I'd probably just want to be done with the car but it sounds like the car is not really operable without the repairs. That would seem to make it much harder to sell.

I've heard of some instances where the repair shop agrees to buy the car in this kind of situation. But, I'm guessing that isn't very common.

Get it fixed and I will buy from you 4.5.

Rearended in my 2011 RAV4 on GW parkway last fall. The collision pushed my car into the vehicle in front of me, but no airbags deployed on any of the vehicles, no injuries, etc. The damage on all 3 seemed relatively minor, but as we all know, repairs get expensive quickly. The insurance of Driver 3 (rear driver) accepted responsibility for all damage for all 3 vehicles.

I believed my car was safe to drive and I was less than a half mile from work, so I continued on. Just as I pulled into work, my dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree and the car stalled.

Car was towed, and repairs came to about $8K. Insurance wouldn't total it because the cash value was estimated between $9 - 10K. I was fine with this, just wanted to get back on the road, so we did the repairs.

About 2 months later, the dash lights up again and the temp indicator hits red. I pull over, have car towed to my mechanic. Very bad news, he identifies engine damage (I don't remember specifics, but involved a warped cylinder head), and says the only thing that causes this is if the car has ever overheated... which it did, once, after the initial accident (which was recorded in my initial statement of the accident).

After almost 6 weeks of ridiculousness, it sounds like Driver 3's insurance is going to accept responsibility for this and cover it through a supplemental claim, but I'm not sure what makes the most sense financially. Mechanic quoted me $4.5K to repair. I think it is stupid to put another $4.5K into a car that the insurance company obviously should have totaled to begin with, but we are where we are. So what would you do?

1. Take the $4.5K check and deposit it in the bank and just sell it myself as-is for whatever I can get and call it a day?
2. Let insurance do the repairs then sell it outright for hopefully more than $4.5K?

With all these major repairs on the car's record, I can't imagine that $9-$10K market value would actually hold. In any case, I'm done with this car. Just trying to figure out what makes the most sense in terms of offloading it!

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.