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Alright... its been one week after the accident, basically long story short i an in counter with a telephone pole i am sad to say. Lost control, rear end hoped a curb hit a hill side came back onto the road and 4 wheel locked into a pole. I am fine, it felt like a pillow when i crunched into it, the rear end is fine LOTS of scratches no dents. The gas tank is bent slightly, and the camber is off on the control arm, its unknown right now, i assume its the control arm. It could have been worse and i could have rolled it coming into the hill side. I did everything i could to get it back on course but crap happens and you can't trade experience.
That set aside its painful to talk about what i did to my car =(, but what is done is done, and just look forward now. So i went head on with the pole, right in between the lights and the kidneys, almost smack dead of the M Badge (poor "M" is dangling). so the whole radiator support is toast, radiator in the Fan and is jammed. the damage didn't look to bad at first but turns out the front left frame rail is tweakked. motor is in a slight slanted position if you look hard. right fender is untouched and am not sure if the right frame rail is bent, but could have been moved slightly, but was not directly damaged. driver fender is pushed back half and inch. no wrinkles on the roof, doors open fine, except for a little hitch from the driver fender.
the car is at United auto collision center. They work on Alvin's cars and they have another two e30 m3s in there. Alvin recommended him to me, and he did his best to tell the insurance company (state farm) what the car is, and tried to keep the damage cost down to avoid being totaled. well the person who did the estimate was old fashion to the books on the estimate and didn't budge a bit. price came to be just over 10k in damage, included the rear quarter panel scratches, which instantly became totaled. Didn't like that, so the Total loss department ran a survey on all the classified ADs. Car has 155k miles and the average price they came back to me today was little under 15k. i was slightly surprised and thought they were going to low ball me way under.
so here is the debate. The car is basically on the Border line of being totaled, i can either get a fat check of around 16k and buy it back and sell it to buy another M. or If i get the average up, and talk and persuade them what the car is worth i can keep the car with a clean title and get a check for about 10k and fix the car. Like i said its on the absolute border and shouldn't take much to get the value of the car up just enough to make it not totaled. A third option is to Total the car, buy the car back and fix it with a salvage title.
So with the amount of damage done to the car, which is basically the frame rail, is it stupid to fix a broken car? or do i look else where to find another car for around 14k? I am leaning on the side to fix it, because i am attached to the car personaly. If i get another car who knows what condition i will find for 14k, and it might not feel the same as "my car". but i want to be ethical and not fix a car that has to much damge to be like "new".
Its a 1988 alpine white/cardinal red/grey carpet, build date 87/4. 155k miles, new rod bearings, paint was 8/10, interior is 7/10 (no tears). just some background info.
sorry for the very long story, i just wanted to make it clear on what my thought are. I get attached to things, as this was my high school car so there is memories. Please give me your opinion on what you would do.
once again Total the car out? OR Keep it a clean title and rebuild her?
Thanks everyone for your time,
and Thanks to Alvin for the recommendation and thanks to Gabriel from UACC
-Anthony Hong
(wow long post)
That set aside its painful to talk about what i did to my car =(, but what is done is done, and just look forward now. So i went head on with the pole, right in between the lights and the kidneys, almost smack dead of the M Badge (poor "M" is dangling). so the whole radiator support is toast, radiator in the Fan and is jammed. the damage didn't look to bad at first but turns out the front left frame rail is tweakked. motor is in a slight slanted position if you look hard. right fender is untouched and am not sure if the right frame rail is bent, but could have been moved slightly, but was not directly damaged. driver fender is pushed back half and inch. no wrinkles on the roof, doors open fine, except for a little hitch from the driver fender.
the car is at United auto collision center. They work on Alvin's cars and they have another two e30 m3s in there. Alvin recommended him to me, and he did his best to tell the insurance company (state farm) what the car is, and tried to keep the damage cost down to avoid being totaled. well the person who did the estimate was old fashion to the books on the estimate and didn't budge a bit. price came to be just over 10k in damage, included the rear quarter panel scratches, which instantly became totaled. Didn't like that, so the Total loss department ran a survey on all the classified ADs. Car has 155k miles and the average price they came back to me today was little under 15k. i was slightly surprised and thought they were going to low ball me way under.
so here is the debate. The car is basically on the Border line of being totaled, i can either get a fat check of around 16k and buy it back and sell it to buy another M. or If i get the average up, and talk and persuade them what the car is worth i can keep the car with a clean title and get a check for about 10k and fix the car. Like i said its on the absolute border and shouldn't take much to get the value of the car up just enough to make it not totaled. A third option is to Total the car, buy the car back and fix it with a salvage title.
So with the amount of damage done to the car, which is basically the frame rail, is it stupid to fix a broken car? or do i look else where to find another car for around 14k? I am leaning on the side to fix it, because i am attached to the car personaly. If i get another car who knows what condition i will find for 14k, and it might not feel the same as "my car". but i want to be ethical and not fix a car that has to much damge to be like "new".
Its a 1988 alpine white/cardinal red/grey carpet, build date 87/4. 155k miles, new rod bearings, paint was 8/10, interior is 7/10 (no tears). just some background info.
sorry for the very long story, i just wanted to make it clear on what my thought are. I get attached to things, as this was my high school car so there is memories. Please give me your opinion on what you would do.
once again Total the car out? OR Keep it a clean title and rebuild her?
Thanks everyone for your time,
and Thanks to Alvin for the recommendation and thanks to Gabriel from UACC
-Anthony Hong
(wow long post)
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