Car Salvage Question

[MonkeyMama]

Two comments:

1 - Check out the Volt or Bolt for a planned car for a future teen driver. With the used EV credit you are talking net $10K or less for a very nice car. I really think my 20yo should buy a used Bolt with the credit (he has the cash). But he is resisting because he has no concept of car maintenance. (The car my kids are sharing and handed down from Grandparents, it's a 2003 that needed literally no repairs the first 2-3 years he drove the car. He has no concept of how expensive an old gas car is). It's a good car to learn on, if you get the premium trim (safety features like pedestrian braking). & the car will also brake to avoid a collision.

This would also give you time to decide if you even like the EV, or if you have any more need than the budget EV. Even a brand new Bolt is something like $25K right now, minus $7,500 EV credit. If you are just going to mostly charge at home, you aren't going to need the faster charging option (the main benefit of newer EV models and more expensive EVs). Worst case, it's not the car for you but your teen is well set.

2 - We are the only EV drivers I know that are hoity toity enough to charge at home. It's probably completely unnecessary to have a charger at home. It is very convenient, yes. If we didn't drive out of town like every weekend, I'd probably feel pretty *shrugs* about just charging while grocery shopping or eating out. (It's nice to start with a 100% charge, before longer drives). Bonus points if you can charge at work. Of course, you can always test out the car a while before investing in a charger.

Sorry to hear about your car though, what a bummer.

[scfr]

I wouldn't buyback at $11K. If I was willing to keep the car, I'd make a counter-offer at a much lower price. The worst thing that can happen is they say no or tell you that's not how it works.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Wow... $15k settlement, $11k salvage buy-back, and $8.5k-$12.5k for the repair? That seems pretty foul from your insurance. That buy-back offer is pretty rich.

With those numbers, I wouldn't even consider the buy-back as an option. If it were me, I'd use the settlement money to get something used but good ($15k-$20k) with a plan of handing it to DS once he's driving ... Then once that handoff occurs, look to purchase a new, nice car for DH. That'll give time for EV tech to continue to advance & maybe become further price-accessible. Also gives you time to work through the electrical upgrades your home will need. Finally, more time to save up additional cash, if the electrical upgrades draw down your car-buy fund.

Sorry I should have explained better and will edit above. They will give us $11k for the buy back and the car. So the car is $4k to buy back

[kork13]

Sorry I should have explained better and will edit above. They will give us $11k for the buy back and the car. So the car is $4k to buy back

Ah, that makes ALOT more sense, and is pretty much in line with a typical salvage car's valuation. So it could at least be reasonable to do the buy-back & do minimum repairs on your own with the shop you mentioned. With these numbers, I expect that I would probably go with the buy-back/repair option. You know the car, and it works well, and is in good shape (besides the new damage)... So you don't have to wonder about how a different used car's previous owner treated it. Probably comes down to a value decision.

1 - Check out the Volt or Bolt for a planned car for a future teen driver. With the used EV credit you are talking net $10K or less for a very nice car. I really think my 20yo should buy a used Bolt with the credit (he has the cash). But he is resisting because he has no concept of car maintenance. (The car my kids are sharing and handed down from Grandparents, it's a 2003 that needed literally no repairs the first 2-3 years he drove the car. He has no concept of how expensive an old gas car is). It's a good car to learn on, if you get the premium trim (safety features like pedestrian braking). & the car will also brake to avoid a collision.

This would also give you time to decide if you even like the EV, or if you have any more need than the budget EV. Even a brand new Bolt is something like $25K right now, minus $7,500 EV credit. If you are just going to mostly charge at home, you aren't going to need the faster charging option (the main benefit of newer EV models and more expensive EVs). Worst case, it's not the car for you but your teen is well set.

Those are some good points ... My father bought a Bolt maybe a year ago, and really appreciated/s the low cost, and hasn't bothered to install the higher-power charger. It takes about 2 days to fully charge from the standard outlet (I think ~4mi range per hour of charging). But once it's about full, he can charge it overnight and top it up no problem. They don't normally drive alot of miles (20-30/day), so 8-12hrs on the slow charger each night is more than enough.

[scfr]

Sorry I should have explained better and will edit above. They will give us $11k for the buy back and the car. So the car is $4k to buy back

That does change things a lot, and you have a few reasonable options to choose from.

A couple things that you may have already considered but just in case you haven't:

- Get a quote from the insurance company for all options you are considering, including buying back the salvage vehicle.

- It seems everyone these days takes an "all or nothing" approach to EVs. Don't forget that plug-in hybrids are an option. It sounds like your DH could make his round trip commute all in EV mode, so maybe a PHEV could essentially function as an EV for you? It might be a more practical option. We're very happy with our Prius Prime, and it works sharing one car between me & DH. I can commute round trip to work, and he can run errands or go to the golf course. For longer drives like when I go to my mom's I do end up burning gasoline, but the bulk of our driving is EV.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Well it might be covered by the building in which case it will be repaired. Still waiting to see what they finish saying. This will punt our decision down the road.

So it's $1600 to peanut our panel and put in a plug which may or may not pass inspection. However it is $12k more to upgrade our panel from 125 to 200. If we did an EV we would want to just peanut the panel.

So it's being punted for now!