Our 2000 Toyota Sienna minivan (169,800 miles) got bumped from behind.
Since the repair estimate came out to more than 75% of the value, it's totaled. (South Carolina)
The other insurance company (State Farm) is paying.
$1852 repair estimate for new muffler and pipe and bumper cover. Potential for additional hidden damage. Need to have my husband look under there and see if the muffler looks "pushed up into the motor." We've been driving it. It's also possible we could find more affordable used parts. This was only one estimate.
$1006 is the "good" condition estimate I found using kbb.
$3431 is how much they are willing to pay us for "totaling" the vehicle. They keep it, we get a check.
$2926 is how much they would pay us, if we keep the vehicle with a salvage title. This may have insurance consequences? Nationwide says they don't insure vehicles with a salvage title. So we'd need to find another insurance company. Anyone have experience with insuring a salvage titled vehicle?
- $1852 repair cost
=$1074 remaining
We have 5 kids at home for another 1.5 years when our oldest leaves for college.
3.5 years until we have 3 kids at home.
$10,000 is already set aside for minivan replacement. And about $6000 for "truck fund" (Saturn replacement)
We currently drive the minivan about 8,000 miles per year. (I'm a stay at home mom, kids take the bus.)
Maybe once/year or once every other year we take a longer trip. This minivan has been from South Carolina to Nebraska to Arizona and back. To Orlando several times. And last summer we went to NYC and upstate NY. (We've owned it for 10+ years)
19mpg on the minivan. The transmission has 100,000 miles on it. We've done some repairs. But it does have a powersteering fluid leak to the tune of $5/month.
Our other car is a 1996 Saturn, with about 185,000 miles on it.
28mpg. (We've owned it for 17+ years) Putting ~9500 miles/year on it.
Since starting to read MMM, I've thought when the Saturn dies, to get something very small/efficient that holds 5 people, but would be a good "commuter car" for my husband. He is 8.8 miles from work. x2/day x6 days/wk x48 weeks/year. = 5067 miles/year. (He's been wanting a small truck since we sold his 17 years ago when we had our first baby! But with all the remodeling we do, the minivan has been a great construction vehicle. It's shocking how many building supplies we've hauled inside and on top of the minivan.) My thought was to decide at that point if a small truck would work for our family size/ construction needs at that time, or if an old minivan would still work!)
What's an aspiring Mustachian to do? Until I got these numbers, I thought we should just keep the minivan, pay to get it fixed, because it probably has more life left. But now I'm unsure. I would love any advice/thoughts/ideas. What would MMM do? (If he had 5 kids)
The risks and dilemnas of getting in a small accident, when your car is old and not worth much!
Thanks so much for any thoughts you can share!