We have a 2005 Acura TL w/Navi with approx. 145K miles.
I was involved in front end accident & the shop is saying it's a borderline total loss. They say it is 100% SAFE to repair with no frame damage (needs hood/frt bumper/fenders, radiator & A/C compressor). The insurance appraiser will be seeing the vehicle tomorrow but the shop thinks it could go either way & wanted to know if we had a preference -- i.e. would we want it to be totalled or would we want it repaired. With the mileage, we're thinking it's worth around $12-13k range. Our intent was to keep this vehicle for AT LEAST another 5 years as we just purchased a new vehicle in the past 6 months. Does anyone have any advice/suggestions on this situation? Obviously once the insurance appraiser sees it, it will be up to them. But it seems the shop wanted our input/preference. Any ideas/suggestions are welcome. This is our first Acura and we're wondering if it will start "nickel and diming" us soon with the mileage. Thanks in advance for your suggestions/opinions.

 

Pics plus I doubt it is worth $12-$13k

 

Thanks for response - I don't have any pictures -- the part of the body that was not damaged is in excellent condition. What are you thinking for value?

 

'05 excelent private party condition $10660.
Are they saying A/C condenser or compressor? Condenser is in front of rad so that would be the logical part as the compressor resides below the alt, but could be damaged on a sever impact. I've seen many totaled cars repaired and they have been fine as it just depends on the shop doing the job. Some people have the car totaled, buy it back from the insurance company, then have it repaired, but it then has a tainted title. If the car is in great shape and a good shop doing the job, there should be no problems, but depending on the color the TL can be a bear to match. Once again, a quality shop would need to take test patterns and then the final color will match. Nothing worse than to see a car with a different colored front end.

Other option is if it is totaled and you'll need a second car, what do you do with the money the insuance co will give you, purchase a low mileage used car for that price or add money and pick up something else? With gas prices now, many are going the economy car route.

 

Tell the shop you want it totalled... Get a check and put that money down on a newer Acura. Even if you fix it there isn't a 100% guarantee that the fixes won't have problems down the road. Plus, it will be scarred for life on carfax and you'll never be able to sell it for what it's worth. It sucks but get ready to have another car payment.

 

^^^ agree... total it out and then put the money towards another TL...

 

Airbags??

 

I personally would total it but the shop gave you false hope, the insurance company will total it if the numbers get to where they want them to be. the shops know nothing about the total loss prosses. They have no way to know what salvage value would be which is the biggest player when considering a total loss. If the insurance company says its totaled its totaled if they say its not its not, they dont let the customer really have a say.

Good luck!

 

total it out, and put the check on a down payment of a newer acura, or find another 05 lower mileage around the same price if u can to hold u over for another 5 years or so

 

This is not entirely true as the shop and investigator can negotiate the outcome if borderline. I know personally.

 

can't the shop also jack up the cost slightly if they are on the border to make the repairs more expensive than the car itself causing it to total?

 

I not going to tell you to lie to get it totalled but I am sure it will be once they get into it. I dunno for sure though but when my car was in an accident the repair bill was $5K and the car was worth about 9K and they fixed it no questions asked. (low milage might have worked in my favor 8 year old car at the time with <90K on it

 

total it.

 

I will go ahead and say with all my heart 100% total it if you have the opportunity, and I speak from personal experience on this one.

My first car was a 2003 Mach 1 Mustang and I would say at the time of the accident it was worth about 20k.

I lost control of it(mostly my fault but partly broken sprinklers) and caused damage to the front and whole right side, messed up the rims on that side pretty good, suspension was jacked and I think i broke something connecting to the rear right wheel because it was wobbling really bad. Anyways, repair shop comes back and they say its about 13k in damage. They did not even give me the option to total it, and I didnt even think about it.

3 months later and having taken the car back in about 5-6 times with various problems related to the accident, I ended up selling the car because it did not drive like it did before, suspension would squeak a lot, not as smooth of a ride.

Moral of the story - why take an older car that has 140k+ and have them do 12k or w/e in repairs, when you can take what they will give you for it, probably 12-13k and you can go get something with lower miles that will last you a long time.

 

How many miles do you put on your car per year? Did you do the 105k service? What are the condition of the tires?

If you want to keep your car, you can ask your insurance company to simply cut you a check for the value of the car and they will "total" it. You buy it back from them for around 500 dollars and are free to fix it (I believe they title it salavage). That way you can spend whatever they give you on repairing it. You can go with a used hood, fenders and A/C compressor and save a bunch of money. Check in with auto recyclers and such like companies like LKQ.

Your car is going to be worth around 9-10K to an insurance company. After they total it, it'll probably be worth half. Either way, you get 9K in hand, you can probably get it fixed for around 3K and use the 6K towards other stuff.

If you don't mind, can you post photos of the damage? That would give us a much better idea of the damage and parts cost + labor.

 

Just a question, but can you even get insurance for a car that has been declared a total loss?

 

Yes you can. My previous car had salvage title and I didnt have any problems getting insurance.

Im not entirely sure but the only thing that might happen is extra hustle with the title since its going from clear to salvage title. Your state might want you to do some extra inspections to make sure that the car is safe for the roads. But like it was previously said, I would wait and see what the insurance says and if its total loss Id buy it back from the insurance and fix it up. I dont know how long you had it for but if you had the car for couple years then you know how it was used and maintained.

Go to different body shops and get quotes on how much would it cost to repair it, because if the fixing cost would be almost the same as the money you would get from the insurance then its not worth it.