Hi again, hate to be asking for help again but i'm really not sure what to do.

The other day my car was completely run into by someone (they're at 100% fault insurance wise). Basically the car made a direct hit to the passenger tire and everything is a mess over there now.

I just had it appraised by my insurance company and without putting it up on a hoist, estimated damage is $2300-$2500 and possibly more. Control arm is bent, the knuckle is bent, the rim is bent, alignment is very off.

Now here's my issue:
I paid $3000 ($CDN) for this car back in August and i bought it knowing that it had a decent amount of cosmetic damage but had it inspected by a mechanic before purchase and everything is great mechanically. It has 197000 KM on it, automatic, GS, coupe.

If i take the write off, my insurance company will pay market value for this. Now in this area, shittier looking tegs are selling for 3g+ with higher mileage. If i take it as a write off, they may only give me $2500 for it according to Mr Appraiser who didn't even assess all the damage just by looking at on the ground. I paid $300 or so to tint the windows + $300 car stereo into it, as well as had the rotors replaced in the front and cleaned up in the back. So all in all i put about $700 into the car after paying the initial $3000.

So i'm getting the feeling this ******* is not going to give me a $3700 cheque without a fight. He recommended that i take say $2200 and get the suspension/mechanical stuff fixed and basically bang out the other stuff real cheap and basically have the car look worse than it did before.

I'm put off by that because i may end up loosing out on $1500 or end up with a worse looking car and i don't see how or why I should have to do that when I didn't cause the issue in the first place.

Anyone else go through this? I have no problem fighting the insurance company even going to court to get what I think is fair and reasonable. If you have gone through this process, it'd be great to know how it went and what you decided to do and whether it was worthwhile or not or any advice/recommendations would be greatly appreciated!!

I'm kinda stressing out ATM about it cause it was supposed to be my gf's car and then mine after to completely fix up cosmetically, swap tranny, turbo the bastard or engine swap+turbo and have it be my baby!

the cosmetic damage + mechanical damage is going to be FAR more than even $4000 to put it back to the way it was by a shop, especially if i take it to Acura. What do I do? I feel like they are pressing me pretty hard and i need my car or a different car and i'll have about 3-5 days to decide for sure.

*read the bold if you have ADHD like i do and can't bother reading the rest of the crap!

 

Buy it back, don't repair it, rip everything you can out of it. Part everything off on eBay and craigslist. Buy a shell slap the motor and trans in it. If you can spin wrenches and search the internet, you can make some money outside what they offer.

 

Ditto the above^^^ get what you can and the car, find a shell transfer what you can and part out the rest.

In the long run it is your best option, unless you have a "rider" on your insurance to cover aftermarket stuff like the stereo, insurance will not pay for it, although you could remove it, rotors are "maintenance" items just like a tune up or oil change and insurance will not pay for it. 94

 

Crashed my gsr not tooo long ago, a sad day but I decided to do the jdm front end it's a 94 with "meh" 200,0000 KM's and in under the year I had it I've dumped nearly 5K into it lol. guess how much state farm was going to give me 2K.....:fuq dat: paid 4k for it on day one. as we're saying if you can turn wrenches and learn fast you can get the important parts off and swap them into a new shell. pic of how bad it is ? I though my car was totaled at first lol but upon full tear down I can salvage the frame and thus jdm front, I rear ended someone on the 401/Warden ave

 

^sry to hear about your gsr man i know the feeling. I went from 250 or so hp on my rsx to taking the god damn bus for 2 years after it got wrecked (cosmetically only too) because my insurance company tried to blame me but in the end i wasn't at fault (0% fault), my premium was 300/month so i took the car off the road and had to sell it fast because it was 5 hours away from me and the property it was on was being sold. I hate insurance companies and do not trust a single thing they say to me without verifying it multiple ways.

oh there's hardly any real damage lol but the cost to fix it would be insane. I could totally salvage it but around here there are a lot of people scrapping their tegs, are OEM parts in high demand? i dont' want the motor/tranny anyway as i'd rather go with a different engine and 5-speed manual - but say if those insurance ******** give me $2200, i should accept it, not repair ****, sell everything i can screw off and it'll work out for the best this way? I didn't think about that at all!

and **** i may even end up with the monster teg i wanted in the first place. So basically do not accept the write off? no matter what? my policy will cover the car stereo and the tinted windows, as well as taxes and **** but even so that isn't the way to go with it? I should just start over?

thanks for the replies; ***** been stressful this week and you guys are ******* awesome for helping me. I was thinking a write off would be great and i could go buy a nicer teg but realistically, i think you guys are right and i'm more than well equipped and enabled to screw/unbolt/rip apart every last piece of that car and sell it on my own. There's even people looking to pick up written off tegs as project cars that i could talk to as well, so long as it evens out in the end, it's going to be better than what my **** insurance company will do probably.

and just so you have an idea of what i'm working with here is the damage:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/dmp5nf...506%5B2%5D.jpg


the damage is internal of course but it's just the knuckle, control arm, rim and whatever the hell is making the whole tire go completely off balance, possibly some suspension stuff as well. The cosmetic stuff is what writes it off but honestly it can be banged out with a rubber mallet in 5 minutes, there's not even paint transfer on the side panel and on the front bumper, it's hardly a big deal, could probably buff that **** out and rims needed to be replaced/polished anyhow.

thanks for making me feel a lot better about my shitty situation and my beat up old integra. Wish i could show u guys the pics of my rsx after it got side swiped and i ended up selling that thing for 3800 when it would have sold for 8-9000 back then. God damn. Wish i would've been smarter back then.

 

Thats all that happened? I was expecting a worse sight than that. If you can, look under the car and make sure the mounting point on the body for the control arm isn't bent. If thats fine then just replace the parts that got bent. Hopefully just the outer part of the tie rod that broke and is making the tire sit like that. But the damage doesn't look that bad at all, how fast was the other person going?

 

I bought my step mom's LS back from insurance. Kept the wheels, tires, and swap for myself and I've made about 1500 off stuff I've sold. Lots left to go. I'd say if you have the TIME and more importantly a place to part a car out where your neighbors aren't gonna hate you then this is DEFINITELY the way to go.

 

yeah that's all that happened, i looked underneath and nothing looks cracked but the control arm is bent and the knuckle is causing the tire to be messed up. It hasn't been on a lift yet so not sure how extensive the damage is.

Car hit the tire directly at approx 20-25km/h and drove into it good. We were driving in congested traffic, so we were barely moving. Car looks like **** from it though.

it would cost $1200 to fix the internals if nothing (more) serious has gone wrong (that he couldn't see by looking at it) at a local civic specialty shop that is reasonably priced according to the appraiser (the shop he referred to is good and legit though).

it's not worth paying that to have a car that looks like **** though - i think parting it out or finding someone who wants to fix it up for a cheap price is the best option.

The problem is what do i drive while i recoup my money? that's what sucks ATM. ******* bullshit insurance companies.

 

Can't make a call till we see what it looks like with the wheel off, lower control arm:60$knuckle:80-100$ inner/outer tie rod(new) 100-130$ all in 300$ or so dollars. do you have a floorjack and a stand or 2 ? yes was expecting worse more then salvageable ! front fender:60-80$ if you'd like a non dented one. OP do you live in Toronto/the GTA ?

 

As B_Swapped said, if you have simple tools you can do all that work in your driveway yourself; shouldn't even take half a day working slow. How long would the check from insurance take to get to you?

 

I don't see any photos or links to find photos.

State Farm will let you buy it back for about 20% of what they say it's worth.

$2200 x 80% means that they will let you keep it and mail you a check for $1760.

I have dealt with them before. If you can show receipts that are under 30 days old, they will recognize them and increase the $2200 value.

 

Since it didn't show up in the post he did.

 

There's no way in hell I'd scrap that. Absolute max that's like 500 bucks and an afternoons worth of work. Hell you could probably find that color fender in a yard in perfect condition for 60 bucks

 

well I am with TD's insurance group some m named company i can't even remember lol but car was appraised today, total repair cost is $2606. $900 for parts, rest is labor and paint and stupid things.

This is from the appraisal:
REMOVE/REPLACE Wheel Qual Recycled Part $125.00 * 0.3
REMOVE/REPLACE R Frt Susp Wheel Hub $139.14
REMOVE/REPLACE R Frt Susp Bearing $38.39
REMOVE/REPLACE R Frt Susp Steering Knuckle $372.01
REMOVE/REPLACE R Upr Frt Susp Control Arm $97.99

so in all reality, i can get this thing fixed much cheaper. However i can also sell the car as is, for $1000-$1500 and use that with the $2606 from insurance company and i can land myself a prelude or something with a bit more power, maybe just a GSR. Will have to get the car hoisted up and take the wheels off to see if it's worth keeping and using the extra cash for a paint job, coilovers, rims and other stuff - not sure what to do as of yet.

TBH the teg is fun to drive but i'll eventually have to do an engine swap/tranny swap anyway if i want any power out of it, bolt ons aren't going to do it and it can't handle a turbo without some upgrades on the tranny and engine, not to mention it's an automatic.

Not to betray the wonderful integra, but i'm definitely on the hunt for a prelude.

BTW I'm in NS - wish i were in Toronto but stuck here for now personally i think the integra should sell for $1500 without much issue, that's realistic right? if not then i may just repair it and make it look pretty at least.

i was looking at a very nice rx8 going for 6500 with mvi; looked real clean but it'd be left sitting in the parking lot all winter which would suck it almost sucked me in though. So i guess this is the fun part of having your car smashed by some moron.

Any recommendations for cars to look at? i think the prelude is the best fit but they are hard to find. Would prefer to go with an import but just want something fun to drive and that i could fix up a bit and get decent power from.

 

Did the ins. company settle with you and write you a check, for $2606?
Is $2606 the amount that you got, after you bought it back?

Go buy some hand tools ($150) or borrow some from an auto parts store,
after reading forums in the Suspension section, fix it yourself,
buy used parts (listed on your estimate), after removing the bad ones first ($300 - 500),
don't get it painted (purchase a used fender that is the correct color, for $100 + $50 shipping),
make it your daily driver.

You'll have a good car and maybe $1000 - 1800 cash in hand.

If you work on your car and run into a problem, just post a photo and someone on here will tell you which tool to use, how to remove the dimple on the axle nut, and which nut to turn.

 

as of right now $2606 is the cheque I will be getting, however i'm gonna try to squeeze as much money out of them as possible.

there's a 98 prelude sh being sold here for $4500 making my mouth water, 220k on it though but it's pretty clean.

the only thing i'm worried about with keeping the integra is just future maintenance, it will eventually just rust to death and if i can get rid of it before that happens i could be avoiding some issues down the line.

Would it be a great daily driver for 4-5 years? definitely. But it would probably be dead after that, to its credit though, the car is 14 years old and is great but damn those old tegs rust bad, plus it needs an o2 sensor, timing belt, and new tires for the winter and summer. Kind of want to keep it and kind of want to just jump ship - guess i'll wait to see what kind of deals are out there first.

it'd be super easy to bang out the dents and do most of the repairs myself but if i'm selling it someone else will also see that it's easy for them to do and i get back more than i invested in it and can start fresh, and a GSR would be nice

 

you just cant beat a brand new fender for $30 (plus shipping).

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,ca...,parttype,1380

but you'd have to paint it so paying a bit more for one that matches would be worth it i guess.

 

OK finalizing things now and here is what we decided

Gf gets sweet 02 rsx premium with decent mods on it, great shape needs about 300 to make it perfect for 4200 and I keep the teg and its my project car so yeah new fender maybe I don't give **** how it looks really the more scrapes the better I'm Gonna just fix everything myself throw some bolt ons for now and wait to rebuild the engine and tranny swap before turboing it and I'll smoke the rsx off the line in it it's too fun to just scrap. Backseat are coming out as well as spare tire and crop first thing. I'm actually very happy with how things settled,

gonna pick up the rsx today and I'll begin my work on my baby gonna have to buy a new jack and get the wheel off and have a look myself but I doubt there's really much mechanical damage so wish me luck bros I'm going Integra for at least the next five years and will be dawn proud of it tho the rsx looks super ****** nice. I just care about drivability fun and power anyway

Really thanks for all the help it's been stressful but all well that ends well.