Take the money and get another S.

 

If the question arises again, I say take the money and buy another one. Otherwise, I'm wishing the current one a full and speedy recovery!

 

Yeh Good luck man, its hard to replace those 3 years so hopefully they will make her back to normal. The elise is nice. I'll probably be looking at one in a few years when I'm in my mid 20s or so.

 

Total it! Once they decide to total it, drive them hard on the amount they want to settle for - it is negotiable. Tell them about the new tires, how it had low miles, and was in excellent condition, and most importantly, never driven hard All those things factor into the price they give you.

The car might look great when done, but it would really suck when you try to get it aligned and things are not quite right, and you can't get the camber correct or toe is whacked.

It is only a car, any sentiment that you attach to it at the expense of camber makes no sense Get one that has not been wrecked.

Marek

 

I went thru this a couple of years ago when our son crashed my car. The shop stopped adding up the damage at $22,000 - the ins co offered me a value of 13,200 on the car + said I had first dibs on the salvage for $1,400. I hired a appraiser for $175 and he went to the wrecking yard in Woodenville and did an appraisial. His value came in at $17,500 and he and the ins co appraiser compromised at an offer of $17,200. and I accepted that. I also talked to the wrecking yard up the street here and they offered me $2,700 for the wreck, so I sold it to them and they picked it up, I didn't have to do a thing except sign the title over to make a quick $1,300.

Mike if you need an appraiser this guy is good, pm me if you need his info. good luck

 

Let me point out again that the car is repairable, and I'm getting it repaired. The initial concern about totalling it was considered and rejected by the ins. co.

I would lock this thread if I knew how, but it's not obvious how to do that.

In the mean time, I'll mention that the damage to the car was "not all that bad". When my friend Walt looked at it, he guessed $10K. It's going to be closer to double that, but only because the parts on these cars are so very expensive. The labor cost (and that includes paint) on the estimate is about half of the total, which is a much lower percentage than would be on a Civic or Taurus. Low volume cars mean high priced parts.

But I do appreciate the advice. I was torn about the prospect of totalling it. On the one hand, I would be able to buy a lower-milage car that probably has not seen a collision with a concrete wall and probably has not been tracked. On the other side, I've bought used cars before, and I've always found annoying things wrong with them. And they are even more annoying because they are not something I had a history with.

So if it had been totalled, I would have dealt. But it wasn't, so I'm proceeding with the repairs.

But Nancy, excellent advice on the salvage issue. Seems well worth it to at least see if you can make some money easily before just waiving off the salvage option.

 

you're taking it all in stride

but i'd get the sucker totaled. esp if you dont plan on keeping it for the life of the car.

ain't no sports car anal retentive dude gonna pick your car up unless it's bargain basement

 

Mike - PM Brant and ask him to lock this thread if that's what you want

 

Mike - IIRC to lock your own threads go to the bottom right hand corner and click on the drop-down - it says something like "admin options"

Click on "open thread/ close thread " and voila.