Hello all, quick question for some of you who may have had accident damage repaired on your RL.

In searching for a used 2005, I came across a car with 19K miles being offered at $23K. A quick carfax report came up clean. I emailed the dealer about availibility and the dealer replied that the car was available, but as a point of disclosure had been in an accident. When I inquired as to the extent of the damage and location, he replied

"The repaired damage to this vehicle was approx $15,000.00. The majority of this cost is in the parts, approx $10,000.00, the balance of the cost is obviously labor charges."

Now, I hit a deer at about 10mph 3 years ago in my wife's RX8 and did $2500 worth of damage to the car, and visibly you could barely tell I had done anything to the car other than crack the bumper, so I know new cars take quite a bit of money to repair - but $15000 seems like quite a lot of money for a repair job. Should i just pass on this car and keep looking, or at least give it a once over? Thanks for any input

 

You can report information like that to CarFax, and you should. That's nearly a Total, or is one: are you sure it's not Salvage Title? Even if this accident was early in the car's life (ergo, not a total), this is a huge whack it took and the repairs should be in the records system.

I would ask for the detailed repair records. I mean, if the motor blew it could be fine: ie a brand new motor and 5g to R&R it. Of course, a wrecked motor could be due to thinks like...flood. Without all the data and a wonderful explanation, that car sounds scary.

 

Yeah, that's my thought too. The dealer told me he had a complete parts list and repair breakdown for the car, but $15K sounds like too much damage for me to bother with - even if I did negotiate the price down a few grand.

I asked specifically if it was a salvage title, but he didn't address that question in his reply, only that he had the repair breakdown and the costs associated.

 

Without details of the repairs, that is a tough call.

But as a comparison, we have a 2007 Avalon LTD in the family that was hit from behind and shoved into the vehicle ahead. Every body panel was damaged sans the roof & 3 doors along with the radiator and cooling fans. No engine or drivetrain damage. The repair bill, which replaced 3 body panels, corrected the remainder and repainted the entire car was $8,864. I would have expected it higher, and I must say the repair work was exceptional to my scrutinizing eye.

But cosmetics don't affect drivability, if something affected the drivetrain, the unibody was cut & rewelded or as mentioned above, flood damage there may be issues that cosmetic repairs cannot correct.

A used RL is a buyer's car, if you are wary, I'd think there will be a reasonable number of bargains of off lease or CPO RLs with competitve pricing.

 

A lot of the $15,000 could have been replacement of electronics. That stuff can be very expensive and if replaced, work just fine. Have him fax a copy of the repair work to you and see if you're comfortable with it and get answers (to your satisfaction) on any questions that arise. Also, pin him down on the salvage title question. If it's a salvage, run away...

LL

 

well I decided to look at the car on the way home from work. The dealer provided me with a copy of the repair total from the body shop (repair was done on site) and it was actually not that bad. The total was only $7K in parts, front right side impact. All the damage was either a cosmetic part or an electrical part. The car drove just as well as the other RLs i have test driven that were in excellent shape.

I haven't decided on it yet, but if i can haggle with them a little on the price i may go for it. Thanks for the input

 

remember that the RL has aluminum panels, those take a higher degree to fix and paint as it has to have non-reactive gases sprayed on top to keep from forming aluminium oxide on the surface that won't let paint stick...

 

that's alot of $$ in repairs. I would stray away from it. no wonder it was selling for such a low price

 

at that price, it had to be salvage...

 

Depends on when the accident happened. 2007AcuraRL had his brand new car (OK, 3-4 month old) car rear ended by some 19 year old and it cost something like $15K to repair and it was not totaled.

 

Each insurer has different thresholds for totalling a car. It's not just a $ threshold, but more of a comparison against the market value of the car.

I think a common rule of thumb is that if repairs are near or exceed 90% of the market value of the vehicle, then it comes under consideration for "totalling".

Other factors come into play, like diminshed value in states that allow it, along with condition of the vehicle, and whether the damage is related to cosmetic or structural components where safety becomes a concern.


A former co-worker of mine got hit head-on in her 1-month old Celica. Close to $20K in damage, and the insurance company fixed her car.

She went on to drive that car for years, racking up tons of miles on it never having a problem. She just loved that car and wouldn't get rid of it.

 

Thanks for all the comments guys. It's a moot point, as that dealer flaked out on me and would not return my calls/emails. So I bought an Acura Certified Used 2005 RL last night After adding the wrap around warranty to extend it to bumper to bumper for 100K miles and a Mobile Spartan Security system, i got her for $23K Here's a quick picture, I'll start a 'new owner thread' shortly.