Edmunds purchased a Cybertruck to road test, it was totaled before that happened [View all]

[Demovictory9]

https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/2024-tesla-cybertruck-damage-long-term-wrapup.html

Well, this didn't go as planned. We bought a Tesla Cybertruck last summer with the intent of putting it through our One-Year Road Test program, but just a few months into owning Elon Musk's brutalist pickup, things came to a screeching halt. Literally.

On December 11, 2024, our Cybertruck was parked on the street outside of a restaurant in West Hollywood when a compact sedan blew through an intersection and crashed into the Tesla's driver's side rear wheel and bumper. As you can see from the photos, there was significant damage to the wheel, tire, stainless steel panel and bumper, to say nothing of the dozens upon dozens of innards that were broken in the process. The impact was hard enough to push the 6,660-pound Cybertruck partially up onto the curb, and part of the rear axle had actually broken off and dropped onto the ground, which gouged into the pavement as the Cybertruck was dragged onto a tow truck.

Then came the headache
Ordinary body shops were unwilling to touch the Cybertruck. We had to use a Tesla shop, and it had to be specially certified to work on the Cybertruck's stainless-steel body. Of those, only two were within a 50-mile radius of Los Angeles, the most Cybertruck-dense population on the planet.

The first shop in Huntington Beach quoted a one-month wait just to get an estimate. And if we wanted to proceed with repairs, we'd then have to wait six more months. The reality of this situation: We'd have to tow our undrivable truck to Huntington Beach, get the estimate, tow it away and store it someplace for five months, then tow it back to be fixed. That was a no-go.

Two months after the accident, we finally had a visual estimate. To tear the Cybertruck down for a thorough inspection cost $1,128, and the resulting quote totaled $57,879.89 to repair our truck. The value of the truck unblemished was $86,160. So, after all that, our Cybertruck was considered a total loss.

The damage might not look extensive at first glance, but the key thing that destroyed our truck was the rear wheel being pushed inward, destroying a huge chunk of the rear suspension, the rear drive motor, the rear-wheel steering setup, and a ton of other parts.

Here's the breakdown:

Stripes and moldings: $619
Motors and components: $4,191 (including $3,000 for an EV drive unit)
Motor mounts: $77
Wheels and parts: $1,758
Steering: $2,040
Rear suspension: $9,149 (including $2,500 for a new suspension crossmember)
Cab and components: $3,800 (including $3,240 for a high-strength steel frame)
Bed: $8,762.79 (including $1,595 for the outer panel, $4,280 for the aluminum rear section and $1,055 for the bed floor)
Tailgate: $2,495
Rear bumper: $2,417.73
Rear body, lamps and floor plan: $1,668.50 (including $800 for the inner taillamp assembly)
Miscellaneous parts: $357.22
Other parts: $5
Paint and materials: $610
Tax on parts and materials: $3,320.65
Labor: $16,584
Sublet repairs: $25
Grand total: $57,879.89