Recently a big delivery truck backed into front of my little truck. Very light hit as he laid on brakes as soon as he heard the horn. I mean light enough hit that even my headlights werent broken. Front of my truck sort of tucked up under his Tommylift. Two guys in truck, would have thought the other one would have gotten out and directed the backing. Backing such a truck means lots of blind spots. Well he admitted fault, cops gave him ticket, since I wasnt claiming any injury, the other insurance from out of state said just go get an estimate. Ok, I go do that today. Went to bodyshop where my ex takes hers (she's had more accidents than I care to think about) as they do good work, just in case I am forced to actually have the work done. Guy comes out, looks, makes some notes asks the year. Goes inside, comes out into lobby, smiles and says $1500. My jaw dropped. Really!!!!? Am I having another Rip VanWinkle moment or did something that in my head should cost around $200 get blown all out of proportion? I have to fax the estimate to the insurance company. At that amount I would assume they'd total the truck rather than fix it, hopefully if they do, they'll let me buy it back cheap. The truck is pretty much a very solid $500 truck. I doubt its value lessened greatly because of the light hit. I gave $175 at auction and put good engine in it. Its 1980 but didnt look bad and had tight front end with decent tires.
When my Buick LeSabre was rearended by a ford LTD the insurance cashed it out. They gave me blue book on it, tho they did ask for maintenence records. They didn't ask how much I paid for it, which was less than blue book. I couldn't have replaced it for less without finding another super good deal. I figured they were actually paying for replacement value.
A lot of quality body shops won't even give estimates on anything over 10 years old any more cause it is considered a total and they often have pricing guides for the parts that end there. You may want to try another shop if you know of one with a reputation of quality. Even a bump that shows little damage could have bent some frame and need a visit to the frame rack then the cosmetic work. A body man making 15 dollars may get billed at over a 100 to cover the estimater owner sexetary building insurance taxes lights and on and on. Next thing you know you buy a little paint some trim and you are down to less than 8 hours of labor. You could also ask your insurance company they may be willing to give you an estimate free as one of their clients.
Hermit, I buy "totaled" vehicles for the extended family's use and from my experience if you tell them that you will accept the settlement provided you can keep the truck they will graciously do so. Do not initially offer to buy the truck, just insist that you keep it.
I like your idea. Dont expect it to be a problem since its an old and not popular make ('80 Plymouth Arrow pickup) and the insurance company doesnt even do buisiness in AR. I'll just fax body shop estimate and see what they offer. Estimate is right on edge at $1500. I had asked the guy if he needed more than one estimate and he said he needed two estimates if its over $1500. Maybe this is a standard in industry and bodyshop knew that. This place does a lot of insurance work. I suspect if this place wants $1500, that even cheap place would want $1000. Its a different world nowdays.
Body shops usually ask you if it is for insurance purposes or not. There rates are much higher for insurance work. Car insurance companies are allowed to make a certain percentage profit based on the amount of claims, so they don't mind paying the higher prices. This enables the insurance companies to charge higher premiums and make more money. My truck got rear ended. Needed, rear bumper, hitch, tailgate, paint etc... I believe it was like 4k. They don't fix anything if they don't have to, just replace and paint. I had a small dent in the bed, they just replaced the whole bed and painted it to match.
