My baby was just totaled July 4th. Some idiot was in the EZPASS lane and realized he was in the wrong lane. He was no more than 2 yards away and backed into me, busting the driver side light, turn signal, bumper and hood. All are minor and I still drove 350 miles back home without engine damage.

Since my car had high miles 220k, it's blue book value was only $3,200. Estimate to fix the car was $2,600, thus totaling the car. Pretty upset about that because I had the car no more than 14 months. It was a one owner and maintained at a Volvo dealership it's whole life.

If anyone wants parts, let me know soon because I have to decide soon to take the settlement or take the car back with a totaled title and it have to pass inspection to be drivable again. I heard that was a hard process, but if I could take the $2,600 and sell some parts that would hopefully get me alittle above 3,200 and help out fellow Volvo enthusiast at the same time.

 

Suzy would have made it to 400k miles IMO. She was running strong.

Here are some pics of the damage

 

Got to be honest, I find that very hard to believe that that is $2,600. There isn't even frame damage, just panels. I hate how they try to price everything as being brand new even on an older car. I know its fine for newer cars, but still. A trip to a salvage yard would yield good results on fixing it up.

I am very sorry that happened to you and I hope everything works out great for you.

 

Thanks. My mechanic was surprised too. They did an estimate and said it would come to $1800. It's a frustrating process. I even opened a claim to insurance to reevaluate the damages and try to get more money for the car. Not sure why they get to keep the car after settlement too and make money selling for parts.

 

So they are offering you $3,200 and will keep the car? In every accident case I have seen or been involved in, they off you an option to buy it back for $400 or something like that. So they will give you the car and $2,700.

If you can take a check for $2,700 and get it fixed for $1,800, that is the option I would take. If you give them the car they will sell it at an auction for whatever they can get which would likely be around $500.

 

You can also get your own estimate like you did and go with that. You can have them use that estimate as the base instead of there full price estimate. What rspi said is true as well, but I would check out your states salvage title laws just in case. In some states it isn't worth it doing a salvage title at all( like Georgia). I don't believe your car's title would have to be changed to a salvage title since the damage was so minimal, but like I said, each state is different. Do a little bit of research on this stuff. You should be able to come out on top in this case with the car fixed.