Not having a salvage title would be worth quite a bit to me, assuming that's how "fix" mode will play out. It's huge if you go to sell it, and good for general peace of mind regardless. Like having a nice new Hyundai and having to explain to everyone that that's no longer a bad thing...

 

That makes sense that it would lower your payment, and that's why they changed it back to fix mode. You should have the right to go to any bodyshop of your choice, so choose the best one in your area, and let the shop deal with it. Most quality shops already have good working relationships with the insurance adjusters in the area. If it ends up costing a lot more the insurance company will take care of it. When my car got hit, they initially quoted me around $1 to $2k to repair it. By the time it was done they paid the bodyshop close to $3k because it took longer than they expected. This also meant I had a rental for 3 weeks instead of 1 week, so they had to pay for that too.

 

As long as the payout was less than $7880 (weird amount, I know) it wouldn't be branded as salvage, so I was pretty good on that side no matter what happened.

I think the main thing I'm worried about, now, is the shop getting it very torn apart, much more than I would have, finding some measurement being off and the repair costs going through the roof. At which point the insurance company switched back to total loss, and then I'm left with a basket case I'm trying to put back together.

I'm taking it to the shop I took it to before for an estimate on the back bumper. It's a big chain, they ran up a pretty nice estimate. I'll take the car to them, have them look at it and see if the insurance estimate is in the ballpark, or if they laugh at it. If it's significantly higher, I'll bring that to the insurance company and see if we go back to total-loss mode.

 

Talk to the people at the shop first and try to get on their good side. Let them know you'll bring them future business, as needed, if they keep the costs below $7880.

 

Glad the car is staying in your hands!

 

I'm sure it'll be a balancing act between getting themselves in too far on a costly repair Vs. stopping work and just paying out on the total. Either way, though, what they pay me won't be more than $7880, so I'm not worried about it being branded as salvage (I don't think they factor in the total property replacement costs, just what they actually pay me out if it gets to there; if there are "repair" costs on the car they eventually pay me out for, then that's on them, I assume.)

There's a fun, new development, though. I sent an email to the adjuster to let her know I have an appointment with the shop. I immediately got an auto-reply that my adjuster is out on vacation 'till the 10th. My appointment at the shop is tomorrow morning. So if the shop comes back with a higher estimate, I end up waiting 'till Monday to authorize work or parts orders, or escalate it to another agent as an emergency.

I just keep needing to remind myself: This will be worth it when the car comes back in better shape than before the accident. (It is a 19 year old car, it was good, but not perfect.)

Or, they'll pay me what I want (at least $5.5k, but more like $6k) and I'll do the work myself.

 

I was able to finagle 10,000 and keep my 2000 SC400. They offered me five at first. Damage was not as bad as it looked, but shops just didn't want to take it... Ordering parts for the rebuild now. BTW, had he not had minimum limits, I would have gotten 11,200 and the car.

 

Damn, how many miles were you at? Ours is $10k minimum, too, and not per person. Dude hit 2 people, hope he didn't have minimum coverage. Other lady he hit had a fairly recent Camry (coincidentally, so did he; so this was kind of an all Toyota incident.)

I just dropped off the car at the shop this morning, they wanted me to make triple sure I had personal belongings out in case the insurance company does turn around and total it. I was very clear to them that even if insurance does end up totaling it, I will want to keep the car. I still took stuff I actually care about out of the car, left my tire patch kit and pump in with the spare, though. Crap, I forgot to empty the center console.

But, I got a call from Enterprise today, the insurance company never extended the rental. Had to go through the "emergency" adjuster, then get transferred from the total loss department to the repair department. It's extended, now.

Damn, this is a pain in the rear.