Brief update:
Apparently, my wife's Chevy Volt is going to be totaled out. Kinda crazy really - several little dents in the roof, the hatchback needs replaced and the rear quarter is deformed on the driver's side, but the hatch still opens and closes fine with just a slight rub. The car would be 100% functional if the hatch glass was not broken. But repair $ and time to get parts had the claims adjuster recommend total loss. I did check, and I could get an "A" condition used hatch (wrong color) for ~$900 off car-part. I don't think a hammer and dolly plus bondo could make the rear quarter even close to right (at least not by my hands).
The truck was busy towing the race car to CMP this weekend. Waiting for an insurance check, then will engage with a shop to get the repair started I guess (me being a cheapskate, I'm tempted to pocket the money but don't think that's the way I'll go).
In reply to sevenracer :
Dang, sorry to hear a nice car is going to be totaled by that small amount of damage. I wonder what their price would be for you to keep the salvage? I'd love a 2nd gen Volt for cheap, but obviously don't want to foist a bunch of work onto you.
Rear quarter dent was the Volt killer. Many times, expensive rear quarter dents (non bolt on panel) kills a car.
Id too consider keeping it and putting on a any color lid (preferably black if not correct color.)
To get an idea what the Volt is worth, try online shopping within 200 miles of your house to get one the same year and same/similar miles. This shopping will help you to tell if the insurance company is offering you enough.
Like DC, I'd be interested in that Volt if you'd be able and willing to jump through the extra hoops to buy it back.
Re the tree. I was surprised when my neighbor's tree fell onto two other neighbors' cars and his insurance didn't cover it. It ended with some pretty strained neighbor relations up the block but unfortunately, their insurance is likely not going to touch it
Wow, I looked on autotrader, used Gen2 Volts are holding their value. Pricing for a 2017 w/ 100k miles is $19,999. Pricing for a sub 50k mile version is north of $25k
Unfortunately, insurance isn't there to keep it driveable. It's there to restore the car to the same level as before the accident. So a dent in the roof and quarter panel has to be fixed, and that's a lot more expensive than you think once you have to pay someone for their time, expertise, facilities and paperwork. Or you take the payout and buy it back and drive it ugly. We put a lot of emphasis on non-dented panels when they don't really cause any harm.
In reply to John Welsh :
Yeah, with the current used market, it's worth more than we paid for it 2.5 years ago. It's a CPO, top trim Premier version with just 46k miles. I got the valuation report from the insurance co, which seemed a bit low, just got off the phone with them and they upped the number by $1600.
Trying to see what my wife wants to do. Likely just try to be even-steven and get another similar Volt. Her two main wants are 1. all the cameras, blind spot and cross traffic alerts, etc and 2. a plug in hybrid. I floated the idea of going full electric, but she's got range concerns (she does a lot of trail running events in fairly remote spots in the mountains where there's no chargers) and wouldn't consider anything less than 300 mile range which puts the options way outside what she would spend. Chevy Bolt was a no go with 258 miles range. Prius Prime is expensive and only 25 miles electric. She likes the fugly plug in Honda Clarity, but I think they made like 14 total in 3 years. Hyundai makes a plug in hybrid but don't know much about it, I think it has 29 miles of electric range.
In reply to sevenracer :
Hold out on price to be sure you can purchase the same car, in the same condition, for the money they offer. Also be sure their price includes sales tax that you'll have to pay for the replacement. Tax of even just 5% on 28k is a big number!
In reply to John Welsh :
Yeah, I'm not sure they'll move on value any further. They already did include tax and tag fees. Could not get them to assign any value for the CPO cert. Haven't accepted their revised offer yet.
We went to look at a car at a dealer that was same yr/color/options and 51k miles. It was a turd, bumps and scrapes all over, the interior had lots of wear and tear plus some red marker stains on a rear seat and front pass seat. Price was ok (if the car had been in reasonable condition)...until they added their 799 doc fee and 399 for paint protection and nitrogen in the tires.
I sense that this is going to get tedious...
