Kizashi Club

Well, my affair with my Kizashi has come to an end. On Sunday on my way home for services, a guy ran a red light and I couldn't stop before plowing into his driver's side door. It was cold, rainy and I was traveling no more than 30mph. Probably 25. Nobody was hurt. All my airbags deployed with a loud bang and an acrid smell and debris filled the cabin. I don't even think it touched the air bag. The seat belt retractors did their job and kept me firmly back I think. It was just like all those videos we see from a dash cam where a car comes out from nowhere and gets t-boned. The damage to the Kizzy was actually not bad as the front right by the headlight took the brunt of the hit although I'm not sure why I didn't hit him squarely with the center of the front. The upper and lower grills were totally intact. If not for the air bags hanging all over the place I could probably have driven it home. If it was just that damage and the driver's side air bags, it might have been fixable. The damage to the body was estimated at about $3500 but the air bags would cost $14000. Yep. That's not a mistype. The all have to be OEM. I'm not sure if things like the seats would have to be replaced as well as all the side bags deployed ripping gaping holes in the seats. The frame may have been torqued as the rear driver's side door does not fit properly anymore. The other driver was insured thankfully.

It was a 2011 with 128K miles on it. My insurance company is handling it and yesterday the Total Loss department called with a settlement. They offered about $5475 based on the sale of one other Kizashi in or around Virginia. I did not accept it verbally and he asked me to send him no more than two others to justify asking for more and he'd consider them. He said according to their rules, they had to be 2011s with all the same specs. All the 2011 SLSs were AWD and were $6500 - $7000 on average. The ones with similar mileage were $6500. Mine is FWD so I'm not sure how much they will deduct for that. It looks like maybe $6000 is all I'm going to get. Funny, but a lot of SE's are being offered for quite a bit more than SLS's. I'd probably be able to get more.

sad to see that LPSISRL. I hope you can find a stock airbag set or maybe just forget the airbag to me it is not a major accident.

I can't imagine the work involved. I don't think any shop would touch it. My wife certainly wouldn't let me drive it around with no air bags. Although the passenger side air bag did not deploy.

I don’t suppose you could settle with the insurance company by them paying you that amount plus letting you keep your car . The interior parts are very easy to come by since they are quick to total the Kizashi’s . The job of replacing the air bags with computer and dr belt is involved but really quite easy and the parts are out there used and cheap . The worst part on your car is that front bumper cover . It seems to have a little bit more damage than that could be just stitched back together but maybe it could . I have all the bags except driver seat and steering wheel . $150 plus shipping


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Damn shame. Glad you were not injured. What a really nice car you had. Totaled because of bags. What a waste.

That is sad to see. Glad everyone came out unscathed..save for the Kiz..

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old tech wrote: ↑Sun Feb 14, 2021 2:09 pm I don’t suppose you could settle with the insurance company by them paying you that amount plus letting you keep your car . The interior parts are very easy to come by since they are quick to total the Kizashi’s . The job of replacing the air bags with computer and dr belt is involved but really quite easy and the parts are out there used and cheap . The worst part on your car is that front bumper cover . It seems to have a little bit more damage than that could be just stitched back together but maybe it could . I have all the bags except driver seat and steering wheel . $150 plus shipping


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Thanks for the offer. It's tempting but a bit more than I want to bite off. To me it looks like all the seats ether need to be replaced as the sides are all blown out or a shop would have to stitch then all back up after the airbags were reinstalled. It's all rather moot since I already settled with although I have not signed and sent back the documents. Not only that, I have a 2001 MR2 Spyder when I have an itch to work on a car. If the right one comes along, I will buy a low milage SLS provided the CVT has been taken care of. That's what I'd really like.