Well crap, maybe

[f6john]

My wife wrecked her Camry last Friday morning. Low speed hit, no air bags deployed, only damage to the fenders forward. Found out Tuesday at the estimaters that one of the frame rails would have to be replaced and with everything else the estimate is over $11k parts and labor. Since the hood was kind of jammed in place and I drove it to their location he didn’t want to open it in case it would not close. He said once some of the damaged front end parts were removed and they could get a better look that if the other frame rail was bent that the car would be a total! So I took the car back home and had my brother in law who has a body shop come over and we raise the hood, found some more damaged plastics and a second bent frame rail. I callled the insurance company and told them the story and that the car was in my garage and they could come and have a look for themselves. They declined and accepted my brother in laws inspection. They ran the numbers again and called me a little while ago and said it was a total. They ar going to contact me again with a settlement offer latter today or tomorrow.

The frame rails were pushed sideways and you can see the difference in the body gaps in the pictures. I will probably do a buy back repair it and drive it but it depends on the numbers. Car only has 32k miles and almost all of that has been on the interstate. I really don’t want to go car shopping again!

[da prez]

John , they looked at our car and the estimate came back around $3000.00. When they get into it , there will be more as I looked at the body lines also. It is a 2014 VW we just bought. I also wonder what will happen to the value when the car fax has an accident recorded. Happy you had no injuries also.

                                  da prez

[f6john]

John , they looked at our car and the estimate came back around $3000.00. When they get into it , there will be more as I looked at the body lines also. It is a 2014 VW we just bought. I also wonder what will happen to the value when the car fax has an accident recorded. Happy you had no injuries also.

                                  da prez

It seems that the car insurance industry is much like the medical insurance industry. Claims don’t matter so much just raise the rates next year. I was expecting the $$$ to be high since it’s a late model car and the insurance company wood be providing all new replacement parts to insure a good result. But the replacement frame rails they are saying must be used to meet safety criteria are $1500.00 each not counting labor. I still haven’t negotiated a final number but I’m satisfied that I’m keeping the car and repairing it for myself with the help of the family body man.

I know the repaired value will be less but I tend to keep my cars for a long time so it shouldn’t be a major issue for me. I’m good you and yours escaped unscathed too.

[3fan4life]

John , they looked at our car and the estimate came back around $3000.00. When they get into it , there will be more as I looked at the body lines also. It is a 2014 VW we just bought. I also wonder what will happen to the value when the car fax has an accident recorded. Happy you had no injuries also.

                                  da prez

It seems that the car insurance industry is much like the medical insurance industry. Claims don’t matter so much just raise the rates next year. I was expecting the $$$ to be high since it’s a late model car and the insurance company wood be providing all new replacement parts to insure a good result. But the replacement frame rails they are saying must be used to meet safety criteria are $1500.00 each not counting labor. I still haven’t negotiated a final number but I’m satisfied that I’m keeping the car and repairing it for myself with the help of the family body man.

I know the repaired value will be less but I tend to keep my cars for a long time so it shouldn’t be a major issue for me. I’m good you and yours escaped unscathed too.

I'm very happy with our Camry so I can feel your pain.

My biggest concern would be Front End Alignment, as long as it could be fixed correctly and wouldn't constantly pull to the right or left and eat tires.

I'd be satisfied.

If you can manage to prevent it from going to a salvage title that would help the resale value immensely.

[..]

Educate yourself about insurance "diminished value".

[f6john]

I’m well aware of diminished value as it is a big deal in the Corvette community. Financially speaking it makes sense for me to keep the car as after it’s all said and done if I let the car go I would end up with a nice down payment on a new car which would mean I’d just be starting all over again with the depreciation and payments.

I have confidence in my wife’s brother to get the car back to specs so that it drives right and the alignment is spot on. When he has a car on the frame rack and had pulled it back into spec he starts hanging the sheet metal parts back on “dry fitting” them to insure that all the mounting points are correct.. it a issue arises he can address it while still on the rack.

I’m not fixing to sell so resale value is not a big issue. I tend to drive the wheels off the cars I buy. The last new car I bought before the Camry is a 95 Impala that I still have. I would expect to drive the Camry for at least another five years so the value would be fairly low by then anyway.

[f6john]

Finally reached a settlement figure that suits the insurance company and me. $2000.00 more than the initial amount. Car will be paid for, repaired and back on the road with only a manageable sum out of pocket. About the best outcome I could expect under the circumstances.