ziopaperone's YAY: Yet Another Yaris

[ziopaperone]

Seeing that there are a few threads about econoboxes now and I just took mine home from the mechanic, i thought about posting about it and said "Why not?"
WARNING: this will be a thread with very few images (have never thought about taking some) and a bit of blabber, so don't say you haven't been warned.

In 2008, we had just finished paying the loan on the last of quite a long series of a Fiat Group cars of our family, and started the usual dealership tour. The prerequisites were, rather unsurprisingly:

• being cheap;
• being comfortable for a 99% city use;
• being cheap;
• being readily available;
• and, last but not least... being cheap.

The Fiesta was the first to be axed (didn't feel much welcome at the local dealership twice), followed by the C3 and Punto (deal not good enough, plus the former has a reputation for being a bad driver's car in our surroundings). The fourth visit, though, was successful, so we took this:

home. It hasn't really got a nickname: the closest thing it has is "Bagai", local dialect for "thingy".
It's an 1.0 Now [sic] edition; the optionals include leather steering wheel & gear knob, a false-bottom system in the trunk, aircon&radio and all the usual stuff; it has 104.000 kms under its belt, and has had almost no major mechanical problems: just a wheel bearing @45k, replaced under warranty, and the water pump @90k.

I plan on acquiring it from my parents when the time comes and keep it running for as long as I can, being my first car; this plan, however, almost risked being obliterated (choice of words not accidental).
Let's go back to the very early hours of December 20th of last year: I parked in front of my house and went to bed, snoring peacefully, unaware of what was going to happen in a couple of hours. When I woke up and went out later, I found out someone had a "minor"

accident involving my car. For reference, the strip between the tarmac and the ground is a step 7-8 cms high. Just seeing it from where I was, 5m away and a couple to the right, made me uncomfortable; the next step (i.e crying) followed a few seconds later, as I saw the other side of the car

and looked at the wheel well

Yes, that's the rear suspension "bridge" (correct me if I used the wrong term) almost broken.

Long story short, the gentlewoman (probably quite a bit DUI) who decided it would be nice to suddenly swerve without caring about the other cars gifted us of 5.600€ of damages for Christmas. To add insult to injury, since the car has a value of 3.400€, guess what? Her insurance* isn't going to pay a cent more than that.
Longer story even shorter, the repairs took a whopping three months, but at least now the car looks like this:

which, to yours faithfully's eyes, looks like quite a decent job.

*NOTE: I'm not meaning to deprecate the insurance's behaviour: they have follwed the rules and have been quite kind and professional during this ordeal.

 

[Fastcarguy]

Im surprised they actually fixed it. That would have been considered totaled where I live.

 

[Pupik]

Im surprised they actually fixed it. That would have been considered totaled where I live.

The Yaris (and equivalents) does not have independent rear suspension, so they're repairable in that kind of condition.

Major front-end repairs can be insurance write-offs.

 

[ziopaperone]

The Yaris (and equivalents) does not have independent rear suspension, so they're repairable in that kind of condition.

Major front-end repairs can be insurance write-offs.

Yep. Parts didn't cost that much, just north of 1k € for a complete door, two fenders and a bazillion of hidden bits & pieces (will check for more details as soon as my father brings the bill home). What drove the costs up were labour (62, yes, sixty-two hrs @ ~40€ each) and our beloved sales tax, currently at 22%.
As for it being totaled, the standard practice is to cap any reimbursement at the car's then-current value, leaving the choice of demolishing or not to the owner.

Re: front end, luckily I haven't had any major problems, but seeing how everything is tightly packed, I also believe major repairs are going to be not one, but several pains where the sun doesn't shine.