Looking for the previous owner: Anybody recognize this bad boy?

Looking for the previous owner, have a few questions about its mods. Bought this totaled at the insurance auction. Please reach out if you recognize it. Thanks!

 

Do you have a general location you could add to try and narrow it down for any people viewing this that may know?

 

Last was owned in California

 

totaled? How bad?

 

Not so bad, easy repair and will be as good as before

 

then it wouldnt be a totaled vehicle if it was an easy repair.

 

OK professor let's keep this thread on topic. If you have any more question about why vehicles get totaled and what might be considered an easy repair etc, you can DM me. I have several years of experience in the salvage industry

 

We rarely stay on topic on this site. After the 5 or 7th posting, the thread usually gets derailed.

 

OK, well if you have several years in the salvage business, I guess it would be easy for you to track down the previous owner instead of asking us.. Have a nice day and Enjoy your “totaled” car.

 

Why don’t you crawl under/inside the car, search around and try to find out what kind of mods are on it on your own? Oh wait that would be too easy to do….

 

How did I not think about it? silly me....
listen Sherlock! this car is in a shipping container right now in CA, going overseas, I have not seen it in person and won't be able to see it for another 2-3 months, hence the reason I'm trying to track down the previous owner to get some details about its mods. Hope this answer satisfies your curiosity.

 

Maybe the owner died in the car wreck.

 

All of That info would have been useful to know in your first posting. Im done with this thread, youre too much work. A 3 year old gives more information than you do.

 

oh boy, hes gonna start calling you professor, Sherlock or doctor. Watch out lol!

 

Well I am very distinguished.

 

Useful for what? for who? the sole purpose of this post is to find an owner who I'm pretty sure can identify his/her vehicle just by seeing the photos provided So I think sharing all those details would have been totally irrelevant and useless just like your comments, although one may argue that your comments still provided some value by increasing engagement on this thread, so thank you

 

Most likely if anyone on this forum owned a modified 4R like that, they'd be fixing it rather than taking the "totaled" cash and running, especially if it was a simple fix. But you never know. You might get lucky.

 

That's a good point. My next step is to post it on Facebook group, but still waiting for the approval from admins to let me in

 

here you go

 

It belonged to my sisters moms sisters cousins aunt.

 

I thought of Space Balls when I read your post.

 

Frame damage isn't the only thing taken into account when we total out vehicles.

Cost of transport + Parts + Labor + Body work + etc...

A lot of cars these days are totaled due to the influx of labor cost and part prices... & honestly, I've lost the OP but I would take the money and run. No telling what problems you'll have after repairing everything.

 

Just out of curiosity , what year 4runner is that? And if you don't mind sharing, how much did you pay for it. It does look like and easy fix.

 

2016 Trail Premium, 90k miles, $11.7 out the door. Got it cheaper than how they usually go for

 

I'll reply with something that also really isn't helpful to the op but to the conversation as I've been into this stuff for a bit. Cars can be totaled out with very little damage. Especially newer cars because of how expensive parts have become. An older car (this seems to be at least a few years old as it looks like keys are hanging from the dash) will have depreciation to consider as well. Then x value (may depend on your policy) is what they would cover. A little over that and it's a write off. So it is not hard to get it totaled out. I have a 4Runner because my 21 Mercedes was totaled out. It was hit in the side and an airbag went off. Ins adjusters said it would probably be around 17k to repair and that was over the threshold. Car went to auction and sold to someone in Mexico.

All of that being said ... someone with some knowledge ... those bumpers remove all of the crash padding and mount direct to the frame correct? If so the left side of that frame def looks like it will be bent. Can it be repaired ... sure, would I want it knowing it had been, probably not. But you could get that and repair it and have a 4Runner for 1/3-1/2 of the price and if it's a trail rig, I think that would be a steal

 

I bet the home address is in the gps

 

I agree with the OP and think it is worth the risk. Especially if you plan to take it out to the desert or trails often. Sometimes I laugh at myself for buying a brand-new car and then tearing it apart just to add more weight. Seems like a fun project, if I had an open garage bay I would consider a project like this.

Anecdotal story regarding totaled cars:
My wife's 2023 Volvo XC90 was rear-ended at the end of October. All the airbags went off except the front ones. I was sure it was going to be totaled. It wasn't, we just got it back 2 weeks ago due to parts shortages. It was a fleet vehicle (my wife works in sales), so not sure if that changes the calculus around totaling vehicles. We had a shitty Ford Edge for 5 months, really makes you appreciate the nicer things in life.

 

the real question is how often did the oil get changed, every 2000 or every 3000 miles?

 

This is our third Volvo in the last 6 years and we have loved all of them so far. Granted we haven't driven one past 65,000 miles.