Totalled Impreza what to do?

[csiprun]

Hi everyone. I'm looking for general advice here:

 

Here is my sad story. I bought a 1999 Subaru Impreza OBS with 182k miles 1 week before a college kid decided to t-bone it in the parking lot of my gym. I was super pumped to get a nice, clean 1 owner vehicle with all the regular maintenance and records and no accident history. Both passenger side doors are dented in, so with the estimated repairs they have deemed it a total loss.

 

In WA state the insurance agency is required by law to report it as a totalled vehicle which will brand the title if I choose to keep the car and take the settlement. They have offered $5321 to me if I give them the vehicle or $4344.58 if I keep it.

 

Any suggestions? I'm basically unsure if I should keep it or bank on finding a nice replacement.

 

Thanks,

 

Chris

[cal_look_zero]

If they're willing to give you FMV of $5300, it means there's probably more than $4000 in damage. If you're handy, you could part it for way more than the $1000 buyback, but if not, walk away and find another one.

[themoneypit]

take the 5300 and run. go buy another one. you can prob find one with half the miles for that kind of money. how much did you buy this one for??

[edrach]

Check the state insurance commissioners website to see how the insurance company should offer you compensation. It should include the cost of a comparable vehicle, sales tax, and cost of titling a replacement (less your deductible, unless you're collecting from the other guy's insurance).

 

Since I have a '97 Impreza wagon and a 2002 Imp OBS wagon, the amount they're offering sounds reasonable, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't check craigslist, dealers, autotrader and even the USMB to establish a value for your car.

 

Sorry for your loss; good luck finding a replacement. At almost a $1000 for the salvage value, I think I would pass on buying it back.

 

Here's a link to the Autotrader page for cars within 300 miles of Seattle: http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/searchresults.xhtml?zip=98021&endYear=2000&modelCode1=IMPREZ&startYear=1998&makeCode1=SUB&listingType=used&bodyStyles=SUV%2C+WAGON&numRecords=25&searchRadius=300&maxPrice=8000&minPrice=1&showcaseOwnerId=67100527&Log=0

 

It might be that the insurance company is just slightly low-balling you. $5000 replacement value sounds about right; but after you add taxes and titling costs, that comes to about $5600 which is quite a bit less than they offered you. Check some local dealers to see if they have any used OBS and what they're asking for them.

Edited August 1, 2012 by edrach

[csiprun]

here are pics of the damage and the car. Its really not that bad, no frame damage just mashed up doors. The rear still opens, the front did once then the lock mechanism jammed, so I haven't forced it out of fear of not being able to close it again.

 

 

 

Does that change any of your opinions?

[cal_look_zero]

here are pics of the damage and the car. Its really not that bad, no frame damage just mashed up doors. The rear still opens, the front did once then the lock mechanism jammed, so I haven't forced it out of fear of not being able to close it again.

 

Does that change any of your opinions?

 

That's it?

 

Buy it back. You can get doors for cheap, paint them, and do WRX swap with cash left to burn. I figured the whole B pillar was pushed in. You'll be in the car for a long while since branded titles suck to sell, but if it's worth keeping, I would keep it.

 

Pfft. My clean title 97 had more damage than that.

[themoneypit]

the b pillar is prob bent a little bit, but yeah, could def pull it and put 2 doors on it. it is pretty clean. its up to you i guess. salvage titles suck, and makes the value about 1/2 of what its worth regardless of condition. find out if you have to have it inspected, after being fixed, by the DMV. i know here in CT you need pictures of before, and after, and they do a COMPLETE inspection of the whole car and EVERYTHING has to be perfect or they wont pass it. its a real PITA.

 

talk to the insurance adjuster and ask them how much they would give you without branding it a total loss/salvage. if they will give you say 4grand, and not brand it totalled, id go that route and fix it for less than a grand and pocket the rest.

[zyewdall]

That's totalled? Wow. My '99 legacy must be really totaled (uninsured driver and no police response so I was out of luck). My B pillar is mashed back at least and inch and a half and neither door closes quite properly. But I've been driving it like that for 9 months because I don't have an option. If I was up in WA, I'd buy it from you, salvage title and all, for the difference between what they offered for a total vs keep it.

 

FYI, when I wrecked my '97 OBS a few years ago, and the other parties insurance totaled it, I only got $2600 for it... around blue book for 240k miles, but still not really what I was hoping for (considering it had a dual range transmission in it...

 

Z

[csiprun]

I'll take a picture of the B pillar when I get home, but I didn't see any damage to it. I wonder if I should take the money and sell it. Do you think there would be much interest here, whats it worth?

 

I would keep it if I had a garage to do these things. I bought this primarily with plans to do an epic road trip in a couple months and be headache free, oh well!

[themoneypit]

doors literally just bolt on, and plug in. simple to replace. a body shop would pull the pillar, if its bent, pretty cheap. the key would be to have the insurance company NOT total it. cant hurt to ask...

 

if you get them to not total it, you can prob have a body shop fix it fairly cheap. buy two good doors for it, and have them install them and paint it them. you could prob pay for your road trip with the extra cash leftover.

[turbosubarubrat]

thats nothing those are just little scratches in paint compared to stuff i've delt with, see if they wont total because because thats not enough damage to total it those doors cant be that hard to find in that color(it cant possibly be as hard to find one than a door for my 85 brat!) doors are not that hard to put on i put them on on my own and im only 15:Dand if the pillar is bent it comes right out with a come along

[afterbang]

hmm...

 

i would get a body shop's suggestion on the safety and drivability of the vehicle. you can find clean doors that match if you creep around on craigslist or for a few hundred dollars, you can find some now from a recycler. either there's a surprise hiding behind those doors or whoever assessed the vehicle's damage wanted to put 4 grand in your pocket.

 

i have had my 1998 for almost 9 years and i'm driving it until it's of no worth to even be sold. if you had the same plans for this, then who cares about a title branding? a salvage title is arbitrary in so many situations, anyways.

[jarl]

Get the money, buy a door and some stocks in a good company. Then drive the car to the ground.

[torxxx]

that b-pillar, if it was damaged would take bout 20 minutes on a frame rack. Keep it, take the $ and lift it

[csiprun]

So, here is a picture of the B pillar. It looks pretty darn unscathed to me. The fact that the doors opened before is promising too.

 

I am leaning towards keeping it and trying my best to get the door to work enough by pushing the dent out. However, I can't get the front one to open again. The lock seems to be jammed. Any ideas how to jimmy it open?

 

Thanks!

 

[Ricearu]

i would keep the car. use the money to buy another car and have 2 cars! to hell with it, leave it as is and tell your passengers to crawl over.

[turbosubarubrat]

get one person to push a little on the door from the inside and someone try opening it from the out side or u push on the door from the out side and try opening it, that seemed to work on my dads brat that had a door that had been hit on the same side as yours i replaced the door(for some reason some one replaced the door before because the handle broke on original then they replaced the whole door then it got side swiped and parked i put the original back on with the wrecked doors handle and it looks/works alot better)

[CoupedUpSubie]

I'm not sure how it works there but most of the time the insurance person says it may cost a certain amount when in reality its a good amount less to fix. I highly doubt the doors will ever work right due to the amount of indentation there appears to be. I would take the money and put new doors on it. As long as the b-pillar is 100% straight the new doors will work fine.

[Ricearu]

I will also say that that b pillar does not look compromised.

[idosubaru]

don't get any easier than that fix right there. you are in luck.

 

you could fix it for nearly free (assuming you get the stuck door/latch figured out) and run it. with some massaging those doors could probably become operational again. remove inner door panels and push properly from the inside and massage it back out.

 

if you want to repair it nicer:

 

easiest way is to buy two used 96-99 Impreza OBS doors the same color. it is worth a considerable amount of money to simply buy a door the same color over having one painted. it costs $200 to paint and the chance of matching issues is greater. not a big deal, but worth the extra to match it from the start. swap the key cylinders and install your new door. done.

 

some imprezas have manual windows, make sure you get electric if yours has that. i thought all 99 OBS had electric but i could be wrong.

 

http://www.car-part.com to find the closest used WHITE OBS doors to you. looks like you'll have tons to pick from, first couple I looked at in Washington state had white doors available for good prices, look through them all and you might even get a better price:

 

$250 1-800-848-5578

$250 1-800-735-2376

$325 1-800-848-5578

 

if they don't list the color, just call and ask.

 

a door swap takes a matter of minutes. it's like 4 bolts, a pin, and disconnect an electrical harness clip. i've seen two different Subaru styles and forget the differences, but it's simple.

 

So for two doors - $500 tops you've fixed it yourself. door swaps are easy - once you have the doors you can swap both in 30 minutes or less.

 

have a helper - it's doable by yourself but doors are a bit awkward once unmounted and to line up the bolt holes.

 

***Technically speaking the insurance will total it and give you a salvage certificate and you have to get it recertified. Comments on that:

 

1. sometimes they don't do that, you keep your car, go pick it up, and that never gets done. If you're lucky this is what happens and you do nothing.

 

2. if you do have to get it recertified, simply call your states DMV and find out the process. they'll give you a packet of information or otherwise tell you how to do it and it's not that hard. i know about Maryland and West Virginia and it's not a hard process at all. having done it - they're going to zoom through your inspection if they look at before and after pictures (like they do here in WV), they'll see that minimal damage and just move you along so they can get to more important work. don't let this scare you...it seemed daunting since most folks (that have never tried) paint it as some scary and mystical process...it's not. call and ask, they do many, many, many cars all the time. not a big deal.

 

doubt this matters since buying a matching door looks easy - but here are some notes on non-OBS doors. if you have to buy a different color then plan on $200 per door to paint it to match. then swap the interior door panel as well if it's a different color. an impreza sedan door or earlier impreza's back to 1993 are completely interchangeable and bolt on but doesn't have that two tone cladding and stickers of the OBS.

[idosubaru]

at second glance i think yours is silver....i listed white doors...either way, use that website i saw silver doors on there as well.

[Rooster2]

My vote is to keep the car and get the $4,3XX. the insurance company is offering to you. Owning a car with a "rebuilt title," is no big deal. Just take some pictures, print them out, and keep them in a file with your title. When you sell the car in the future, show the buyer the pics, which shows the minimal extent of the damage.

 

I had a similar situation a few years back. I kept the car and fixed it myself, and pocketed the money. I recently sold the car directly to a buyer, showed him the car damage photos, and he didn't care. I still got top buck when selling the car.

 

Like others have said, replacing doors is really easy. Simply buy doors, and install yourself, or if you are not handy doing this, take the car and doors to a car repair shop, and have them install the doors. It wouldn't have to be a car body repair shop, any auto shop could do the work, and it won't cost much.

 

I am always happy when this situation arises, because I know I am going to make some easy money. I am guessing that you will clear a profit of at least $3,500, prolly more, after you have had the doors replaced.

[edrach]

Yours is a little more damage than mine so I didn't suggest taking the money and fixing it yourself. Mine was hit in the rear door and the "approved" repair place estimated $1575 to repair it (no total involved). I opted for a check, found a wrecking yard that had the door with the same color code. Bought it for $125 and 20 minutes later had it installed and working. Color match isn't perfect, but on a 240K car, who cares.

 

Also, salvage title doesn't mean anything if you're planning to keep the car until it dies. If you plan on selling it in the future, the previous poster's suggestion is excellent; document, document, document. If you sell it, the salvage title generally knocks 1/3 to 1/2 off the price of a "clean titled" car of the same model, year, mileage, etc.

 

If you decide to part it out, I'm looking for a transmission (5MT, cable clutch).

[Rooster2]

If you can learn the color code for your exterior paint job, it makes it easier to find same color doors from a wrecking yard. Shopping for doors on line at many wrecking yards. Buy the doors, and they will ship to your home via Fed X, or UPS, well wrapped in cardboard and heavy duty industrial seran wrap. Securing replacement doors could not be made any easier.

 

Let us know what you have decided to do.

[edrach]

If you can learn the color code for your exterior paint job, it makes it easier to find same color doors from a wrecking yard. Shopping for doors on line at many wrecking yards. Buy the doors, and they will ship to your home via Fed X, or UPS, well wrapped in cardboard and heavy duty industrial seran wrap. Securing replacement doors could not be made any easier.

 

Let us know what you have decided to do.

Color code is on the VIN plate in the engine compartment. Try http://www.car-part.com for a national search for the doors you're looking for. If you find a set the right year and color call the yard and have them check the color code to see if it matches. Doors in reasonable condition run $100 to $250 (higher prices for electric doors).