Well after a fun weekend of fireworks, it couldn't have ended any better. I got myself into a minor collision and im here asking for some advice. It looks horribly bad, but it's driveable w/o any problems. My deductible is $1k and thinking what I should do. Should I repair it myself or let the insurance take care of it? What do you guys think?

Damaged:

 

It's gonna be hard to fix it for $1000. Maybe $1500-$2000 painted unless you score some used parts. It just depends on whether or not the rate increase makes it worth paying out of pocket. I wonder if you could contact your agent and ask them what your rate would be with a $5k(?) collision on record since that's what they'd likely estimate it at.

 

Well sourcing the parts isnt hard but of course they wont be local for the most part.

Give or take..

fenders $300
headlights $400
bumper $250
hood $150
support $ ? buy new 1 at dealer
paint $700 or so

If you have another car you can drive and dont wanna risk your insurance going up then yeah I would do it myself.Lots of times you can find used parts on here for cheap.Then you can get some of your money back by selling anything you have left over.Like people will buy your projectors/bulbs/ballast all day long for good money.

 

Yeah, im worried about the insurance going up. I wish I had another car, but I dont. After all this tho, it could of been worse. I'm grateful it still runs lol.

 

Well shoot you could just drive it around like that.Just make the support your 1st priority! Your deductible is already high so personally I wouldnt wanna risk it.

 

I don't know if this is really true or not but I heard/someone has said the rate doesn't always go up because of an accident unless you have previous accidents on file. Like if you haven't had anything happen in years then insurance will just pay out +/- deductible without rate going up. You might wanna slap this on to "help" if you're driving it in this condition.

 

I have a set of headlights I can sell you. I'd file with my insurance. I mean isn't that what we pay them for? Get the check and source the parts used.

 

Once the insurance starts repair, can I keep the damaged parts or do I have to leave it as is?

 

You can ask them to. Honestly, you are better off either A: going aftermarket B: source the replacement parts yourself. Get the check they give you and do some research. Most if not all will replace your car with used parts so why not source it yourself? As for body shops, check the faq's that is stickied for shops peeps here have used or recommended.

 

when i got in my accident i replaced all stucture for like 500
and you can usaly find used parts so i would ust fix it yourself
and go to hondapartscheap.com thats where i went and it is cheaper that dealer