HCivicSi23

Alright, so earlier this week I was involved in an accident. I was on my way home and some girl made an illegal left hand turn over two oncomming lanes of traffic, one of those lanes I was in. She bolted out in front and I had no reaction time, I was doing about 25 mph so I slammed on my brakes and veered to the right, which was an attempt to miss her. I clipped the side of her car at an angle with the front right side of my car.
I have a em1 by the way. The airbags did not deploy and the damage exists of the bumper, hood, passenger fender, head light, and some bending of sheet metal under neath the hood on the right side. There is no wheel damage and the crumpeling did not reach to the strut tower. What type of estimate cost are we looking at here? I am not a body expert and am not sure what it would cost to fix this or if it's even fixable.

She was 100% at fault and her insurance company is going to handle all the costs, however I am wating to see what the estimate is. Any one have any idea what were looking at here?

I did post this in the body section as well. I will provide pictures as soon as I can.

jdm91CrxSi

paint. panels. lights.. could be from 400-1000 guestimatin

HCivicSi23

Right fender, hood, right headlight, bumber and radiator support. There is also some crumpeling underneath the hood but stopped before the strut housing. The car is technically driveable if I took off the front bumber. The appraiser estimated the damage to be aroub 5,600 if not a little more.

The car had been hit on that side before, but had been repaired. There is no after market bo0dy options on the car, however the insurance appraiser claims that because it's a replacement hood and fender, bumper and headlight... that it's considerd aftermarket? Doesn't make any sense if it's OEM replacement.

jdm91CrxSi

if its off another honda it's not aftermarket. yeh guessed pretty close.. im going to school from autobody.. which is gay.. im a fukn mechanic

HCivicSi23

Yea... I am the opposite. I am going to school to become an automtive egnineer, which I will major in the mechanical side. So when it comes to this... it's really not my expertese. I don't know all the procedures that entail to fix my car.

As far as the parts go... they are not off another Honda, they were replaced when the car was in an accident the first time. However, does that make them aftermarket if there OEM spec? I just think the damage estiamte is to high.

HCivicSi23

Bump.

wiZCo

He probably called it aftermarket because that's what most body shops will use to replace panels with, usually because they get a discount with the company.

I would say that $5600 is a little high, but as long as it's being paid for, what does it matter? Just make sure that they get you an appraisal with OEM parts and that the shop is reputable.

99fbpem1

damage estimate seems really high, atleast this gives you the option of a new CF hood.

jshirev

Do like I did. This Is your window of opertunity, have a body shop put your car on a frame machine, do whatever straightening need to be done, cut in (spray) the new core support and related parts body color. take the rest and buy you own fenders from honda or better yet passwordJDM get them color matched and sprayed, new CF hood from JSP or someone else who makes good stuff, bumper ,headlights from ebay, and whatever other little parts you need. Take the rest and put it in your wallet or blow it on wheels or something. The actual body work and labor is probably half of that $5600.00 the rest is markup so the bodyshopcan make money. You do the extra work and make money. its not illegal or anything like fraud so you dont have to worry.

HCivicSi23

The final estimate after today is 6,700 worth of damage. All that is damaged in final is the hood, bumper, fender, headlight, radiator support and the right side frame rail. It seems like a high estimate. <TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jshirev &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Do like I did. This Is your window of opertunity, have a body shop put your car on a frame machine, do whatever straightening need to be done, cut in (spray) the new core support and related parts body color. take the rest and buy you own fenders from honda or better yet passwordJDM get them color matched and sprayed, new CF hood from JSP or someone else who makes good stuff, bumper ,headlights from ebay, and whatever other little parts you need. Take the rest and put it in your wallet or blow it on wheels or something. The actual body work and labor is probably half of that $5600.00 the rest is markup so the bodyshopcan make money. You do the extra work and make money. its not illegal or anything like fraud so you dont have to worry.</TD></TR></TABLE>

They say they cannot straighten the fraim rail and it needs to be replaced. I also believe the price is marked up to make money.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wiZCo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">He probably called it aftermarket because that's what most body shops will use to replace panels with, usually because they get a discount with the company.

I would say that $5600 is a little high, but as long as it's being paid for, what does it matter? Just make sure that they get you an appraisal with OEM parts and that the shop is reputable.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The higher the damage value... thats when you get closer to totaling the car. I do not want the car toataled.

RiceKillinSI

Is the insurance company doing the estimate or is a body shop? If it is a body shop i would take it somewhere else, it seems they are trying to pocket some money on your behalf. If it is the insurance company than it seems they are trying to total it IMHO since Kelly Blue Book trade in value for a 1999 Si with average mileage in good condition is $6,595. Sorry buddy.

HCivicSi23

I would value the car around 8,000 with the upgrades and the condition. The body insurance company will give the value of the vehicle, the body shop guy just wrote it's condition. The car should be between 7,000 and 8,000.

RiceKillinSI

Unfortunaly they don't care how much money in upgrades you have put into the car. If you have $15,000 in upgrades and the value is $6,500, they will give you $6,500 and tell you to have a nice day. The book value is all they will give you. i don't know if the insurance company you are dealing with uses KBB or NADA or something else, the values vary a little between them, but not much.

HCivicSi23

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RiceKillinSI &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Unfortunaly they don't care how much money in upgrades you have put into the car. If you have $15,000 in upgrades and the value is $6,500, they will give you $6,500 and tell you to have a nice day. The book value is all they will give you. i don't know if the insurance company you are dealing with uses KBB or NADA or something else, the values vary a little between them, but not much.</TD></TR></TABLE>

So then what do you suggest? I dont want the car to be totaled.

aklano

You never said if it was the insurance company or the body shop doing the damage estimate. If it's the body shop and you believe they are inflating the price try and persuade whoevers handling your claim to take the car elsewhere for another estimate. If its the insurance company, your gonna have to grit your teeth and take it if they total the car. Hope it doesn't happen, but I've been d*icked before for sure. Good luck!

NOFX

Well, you can choose not to proceed with an insurance claim and fix it all yourself (this might be difficult, but it will keep the car from being totalled, 100% chance it won't be totalled that way).

That method, of course, is a costly method.

Another option might also be to let them total it out and put it up for auction. You should have a chance to buy it back for a cheap price. Then you could buy it back and rebuild it. Depending on local laws, this could end up with the car having a rebuilt title or even the possibility of getting it retitled as a clean title again (I know this can happen here in WA, which surprised me).

Letting it get totaled could make it easier to total in the future though. I've been told that here in WA, even if you re-title it as clean, the insurance company will consider it a rebuilt title in the event that another claim comes up. So I've been told at least. It being totaled or rebuilt would put the car at a lower value, and would make it easier to total again.

And one more thing... Why is this a poll?

nicks-eg6

any frame damage? if so, thats where the cost is.

RiceKillinSI

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by aklano &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You never said if it was the insurance company or the body shop doing the damage estimate. If it's the body shop and you believe they are inflating the price try and persuade whoevers handling your claim to take the car elsewhere for another estimate. If its the insurance company, your gonna have to grit your teeth and take it if they total the car. Hope it doesn't happen, but I've been d*icked before for sure. Good luck! </TD></TR></TABLE>
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NOFX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well, you can choose not to proceed with an insurance claim and fix it all yourself (this might be difficult, but it will keep the car from being totalled, 100% chance it won't be totalled that way).

That method, of course, is a costly method.

Another option might also be to let them total it out and put it up for auction. You should have a chance to buy it back for a cheap price. Then you could buy it back and rebuild it. Depending on local laws, this could end up with the car having a rebuilt title or even the possibility of getting it retitled as a clean title again (I know this can happen here in WA, which surprised me).

Letting it get totaled could make it easier to total in the future though. I've been told that here in WA, even if you re-title it as clean, the insurance company will consider it a rebuilt title in the event that another claim comes up. So I've been told at least. It being totaled or rebuilt would put the car at a lower value, and would make it easier to total again.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Unfortunatly these are pretty much you only options.

HCivicSi23

We filed the insurance claim through our insurance company rather than the other party's insurance simply because we will have more leverage that way. As I went through Honda parts online the total cost for replacing everything (not including the paint and labor) is about 1,750... and thats a very generous (I rounded up to the nearest 100's on each part). That leaves 4,950 dollars in paint and labor, which to me seems high. I can go get the car estimated somewhere else and I might do that if this guy sticks to his price.

If they total it, I can then buy the salvage title back on it and fix it myself or have it fixed some where else. As far as fraim damage, only the right side frame rail in the front is bent slightly. In my opinion it can be straghtend again, but the guy would rather replace it. Other than that, it is basically just bolt on body parts that need replacing.

The reason I made this a "poll" is because more people seem to respond to it. It draws more attention because people will know it shouldn't be.

LATINOSPEED

i work in a body shop the hight cost is due to the frame rail damage to replace the rt rail the rt frt susp needs to be removed etc,if you are considering retaining salvage look into who is going to replace the right frame rail,it is no easy do it in your drivway kind of job the rail needs to be welded in properly or you will be face dwith neverending problems therafter ,maybe the rail could be straightened hard to tell i need to see pictures

NOFX

Damn... now it's not a poll. I wanted to add some selections.

ifIexplode

Cant you choose which body shop youd like to use?

I know when a lady backed into my car with her tow hitch her insurance company gave me free reign on who i wanted to fix my car. This was progressive, if that matters.

HCivicSi23

I have the pictures now and will upload them soon. I have a choice of which body shop I can take the car to, however only a select few warrenty there work.