The body shop will present an estimate to the insurance company that won't induce them to outright total it. Kinda ridiculous of the process to go through a rebuilt title so I want to avoid that. They will bill me the difference. Car will be repaired 100% and stays a clean title and I won't be out several thousands of dollars, right around ~$2,000 more or less. Everyone wins.

I accept the risk I may actually get hurt if I were to be rear ended again. Although it is an Infiniti certified repair body shop, they are held to the standards Infiniti expects them to repair properly and safely. So I'm willing to trust their work. The car will be significantly less driven after this.

I'd walk away if the car was easily replaceable, but it's not. You don't see this car in junkyards, or auctions (Talking about the 6mt sport coupe). 1 in every blue moon may appear for sale, that can take years. The fact that my drivetrain seems relatively intact tells me it's fixable, not the "repairs costs more than its worth". I didn't damage my own vehicle, so who are you to dictate its a total loss? Recklessness of your driver caused this incident, of whom I should sue btw, not me. You're always going to spend money on a car. There's no car you just buy and never spend money on it again after that like wtf?

Btw visual estimate was around $9,500. Including potential worst case scenario frame damage. I doubt it would go higher and all part replaced are brand new OEM so I could bring that cost down somewhat. I don't think the car got hit that hard to really affect the chasis but only way to really know is disassemble. It was like a 30 mph rear hit.

 

The chassis is affected. The pictures show that with the floor damage.

EDIT: Also to add when I went through the process my body shop also presented an estimate to not induce a total. Insurance made the decision to total it anyway despite damages being less than half the value of the car.

The drive train being intact has nothing to do with total loss. Damages and safety are the biggest factors. If they deem it unsafe you'll have no choice but to accept your fate.

 

They better replace the vehicle then, I will not accept money. I will have no choice but to pursue litigation against the driver at fault if they total this car. I’ve spent more money on this car than what I originally paid for it, and yet I still have it..

They can total it, but I better be in sitting the same exact car by the end of month. Good luck with that.

Also you let them total your car when repairs was only 50% of the total value? Why?

 

They were insistent there was more damage than was quoted and the repairs would exceed the value to make it a total loss, despite a guarantee that there was not. I had no choice. When all was said and done I MADE money on the endeavor. They paid me almost $7000 for the car (value minus my buyout) and I spent $4000 to get it back on the road.

Litigation will get you no where. They don't have to replace the car. They only have to compensate you for the car's value. You're being illogical and have no idea how insurance works.

 

Yea I guess so apparently.. everything seems out of my control... I learned A LOT about auto insurance in the 24 hours since the accident that didn’t even cross my mind before and the end result is me screwed over in all scenarios… I don’t expect them to actually give me another car but I refuse to let them total it. I go to court and convince the judge my car is worth the value I deem it reasonably as and given the circumstances that led to such a costly repair. The difference in value of what I consider the car to be and what they consider is significant. They should teach this insurance stuff in public school but eh whatever.

 

Again, court will do nothing. A judge has no say in this. The car is worth what it is worth. It's not worth what you determine.

 

OP you really don't have much of any power in this situation unfortunately. If they total it they total it, and they owe you fair market value for the car. If you have receipts for all the money you put into it you can argue consideration for that as well.