Hey guys.

I've got a 95 that's done me right for years. She's got 210k and I bought her when she had 40k WAY back in the day. I recently got in a fender bender where I rear ended someone and now I have to decide what to do.

Since blue book looks like it's around $2000 right now, I'm fairly certain that if I make the insurance claim, the insurance company is going to total it.

What really puts me on the fence is that I had the transmission rebuilt just 6 months ago (which as I'm sure you know wasn't cheap - around $3k) and about 5 years ago I had a end to end repaint so the paint is absolutely cherry.

From what I can tell without starting to pull her apart is that I'm going to need a new bumper, facia grills for the bumper lights, potentially new lights, a new grille, new headlights, and at a minimum the support bar that goes down the middle in the front of the condenser. It might be that the support that goes across the top of the radiator might need to be either replaced or straightened. The radiator isn't leaking and the A/C system is still holding pressure and working fine, so although they might have gotten slightly dinged, I don't think the the radiator or condenser need to be replaced. So not horrible but not just a little bump either. I can't tell if the frame needs to be straightened, but I don't think I hit that hard and I would have expected the support behind the bumper to be bent if that was the case and it doesn't look out of shape.

So what would you do? Keep it off the books and repair her? Make the claim and scrap it? Make the claim and keep it with a salvage title?

And if your answer is to keep it, then does anyone have suggestions for aftermarket replacements that might be better or cheaper than the factory parts?

Repairs within 6 months are usually factored into an insurance calculation to write off or not.

I am not familiar with the process in the US, but would it hurt to have the assessment done? Once you have this info, you would be in a better situation to decide whether to fix or not, using insurance or not.

Usually if the insurance company totals the vehicle, they will give you the price of current scrap value minus $100. This was the case with my 65 Mustang, but that was in NJ and about 20 years ago. My title remained unchanged and not put into a "salvage title" status. They wrote me out a check and I applied it to parts, as I was able to do the repairs myself (or, could have paid someone else to do them, if that was the case at the time). If you think the vehicle is fixable, talk to your insurance agents about your options if it is deemed "total loss" by their estimator.

I know I am a new guy here but I would not file a claim on my insurance over this. The reason being, this would be a collision claim and could result in skyrocketing premiums for you. Especially if you have had, or do have, an additional claim within 3 years. You'll end up paying way more than it would have cost you to simply repair it yourself. It sucks but I've been there myself and knowing what I know now I would never use collision on any car that I did not have a lean against or that wasn't so valuable that I could not replace it on my own.

Oh, and my top choice for repair parts is the local wrecking yards. Try to buy parts that match your current paint color. Even if you end up repainting them it will save you a fortune by not having to paint the jambs. Something you also have to do with new aftermarket or OEM parts. I did this with a total loss truck I bought from my brother-in-law. I had to replace the entire passenger side of the truck and the only paint work I needed to have done was the cab corner, everything else bolted on (or welded on) and the paint matched. You probably won't get that lucky since your paint is fairly fresh but it will still save you from having to paint the jambs.

Thanks guys. Kind of what I figured that it would be a split decision.

I'm flipping the coin and since the other driver is being cool about it and I really don't want to go round and round with the insurance company over the valuation of things, I think I'm going to slowly work through the repairs myself. If there is one thing I know, it's that trying to convince a big insurance company to have common sense and / or work with you reasonably is going to drive me insane.

If anyone else has recommendations on the best ways to straighten out my front end (or has parts available from one that got hit somewhere else) feel free to post or PM me.