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Can I repair and drive my car after a rollover accident?

Deciding whether to repair a car involved in a rollover accident requires careful consideration and a thorough inspection by a professional car body repair technician. PHOTO/WWW.MORRISBART.COM

What you need to know:

Failure to properly restore critical structural elements, such as stress concentrators or the cage-like modules in unibody cars designed to protect occupants during severe rollovers or impacts, can leave passengers vulnerable to serious injury or fatality in the event of another collision or rollover.

Hello Paul, a few days ago, my Toyota Premio Super 1999 model had an accident where it overturned four times and was severely damaged. I seek your advice as to whether I should repair and keep the car or sell it and buy another. Ojera

Hello Ojera, deciding whether to repair a car involved in a rollover accident requires careful consideration and a thorough inspection by a professional car body repair technician. Rushing to repair and drive a vehicle after such an accident, without adequately assessing the extent of the damage, can lead to serious injury or even death in the event of another accident. This is primarily due to the potential failure of compromised structural components that may not have been securely replaced or restored after the initial accident.

There are several reasons why a car such as your Toyota Premio might not be repairable after a severe rollover accident. During a rollover, the car's metal components undergo extrusion, compression, and sometimes fracture. Such accidents push the metal's flexibility to its limits, causing deformation of its granular structure. Indicators of severe metal stress in cars repaired after rollover accidents include doors that no longer close properly, panels such as bonnets or trunk lids that do not align with their brackets or hinge mounts, twisted or stretched engine mounts needed to fit the engine, buckled floor pans, or steering racks that pull to one side or fail to centre due to distortion of their mounting points.

Repairing a car after a rollover accident is both complex and expensive. It demands specialised skills and equipment, such as chassis liners, body repair jacks, dollies, and MIG welding machines, to achieve precision and fidelity during the repair process. In some instances, entire sections or frames must be replaced, which can be extremely costly. Unfortunately, this often creates a temptation to cut corners to stay within budget.

The complexity increases with unibody car structures, such as those of your Toyota Premio, where the body and frame are integrated. 

This differs from body-on-frame designs, such as those used in pick-up trucks or older pre-2000 station wagons. 

Failure to properly restore critical structural elements, such as stress concentrators or the cage-like modules in unibody cars designed to protect occupants during severe rollovers or impacts, can leave passengers vulnerable to serious injury or fatality in the event of another collision or rollover.

It is no surprise that the cost of repairing cars involved in severe accidents often exceeds 90 percent of their value. For this reason, insurance adjusters frequently deem such vehicles a total loss and write them off.