Hi, Advice needed.
Car was in accident, t-boned. Air bag curtain went off, no one hurt.
Right rear passenger door took brunt of impact.
Rover has about 130K miles, and ran great.
From what I can see no damage to undercarriage, or wheel well.
Need to replace door, or pull out dent, paint, and replace trim
Adjuster said pillar needs to be replaced, I don't see it.

I am in Arizona and my choices are based on
Claims adj. valuation of: $7902.00.
Insurance said it is a total: pay out of $8283.00,
Ins. Estimated repair is Repair $11,000K which exceeds 70-80% value, which brings the value to $6899.00, if I chose to keep, salvage and repair.
If I find someone to repair for 6899.00 or less then Insurance will pay for repairs and I keep title.

What would you do?

 

Repair a t-boned, blown airbags, 2011??I think its time to move on.

 

I did that for an acura TSX which I really loved. That worked out because it was cosmetic, no frame or mechanical damage. But probably wouldn't do it again.

1. PITA (in CA) to get the salvage title, have to smog and do an extra safety inspection and a bunch of paperwork. New plates.

2. Salvage title means even lower resale value, so if you get in another accident you're probably not getting your money back out of the car.

3. Many reputable shops and body shops won't touch a salvage title. I had to drive down to the border to get another parking lot dent fixed.

If you're going to do it be absolutely certain the frame isn't bent. Would also suck if the doors don't close right, or rattle on the road.

 

How comfortable are you with doing the work yourself? I've also had good luck with shade-tree shops on Craigslist in Colorado in the past, believe it or not. Lots of times they're good body guys who don't speak English and are renting a small garage, working to make ends meet, but they can get the job done on the cheap. Had a great paint job done on an old Acura this way and they used quality PPG paint and did all of the masking and even some proper dent and rust repair for $1500, out the door, back in 2017. If you don't care about resale and don't mind going through the restored salvage title process in Arizona, it might be worth the risk.

I say all of this because I don't know your financial situation. If you can afford to take the money and roll it into a newer car, then that's definitely the way to go. But if you're on a shoestring budget barely making ends meet, then there are often reasonable options if you know where to look.

 

$8283? You kidding? Take the money, say bye and let it go. You can get another 2011 (or newer) for that and if you play your cards right, have money left over for a few gas tankful's. You're taking a chance that there may be something else that's wrong, possibly major, that you miss. Is that worth it?

 

The LR2 is a unibody vehicle... and its been t-boned!! Get over it and move on already! As @flydb5 suggests, $8283 is a nice bit of coin towards the next vehicle... that I hope for your sake is "newer" as opposed to "older"

Cheers.