At the end of May, I was in an accident. A driver pulled out in front of me to take a left, causing me to drive straight into his driver's side door. I have some minor neck and back injuries which I am having treated. The airbag did not deploy in my poor little 2005 Camry (it probably should have, it was a very hard impact).
According to the body shop, it is fixable, costing approximately $5,000 to fix. The insurance company has deemed it to be a total loss, and are offering me just over $4,000 to send it to salvage, or $3,400 to retain it myself. Prior to the accident, I had a reliable, working automobile. Now it appears that I will be left with a small amount of money, that will not be enough to fund a replacement or fix it. In your personal opinion/experience, do I have any recourse?
My next move is to try to negotiate the body shop to do the repairs for less than they quoted the insurance company. They already ordered the parts and they have had the car in their shop for 3 weeks now, so it might be in their best interest to get something for it, instead of nothing. I am so frustrated with insurance right now. I know that they are just following procedure but it just seems so stupid. Of course since I follow MMM, I can afford to get a 'new to me' car if I need to, but if its repairable...why would I?
Any advice or experiences on any of this would be much appreciated!