augie373

I had the misfortune of gettign into an accident with my poor little 1999 protege. I kinda accidentaly pulled in front of a ford F-350 towing a 16' trailer. Messed it up pretty good. spare me all the stupid comments please. I know i was stupid! Anyway my rear bumper, front bumper, grill and headlight and turn signal and front quarter panel need to be replaced. Both doors and teh hood need to be repainted and teh rear quarter panel can apparently be hammered out and repainted. I just got an estimate of $3800, does this sound legit to everyone? Is there anything protege specific i should know about having this work done?

redrims

If thats your estimate, then I got ripped off for when I wrecked my car.

I slammed into a pole during a snow storm and F'ed up the right side of my car. I had to replace the side mirror, and both doors. Mines came up to just over $4000.

Do you have power or is everything manual?

augie373

Power...it's an LX

augie373

to clarify my original post teh two doors on teh passenger side need to be replaced...it was kind of a side-swipe...both the truck and trailer made contact....he was doing about 50 -55 mph

augie373

anyone else with any experience in this area?

pollax

Are you in the US or Canada?

If the US, that sounds about right. If you are in Canada, that sounds like a good deal.

walight01

sounds alittle too good for me, is this a dealership estimate

augie373

U.S, this is from a collision repair shop

mrjiggy

I bought my 99' ES for 3,750 with 99K miles..original owner...mint...I might consider buying another car if I were you....the money you put in will never by recovered...If you buy a simalair car, you can use your wrecked one for parts...you would have an extra engine or tranny...or buy a good one for 5-6K and sell your wrecked one for parts (engine,tranny) or whole to a scrapyard for a couple grand.

mrjiggy

BY the way...I could use a pre-cat for mine...and I'm sure with all the tweaking people do on their cars in this forum, you would be able to sell 75% of your car pretty quick to people who f'ed up parts on their own and need replacements...a car in parts is worth more than it is whole...buy a new one...save what you need...and sell the rest

walight01

if it only cost him the deductible from the insurance, alot cheaper then getting another car, not to mention he will have a good paint job.

mrjiggy

I am under the impression that the person who wrecked their car is going to pay this out of their own pocket due to the big concern they have over the estimate...If Insurance is going to pay it...I would suggest that he go to the most expensive auto body shops around and get the most jacked up prices he can...that way when he submits the estimates to the insurance company, he can argue that the cheap places do not do good enough work...He wants his car to look like it looked before he got into the accident, and he doesn't believe that Ray's discount paint shop and chop can provide that type of service...After he pays the deductible (If he has collision) he will get a check for the amount it costs to repair it. Now if he has an estimate for 6000 dollars they will send him 6000 dollars...If he has 3 estimates 5000, 6000, and 7000, he will get 6000 because that is the average...After he get's the check, he can decide to bring it to the guys that do good work and pay them 6000 or bring it to Ray's shop & chop and have them put play-doh in the doors and paint it for 500 and pocket the difference....This is all assuming that he has collision...Even if he doesn't, he may be able to prove the other driver was at some fault and get his (the other driver's) insurance to pay that portion...example...dude in truck was going 80 in a 50 and was towing a 10,000 pound trailer which reduceed his braking ability...Had the driver of the truck been doing the speed limit and not towing the heavy trailer...he would have had time to stop, because the guy in the Pro made an educated assessment of how much time was needed to accelerate into traffic and allowed himself that time...But the circumstances is the other driver was being negligent of road conditions and braking ability, caused an accident and It's all his fault...Call his insurance Co. and YELL AT THEM...THEY PAY BILL BECAUSE THEIR DRIVER IS AN *******. I had a 1970 BMW 2002 and got in an accident. The other driver was found to be at fault. It was really my fault because I was doing 50 in a 25 on winding roads, but this dude just pulled out of his driveway without looking...I swerved into his driveway to avoid him after he pulled into the street in front of me. He didn't expect me to pull into his driveway, and when he seen me barreling towards him and he relized he made a boo-boo, he tried to pull back into his driveway and threw his Vette broadside in front of me. KABOOM...I was 17, he was 30 something...all things showed that I should have been at fault. My age , driving history (none), and speed at time of impact. No police report was filed and we dealt with the insurance companys on our own...He was found at fault for pulling back into his driveway after I nearly avoided the accident. They wanted to pay me about 1300 dollars for my car...I went to the library and copied pages of collectors books and the rareness attributes this car had..They wound up sending me about 2500 instead. A good arguement can usually get you what you want..BTW no one was hurt in this accident

mrjiggy

I'd still buy another car anyway you cut the cake. His mangled car will NEVER look original again..Not to mention the wack everything else took in the accident, balljoints, mounts, tranny, tie rod ends, alignment, so on and so on. A car is a somewhat delicate instrument..and when you get slammed or slam into something (or someone) delicate parts take a wack as well...This guy could get his car fixed and a year down the road other problems will show up...example...I was considering buying an 86' BMW 318 with 56K original miles...Upon inspection of this car I noticed 4500 dollars worth of receipts in the glove box from an accident the lady had, police reports, and other important paperwork. I couldn't tell the car had been wacked...It looked great...When I found these documents I decided to check the car over more carefully and found a coolant leak after letting the car warm up for 15-20 minutes...This coolant leak must have been there a while, because I noticed the head gasket was leaking (oil and bubbles in coolant resevoir) and water in oil (milkshake looking oil on dipstick). I believe the main cause of head gasket leaks are attributed to overheating and warping the head. I think this lady got in an accident, shifting components of engine a slight amount, and developed a small coolant leak...This lady did not maintain her car herself, so she brought it in every 3-6K miles for a check up...3-6K miles of overheating can cause problems. She just had a coolant change done before she tried to sell the car to me...The receipt in the glovebox said so. I don't think this lady knew that her head gasket was blown either, had it not been blown and the car not been in an accident, I would have bought it instead of my Pro. I am always suspicious of the motives of others...If someone changes their tranny fluid in an automatic before they sell it, it's probably because the tranny fluid in it was burnt...If the oil is fresh, there's a good possibility the head was blown and they didn'e want anyone to see water in the oil...I will usually fix anything alse except engine, tranny, OH and of course..MAJOR BODY WORK. I'm not trying to put down repairs on cars or anything..I just think when you have major damage, it's sometimes just better to buy yourself a new car or engine or tranny, rather then fix it...If it were a head, I'd replace the head, If it were a tranny, I'd throw in a used from a low milage junk yard car...If it were major body work...I wouldn't waste a cent..New car time...I put 36K miles a year on my cars and buy ones with over 100K all the time..The Pro is the first really good car I've gotten with decent milage..All of my other cars were complete ****...The Subaru auto tranny blew...Donated it...The Honda body was fu'd up and I got tired of driving in a car that looked like ****..SOLD $1000...It wasn't hit..just bumped...ALOT...Red is also bad for attention if you drive like me here in Jersey.Toyota...Blown cylinder...didn't waste time or money to figure out if it was valves, rings, head...whatever...SOLD $800....Crown Vic...Blown Head...SOLD $250...Dodge pick-up, Blown Head...SOLD $500....69" Chevy c-10...collapsing frame after jump....SOLD $750...Maxima wagon...Flood...SOLD...$1500...and the Maxima had nothing wrong with it...I just didn't want headaches a year down the road...LeBaron..Peeling Paint...SOLD $700...Beretta...Took 3' metal pipe to it after being unable to diagnose problem after several failked repair attempts....Had junk yard tow it away for FREE!!! This guy also has to take into account all of the time his car will spend in the shop...That's alot of time...

augie373

I do have collision on my insurance so i will just be paying the deductable. This estimate was from a very well respected shop who has worked on 3 vehivles in the family. All were done very nicley. The insurance comp. just wrote a check to teh shop today. the shop says 3 weeks now.