Advice for 20 year old truck involved in an accident

[Anonymous]

We own a 20 year old pickup truck with 250,000 miles. It's been extremely reliable, and was in really good shape considering its age and mileage. Our teenage DS uses it for school, part time work, etc. Several weeks ago, it was hit while parked in front of our house. The driver, who left their information and is admitting responsibility, did some damage: the left taillight/brake light was shattered and there is a significant dent on the left rear end and left side all the way to the rear left tire. We were able to get a replacement light (although it is only screwed in on the right side - the top and bottom left could not be screwed in due to the damage.) We've driven it and it feels "normal" but we haven't had it professionally looked at yet.

DH and I are arguing with how to proceed. The insurance company, USAA, and the autobody shop we've used in the past, Lindsay Collisoin, have both advised us that they will most likely "total" the vehicle based strictly on our verbal description of the damage and the age and mileage of the truck. Neither one of us wants to buy another car IF it is road safe, passes VA State Inspection. If USAA does deem it totaled, one option we have is they will give us the salvage value and allow us to keep the vehicle. Then we can get it fixed (at least get the light securely attached) without being out of pocket.

My DH is acting like a "deer in the headlights." He's not doing anything because he's afraid the estimate will tell us the truck is totaled. But we need an estimate to know how to proceed. Does anyone have a body shop that will give us an estimate to make it "road safe" but not making it look like a brand new truck. Or do we go ahead and take it to Lindsay (or similar shop) and take our chances that it's totaled?

[Anonymous]

Just take it to any mom and pop body shop. No dealer or anything. Get an estimate to secure the light and have them do a safety inspection. Don't tell them it's for insurance or anything. It's probably fine.

[Anonymous]

Yes it will be totaled. Just get the money from the other person (not insurance) and keep driving it.

[Anonymous]

The truck is probably worth less than $1000, so the body repair cost is worth more than the truck is worth.

The insurance company will pay you the value of your truck.

Keep the money, and do only the basic repairs. Get the lights fixed but skip any body work or painting.

The car will get a new "Salvage" title from the state. You can still drive or sell the truck, though.

[Anonymous]

Get an estimate from the mom and pop body shop to do the minimum required to get it up to safety standards, then contact the other driver with the estimate, and hopefully they will just pay it, no insurance involved. This is what we did for my son's 25 year old car when his friend rear-ended him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get an estimate from the mom and pop body shop to do the minimum required to get it up to safety standards, then contact the other driver with the estimate, and hopefully they will just pay it, no insurance involved. This is what we did for my son's 25 year old car when his friend rear-ended him.

This. Someone hit me once, both had USAA and they will raise both our rates even though other driver was fully at fault. I found a cheap shop (older car) and they went and paid it directly. No insurance involved.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why he cares if it's totaled or not. Either it is totaled and it can't be made safe for any amount you're willing to pay after receiving the salvage value, in which case you take the market value and give the truck to the insurance company to salvage themselves. Or it's totaled and can be made safe and you pay for repairs needed to get it to pass inspection, with the salvage value contributing some or all of the cost of those repairs.

It's super unlikely a 20-year old vehicle would not be totaled. I think the standard for totaling in Virignia is repairs >= 50% of the value. You can look up the market value on NADA.

[Anonymous]

This is the type of repair that you can bring to as cheap of a body shop as you can find. If can share the brand/model of the car, we can see if it's body-on-frame or unibody.

What you want to have happen is just some hammering to get the panels back into roughly the right place, some sanding and flat paint to prevent rusting, and that's it. You can probably do this yourself if the husband is handy.

[Anonymous]

Get the money, repair just the minimum and keep driving, silly. I doubt there's anything there that will make it fail inspection as long as you fix the lights.

My worthless old Corolla was scraped and dented all down the driver's side by a huge truck at a red light, who drove away. We chose to receive money from our insurance instead of having it fixed by their garage place. All we did was make sure the lights worked, and we painted anti-rust on the scrapes. The dents are still there. We did not repaint. It's always passed all inspections.

I rather like driving a battered car. People give me a wide berth