Lightning owner YouTuber on EVs deemed totaled

[MountainAlive]

Not sure if this person who runs the Trucked Up EVs channel is on the forum here but he’s done Lightning videos before. This one is interesting as it covers his journey with insurance labeling his truck totaled with very minor damage.

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[RLXXI]

Canadian's get screwed all kind of different ways it seems.

 

[Brent@ANParts]

It really doesn't take much to total an EV nowadays, and it still surprises me. I grew up in an auto body shop and the cars I used to see get repaired would 100% be totaled, with probably half the damage today.

 

[Heliian]

The insurance cartels are using the ev label to swindle more money out of people. They've been doing it unchecked with "regular" cars for decades.

 

[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

The Truck-d up EV guy is in BC where they decided a Government owned Insurance Monopoly would be better for everyone.
If he had not done a claim, a new rim, skid plate, rocker bar and minor body work could be easily repaired in a home workshop, for modest cost with basic tools.

Assumes a guy/gal can do their own body work etc.
There was no damage to the battery pack at all - nothing touched it, only the skid plate and the protective armour below the battery had damage.
The part that REALLY SUCKS - he is not allowed to buy the damaged Lightning at auction himself. Not sure why, he says it is a local thing.

Take-away: If someone has a minor acident with no other vehicle/passengers involved, you may want to carefully consider if a claim is the best way to go ... or not.

 

[sysop1]

Good thing I can take my vehicle to any repair shop I want if I’m involved in an accident, regardless who’s at fault,

 

[MountainAlive]

The Truck-d up EV guy is in BC where they decided a Government owned Insurance Monopoly would be better for everyone.
If he had not done a claim, a new rim, skid plate, rocker bar and minor body work could be easily repaired in a home workshop, for modest cost with basic tools.

Assumes a guy can do his own body work etc.
There was no damage to the battery pack at all - nothing touched it, only the skid plate and the protective armour below the battery had damage.
The part that REALLY SUCKS - he is not allowed to buy the damaged Lightning at auction himself. Not sure why, he says it is a local thing.

Take-away: If someone has a minor acident with no other vehicle/passengers involved, you may want to carefully consider if a claim is the best way to go ... or not.

Yeah that is the saddest part. As a diy job buying his own parts it was probably a $5k job to fix.

 

[WXman]

I saw it last night. It was interesting to me, because I'm on the F-150 Lightning Owners Group on Facebook and lately there has been a massive rash of people wrecking these trucks and showing pictures on that page. When I look at the pictures, the damage always seems extremely fixable. But they claim the insurance company is writing the truck off. We're talking busted bumpers and grilles from fender benders, headlights knocked out by deer, etc. Stuff that for decades would be fixed for a couple thousand bucks on any ICE truck, and COULD be fixed for the same on these Lightning trucks, but the insurance company just writes them off. It's mind blowing.

So then I saw that video last night and I'm like hmmm... maybe there is something to this.

 

[jefrank]

It seems to come down to who your insurer is. I've been rear-ended ($7k) and had an incident with a small tree when I slid off my driveway ($4k) and neither one led either of the insurers to decide to write off the truck. In both, a large part of the cost was in replacing lighting.

 

[MaintGrl]

Canadian's get screwed all kind of different ways it seems.

Oh, we get the same shaft, here in the states....It's all about the $$$, in the policy, truck gets totaled, policy rates go up...Profit $$$ goes up

 

[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

It makes me wonder: the person at the insurance co is clearly NOT a mechanic or bodywork expert, certainly NOT an EE or EV battery expert - yet they are tasked with the role of decision maker, rely on questionable 'evidence' and the "owner" of the vehicle has no say at all but will be the one ultimately short-changed in the transaction...ie the one that pays the price.

In Truck'ed up EV's case, he was on a forest road, no passengers or other vehicle involved, he could have had the truck towed to a body shop or mechanic and no report to insurance at all. Decide for himself if the repair costs warranted a claim or not. But he trusted the provincial insurance co, and found out the hard way they are not interested in looking out for him.

 

[Rayden]

I've watched a ton of his videos; in fact, he was one of the reasons why I bought my Lightning. Sucks the way insurance can work sometimes. And the way it works there in BC certainly seems to even worse than usual!

 

[RLXXI]

he could have had the truck towed to a body shop or mechanic and no report to insurance at all. Decide for himself if the repair costs warranted a claim or not.

That is exactly what I would have done.

 

[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

"I wonder if" his back has been giving him trouble since that day, after all if the crash was so significant that it completely totalled the truck, and compromised the battery even through the protective steel armour, who is to question what damage may have occured to his spine, his neck or his head at the same time...maybe he has headaches now, or pain...should call that insurance co back...

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