It's true, but at the same time you have to find the perfect buyer(privately) who willing to buy a vehicle that has that much damage, even if it's at a low price. You will also have to factor in a few years later, the vehicle will depreciate some more, and then you will lose even more leverage.

Sorry, you said you were an estimator but then made reference to audadex, are you an estimator (as in employed by a repair facility) or an adjuster(as in repaired by an insurer or brokerage)?

i work at a repair facility. just fyi though, insurance companies have their own estimators and damage appraisers as well - or they have independent appraisers. audatex is pretty much the standard estimating software in BC for all insurance companies (family, CDI, CNS, RSA, ARI and of course ICBC all use audatex). however later this year icbc is switching back to mitchell, so it's a given that the other insurance companies will (have to) follow suit

I just found it strange that you would advise people to stay away from repaired vehicles and you work for a repair facility… remind me not to use your body shop :troll: lol

I guess you have your experience and I have mine… either way kicking a dead horse, we might as well start a "Would you buy a repaired car" thread at this point.

it's all relative man - but the gist of what i'm trying to get at is if i had a car that was valued at mid 20k (which is probably about what my car is worth actually), and it had a hit for 23k on it (lets disregard the other 9k hits), and lets say the hit happened when the car was brand new and valued at 40k so it was repaired instead of written off. like i mentioned at 23k worth of damage you're talking very probable airbag deployment which starts leading me to questions like is the frame or unibody damaged? was the SRS matrix followed and ALL SRS parts were replaced and NOT repaired? what type of parts were used if replacement was required, used, amkt or oem? and then if all those questions are in order, THEN i'd start to inquire about quality of repair. at the end of the day, all those questions are looming, and the reality is you'll likely never have a certain answer to all of these questions - which makes the $2000 you save not very worth it. in simpler terms, i wouldn't touch a lexus is350 with a 23k repair bill, full stop. to me it wouldn't matter if it was repaired at simple joe's body shop or a certified lexus repair facility, $23,000 of damage is a LOT of damage

just my 2 cents :)

What you should be concerned about is a collision that it severe enough to twist/bend the unibody. That's where I draw the line. When pulling or straightening a unibody there are "tolerances" or "within spec" limits that are not perfectly exact meaning that the unibody could/will always be slightly out of wack. IMO the car will never be the same again. Perhaps those in the repair business would disagree or have a different opinion because they are doing the work themselves but I couldn't handle a twisted car.

Outside of that, I'd consider any car with a claim as cosmetic stuff(re&re parts) doesn't really affect anything other than the stigma of the claim to a potential buyer.

Just my $0.02

Even for a Lexus, 23k IS a very significant accident even though it may not justify a write-off.

I had an Audi A5 a few years back, some guy in a parking lot was on his phone and reversed right into me smashing the entire drivers side of my car. It took Audi 2 months to repair my car and $18k in total parts/labor. Even though the repair was done by a credited shop, the door was misaligned and would never shut properly, window switch would stop working for no reason, my front end align was always off because the guy also damaged my front rim when he hit me. And the paint never matched. Thankfully my car was leased and I returned it.

Point of my story is stay away from a car with $23k worth of damage, it's not worth the headaches down the road.

What do you mean by keeping the vehicle for a while? It's a 2 door convertible, so I doubt you will keep it for more than 5 years.

Realistically, if you are reselling within 5 years, I'd walkaway. It's just not worth the hassle when you try to sell it.

Thanks guys. I've made up my mind and bought something different. Pay to play, I guess. If anyone is spending so much on a car it's good to buy something solid to have peace of mind. I agree $23k is just far too high and the vehicle is very inappropriately priced. I've seen a car with a repair bill as "low" as $8000 and the alignment was never the same on it.

23k damage for a 70k vehicle is too much already.

You went to a shitty shop then. That's your only issue.

This thread makes me laugh talking about part prices and repairs. Everyone is speculating.

But the only real person quoting prices/repairs is KT...

there are few cars produced with 23k bumpers. So its safe to assume the damage was severe. Of course the seller is going to say it was cosmetic and its possible they believe that, afterall they could be ignorant to what cosmetic and structural damage is. I would stay away and treat it as a write off

Says the guy who never owned a Lexus or BMW? :lawl:

Well said. To me, I like how the general public thinks, because i get to buy nice cars with damage for little to nothing...especially if the car checks out fine and repaired correctly.

And yes...ISF parts are..FUCKing expensive. Air bags didn't even deploy on my car and parts totalled up to 20K i believe