Posted by Joe Divito (IP: 207.239.0.99) on January 14, 2000 at 17:18:00:
In Reply to: Re: 71 mav posted by Jenifer on January 12, 2000 at 22:12:51:
: The car is in pretty bad shape. The right rear quarter panel is crushed into the back tire. The person that the insurance company sent out said that it would be about $4,500 to fix the car to the condition that it was. It is basically that expensive because they have to match the paint and it is an unusual faded color.
: Thanks
------------------
You can get a replacement rear quarter panel pretty reasonably. One source I looked at listed it at $147.00. From what you're saying, the majority of the cost is matching up the new paint with the existing paint. Instead of trying to match the paint on the rest of the car, wouldn't it be cheaper to just repaint the whole car? I'd get a couple of opinions. The story below shows why.
My neighbor own's a '95 Ford Taurus. Recently, the car was bucking and hesitating on her. One mechanic who looked at it concluded that the transmission was bad, and she should buy herself a new car. He solomnly told her that Tauruses are very hard to work on, and that a replacement transmission would be very expensive.
She was very upset, and was seriously considering buying a new car. Howeer, I told her that she shouldn't just take one guy's word, and get a second opinion. Luckily (for her), it turns out that the bucking she was having was, as I predicted it would be, bad spark plug wires, which was causing the engine to hesitate. I'm sure she'd agree new wires are much cheaper than car payments.
The moral of the story: Not everyone gets everything right, and sometimes shops just plain don't want to do certain jobs. The one body shop may simply not want to do the job (probably because they're afraid they'd not find any parts, or don't want to spend time with he metal repair). I'm sure it's also less paperwork for the insurance adjuster to just write off the car instead of trying to fix it. Like I said, as long as the frame itself isn't seriously bent, the damage you describe doesn't sound that bad.