that holds up the wheels and engine was bent, which explains why the hood looked popped, the hood wasn't really high rather the parts in front of it were bent down, but again the charge port door looked to be on the level.
The body shop said the vehicle was just barely fixable(as opposed to being junked out) as their repair bill was approaching the 65% value of the car which insurance companies apparently think of junking the car. I was happy about this as I'd probably take a real soaking on the car if they junked it out, a vehicle that only has 40k miles and it would probably end up costing me $15k(after the $7500 rebate I got on my taxes) a big loss
Wow, who would have known, a simple floor jack in the road could have potentially junked out a $30k(when new) car just 5 years in
I'm guessing many higher up cars and all pickups/SUVs easily drove over the jack, unfortunately the Leaf is a rather low(clearance) car!
That Mitusibishi Outlander PHEV is looking better all the time, just wish it had a bigger battery, I know my wife would really like one
Oh it will end up costing us $500, our deductible, wow I was just thinking of dropping the collision due to cost and the fact the car was finally paid off, glad I didn't! I would have thought this type of accident was a comp claim but they said collision. A deer would be comp but I guess not a jack in the road!

Ouch.

Comet, haven't heard that name in a while, I had at least one of those :lol: pretty decent compact car of it's time.

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I used to buy and sell used Mavericks as a late teen, plus the occasional Comet, its twin. The Maverick was kind of Basic, but the Comet was usually optioned a bit more, and had a nicer interior, nose and tail. The last car designed to be fixed by shadetree mechanics...

Were you on your first battery, or did you have a replacement? How many bars did it have?

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Yes, the pack may be worth quite a bit, depending on build date and SOH.

Get a good scum bag lawyer and you could get 2 teslas and maybe a paid off house out of it.

Oilpan4 said:

Get a good scum bag lawyer and you could get 2 teslas and maybe a paid off house out of it.

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The driver who ran the red light is the real scumbag.

tesleaf said:

Oilpan4 said:

Get a good scum bag lawyer and you could get 2 teslas and maybe a paid off house out of it.

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The driver who ran the red light is the real scumbag.

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Before we go judging others, be aware that all people make mistakes, you and I included.

tesleaf said:

Oilpan4 said:

Get a good scum bag lawyer and you could get 2 teslas and maybe a paid off house out of it.

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The driver who ran the red light is the real scumbag.

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Human nature being what it is, any situation that occurs repeatedly, over many years, eventually involves multiple scumbags. Thus blame often has be divided amongst them. And no, I'm not saying the victim or lawyer are automatically anything.

Yes, the pack may be worth quite a bit, depending on build date and SOH.

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I bought the car on the CPO program so I can only assume that it was on the first battery given the total SOH. Thankfully I did my monthly Leaf Spy battery check only a few days before and it had 73.75% with 48.23 AHr with 10 bars.

OddOcelot said:

Yes, the pack may be worth quite a bit, depending on build date and SOH.

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I bought the car on the CPO program so I can only assume that it was on the first battery given the total SOH. Thankfully I did my monthly Leaf Spy battery check only a few days before and it had 73.75% with 48.23 AHr with 10 bars.

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Not worth a lot, then, I'm afraid.

In 20 years of driving I have never had an at fault crash.
I have been hit 4 times by idiots not paying attention to the road or driving drunk.

The only thing that these irresponsible people respond to a little is jail time, huge fines and never being legally to drive again.
I lived in Japan for years and they had pretty totalitarian driving laws I wish we had laws like that here. My favorite was the red stripe license plate.

LeftieBiker said:

OddOcelot said:

Yes, the pack may be worth quite a bit, depending on build date and SOH.

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I bought the car on the CPO program so I can only assume that it was on the first battery given the total SOH. Thankfully I did my monthly Leaf Spy battery check only a few days before and it had 73.75% with 48.23 AHr with 10 bars.

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Not worth a lot, then, I'm afraid.

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Agreed. This might actually turn out to be a blessing in some ways, in that you could get a newer model car with a better battery!

Oilpan4 said:

In 20 years of driving I have never had an at fault crash.
I have been hit 4 times by idiots not paying attention to the road or driving drunk.

The only thing that these irresponsible people respond to a little is jail time, huge fines and never being legally to drive again.
I lived in Japan for years and they had pretty totalitarian driving laws I wish we had laws like that here. My favorite was the red stripe license plate.

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Sample size: 1, and based on your location, likely much of that in good weather. Glad you've been lucky.

In my lifetime, ~600 million traffic accidents will have occurred in the US (twice the current size of the population). Banning people from driving again, at least in the US, essentially ruins their life. On such a large scale, it would demolish the economy as people would be unable to travel legally. Japan has mass transit--there are alternatives to get around. For large portions of the country, the US does not.

Personally, I'm from Michigan, and in 20 years of driving, I've never hit another car (although I did cause one accident involving only myself as a teenager). In Michigan, where roads are often slick, accidents do happen to good drivers. I've been hit multiple times by other drivers for a variety of reasons. Yet for instance purposes, I am in one of the lowest risk categories.

Not every accident is a systematic lack of judgement or complete disregard for others' welfare. Jailing people for a mistake is a serious waste of money and will cause damage to many families. We need to be slow to judge others and recognize that people make mistakes and are flawed. We already have (and I support) laws to take repeat or egregious offenders off the road.

LeftieBiker said:

OddOcelot said:

Yes, the pack may be worth quite a bit, depending on build date and SOH.

Click to expand...

I bought the car on the CPO program so I can only assume that it was on the first battery given the total SOH. Thankfully I did my monthly Leaf Spy battery check only a few days before and it had 73.75% with 48.23 AHr with 10 bars.

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Not worth a lot, then, I'm afraid.

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Yeah... It honestly worked out okay in the end since the insurance actually gave me more back than the sale price that I bought it for two years ago.

As for the driver at fault, yeah he most certainly was not paying attention (most likely texting) but I could tell he felt horrible. He immediately came over to our car to assist us and ask if we were okay. When his parent's showed up (he was a teenage driver), I could hear them berating him across 4 lanes of traffic. I just hope it is enough to have him seriously reconsider the responsibility of driving.

First I stated driving in maine. Ice possible on roads from September to may and likely from Thanksgiving to April.
After that I lived in northern Japan where they didn't salt or plow the roads.
So during the winters I was sliding around on snow and ice from about 1999 to 2006.
6 months in Okinawa where traffic laws are suggestions, totally different than main land Japan.
4 years in and around Virginia Beach.
Now I'm in new mexico things happen to the roads here that east coast people can't even imagine. Just 2 days ago I was hit by cross winds so hard I believe it triggered the leafs traction control I turned the traction control off and didn't have any more problems. I have driven on 2 inches of pea size hail that was interesting, I have hydroplaned on liquid cow poop in the middle of the day, I have almost gotten stuck or buried in tumble weeds and I was in my suburban, I have hydroplaned on locust guts, driven in haboobs that were so thick I could barely see the road, been hit by at least one small tornado, driven through a butterfly
Plague, seen it rain cattle feed. Seen it snow the end of june, actually My longest drive ever on solid ice was here in new mexico. The most intense blizzard I have ever seen was in new mexico.
Most New Mexico municipalities have 0 or nearly 0 snow and ice removal machinery so their snow removal plan is to wait for it to melt.

Plus all the times I was hit by another driver weather was not a factor at all.

In 2008 a drunk driver hit me while I was going down the road at 55mph they were going over 100mph. People who do stupid stuff should have their lives ruined. If they are driving down the highway over 100mph falling down drunk they obviously don't care about them selves or anyone else.
If they want to die that bad then they should just rent a gun and buy a bullet.