Hey Les!  It’s nice to hear things are working out OK with the accident, sorry to know you got caught up in it in the first place.  I’ve been in a similar situation before, fortunately the worst I got out of it was beating myself up for a stupid mistake .  Hope that’s the worst you have to go through.

Sounds like you really do have a decent insurance company.  One of my friends was in an accident where the car was borderline “totaled,” and she didn’t feel confident that it could be repaired, as the insurance company wanted.  She fought it for two months and eventually got it totaled.  From your picture though the damage doesn’t seem nearly as bad as hers.  As long as you think the car is reparable, and you trust the guys at the shop to do a good job, I wouldn’t think you’d be too bad off just having it fixed and avoiding further hassle.

Cool deal on the rental!  I ended up with a rental Taurus with a guy from work on a business trip once.  Nice ride, but the rental company left some large reddish stains on the back seat.  As it had Jersey plates, we liked to think we inherited the local Mafia body disposal unit.  But what do you expect from two Italian guys with a three hour drive ahead of them

Oh I love the Aztek! I have wanted one from the first time I saw it!
Glad your currant car is fixable Les, even better that it is only going to take them to the end of next week. My husband and I had to have work done twice on the same car after it was stolen, and both times it took them a month to fix the car, so needless to say I am rather impressed yours is getting done so fast.

JJJJB, yes the Aztek. That’s what I had wanted to buy originally instead of the Grand Prix. Back then I was working at the GM Tech Center in Warren and had seen the prototype as it was developed. It was wicked cool and although the final production model was very different, I still liked it because it was a gadget car. The fact that it’s butt-ugly just reduces the chances of people stealing it in my mind. I’m going to be sitting in it most of the time and wouldn’t notice how it looked on the outside.

Shortt, just got off the phone with the insurance company as there was some confusion on whether they were going to total the car or not. Anne had spoken with someone at the insurance office that seemed to think it had been totaled which is confusing as the body shop told me it was fixable. So I just got off the phone with the insurance folks and they checked with the auto body shop and the amount to fix it didn’t exceed 60% of the value of the car so they’re going to fix it. Seems it’s a good $6400 or so worth of damage though.

great news, glad it’s fixable. at least your rentacar, was a ford taurus.  When my van got smunched, no lie, a GEO METRO. yeah that didn’t go over, with three car seats, it was a no go.

Dude!  The Aztek?