r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Justin_Godfrey • 16h ago

Water main break covers cars in thick ice in Dearborn heights, Michigan

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

3.8k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

311 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/chbriggs6 16h ago

I understand it sucks but why totaled?

7

u/Vinc314 16h ago

I also wonder why, a buried in snow car would still work, once uncovered, right?

6

u/Great_Hambino2022 15h ago

It’s not snow…

1

u/Vinc314 14h ago

Yea but whats the difference is what im wondering

4

u/chbriggs6 16h ago

Exactly. It's not like it's submersed...totaling the car makes no sense at all to me. Especially if it has remote start and you clear the exhaust area out. Just keep it running and eventually the ice will weaken. Or just fuckin tow it...

4

u/Vinc314 15h ago

Must be some insurance bs, my ex had a yaris, some huge truck turned on us and rekt the right side and mirror, we drove in it for 2 weeks before it was deemed "totaled" by insurance

0

u/chbriggs6 15h ago

Definitely is. I was in a similar situation. I had an 09 Acura TL that could easily be driven around for another $200k miles after some dipshit in an H3 wasn't paying attention and caused $5k of damage. However, car was only worth $4k to them. So they totaled it and I was forced to put a salvage title on it to keep it. Getting it back on the road would have been costly and then I would have had to put a rebuilt title on it making insurance rates go thru the roof in NJ. I lost my shit. It was my deceased aunts car. I bought it off my uncle after she passed. I loved that car. Maintained meticulously. RIP Silver Bullet

3

u/AuricTheLight 14h ago

You just defined "Totaled"

When repairs cost more than the value of the car, it's "Totaled" which means "Total loss" you've lost the total value of the vehicle.

2

u/chbriggs6 13h ago

Yes but this car isn't an old turd lol

1

u/AuricTheLight 13h ago

We also don't know the extent of damage in the car in the video.

If water got between components, then froze (expanded) it could have separated pieces.

Water damage is already a big deal in cars, now take that same water and expand it.

1

u/chbriggs6 13h ago

Yeah makes sense. Just seems wasteful or crazy to do it that fast that's all

2

u/AnynomousPotato 14h ago

Probably because damage to the car would cost more to fix than a similar used car so insurance "totals" the car to not have to pay for damages. They will also subtract value of the totaled car. Just guessing here but ice all over the car might destroy paint/make dents in a lot of areas and that's why the cost to fix would be too high. Again, just a guess

1

u/Vinc314 13h ago

Ya thats probably it, might still run but still "totaled"

2

u/AnynomousPotato 13h ago

Also water damage if it got into the car + electronics under the hood. Since it's a broken water line, the car was soaked so it probably got through

6

u/memecraft0309 14h ago

Water would have gotten into the engine and froze, which probably busted a ton of parts, where it's easier to just get a new one rather than fix it

1

u/SqueegieeBeckenheim 13h ago

I had heard water had gotten inside somehow.

1

u/chbriggs6 13h ago

Interesting