Car may be out of commission... basically the wheel got hit straight on by a pickup truck... (driver's side front)... Fender is smashed in, edge of the door's bent in a little, bumper was ripped off, hood and lights are all screwed up... more importantly, the wheel is all messed up... it's sitting funny now. The drivaxle on that side might be shot.

Only hope I'm holding on to is that I'm not leaking any fluids or anything, which includes tranmission fluid. I'm hoping that maybe there's something else wrong... still... that's a fair amount of damage to a $1800 car.

Any thoughts on that though? I'm thinking something else might have broken

 

well the bad news......you might have popped the subframe and compromised a lot of its structural integrity I got rearended in my 95 and bent the frame, shoved the wheel up in the wheel wells, and pushed my drivers side door, to where it wouldnt open again. I was so mad but I got the car for my 91 grand prix and 500 dollars so I couldnt be too upset but I was so happy with that car.(sigh) it was my first neon buildup project car. But I just parted it out made 500 bills and collect 2200 from insurance and turned around and bought a r/t neon and a saturn (YAY!) so your best bet would be to get a new one and part yours out or just give it to someone....there are a lotta ppl here in the forums lookin for neon parts or whole cars. Post a pic of it so we can check the damage and give you an idea of wether or not its a lost cause.

 

It's not worth fixing. If the insurance company doesn't total it, take whatever money they give you and put it towards something else... The car will never drive quite the same again, and it'll show up on carfax, so no one will ever buy it for a decent price.

Another thing you can do, assuming it isn't totalled, is start selling the parts on ebay. A decent engine will pull $200 pretty easily. Same for the tranny. Remaining fender, bumpers, and trunk $25-50 each. Doors with windows another $50-100 each. Seats $50+ each. See where I'm going? And then a lot of junk yards buy scrap metal, just a matter of getting the shell of the car towed out there...

Best of luck!

 

Yeah... I didn't think so. I'm guessing it's got about $900 in bodywork on its way, and that's enough right there to be totalled.

So I've been looking around (actually, I've been thinking about a new car for a while)... any thoughts on the following?:

1999 300M with a new timing belt ($8k, 90k miles) 3.5L V6
2001 Sebring LXi with a 5 speed ($10k, 60k miles) 3.0L V6
1993 Stealth with a new tranny, clutch, timing belt, water pump, exhaust ($4k, 111k miles) 3.0L V6
1999 Camaro ($8k, 74k) 3.8L V6

The Camaro would be easiest to get, since it's through a lot/dealer that'll do financing... but judging from Consumer Guide, it seems to be the least reliable. All but the 300 are manuals.

 

well what are your needs?? Do you have passengers ? Are you lookin for a fun car??? Are you lookin for gas mileage? If it were me id go w/ the 300m or the stealth... the stealth would have to be turbocharged and the 300m would have to be a certain trim pkg...and the gas savers outta the bunch would have to be the sebring and stealth....

If it were me again here in your situation id just buy a 98 or 99 dodge neon and start building it from scratch b/c well, they are fun cars when you apply some simple bolt-ons...

 

If it was me, I'd take the Camaro and turbocharge it...

But I'd skip the dealer financing crap... I belong to a bank and 2 different Credit Unions. Guarantee one of 'em will beat the rates a shark, er... lot will give you.