Ok Friday my 95 Bonneville was rear ended. Nice car, SE with SSE package. leather interior etc, only 96K miles.
Visible damage..... well you have to look really hard to find anything really visible. BUT....... of course the bumper was totally collapsed which means the bumper shocks are no good anymore?
Plus further inspection (and I mean hard looking) the trunk lid appears to be slightly bent, plus strangely the gap on the rear window is very different from one side to the other. The body shop didn't know what to think on this one.

Person who hit me has allstate, which they stink. Body shop estimate was over $800 higher than the allstate drive-in claims. They of course want to use used parts (used parts include the entire rear bumper and ABS shocks for it) and where they can 2nd party not real GM parts.

Now the real dilema. The car is nice, but even at that I figured the car was probably only worth $2500 or so. (might be underestimating, but that was what I was thinking). Do I pay to fix it or pocket the money? Is it dangerous to not replace the rear bumper shocks?

Visibly you would never know it was hit unless you looked so close and knew what you were looking for.

Damage estimates shop $2150 Allstate $1350

what to do............. of course I will have to argue with allstate for a while....

Well for starters if you get a few estimates that prove its higher than what All State says then thats what All state will have to pay in the end as long as you have sufficient proof. That said however, it seems if the car is only worth 2500 or so and there is 2100 worth of damage the car is totalled nothing you can do about that.

According to the body shop its value must be a bt more than I was thinking prior to this. They said at $2150 is was 60% and at that number they would not total it.

I had a minor shunt about 6 years ago. Everything was going well until the insurance co asked me " how many miles are on it?" Now, this daily driver was truly in outstanding condition despite the mileage. They wanted to write it off. I pleaded and eventually got it fixed. There were some used parts on it, which would not normally bother me. They did however use a Cross Canada fender, which was very crude, to put it mildly. Rather that a factory fender that is formed with 7 die strikes, I got a new piece of garbage 3 strike fender. I would have willingly paid the price difference had I known what I was getting. Anyway. I learned my lesson and got a professional appraisal. After the appraisal I was involved in a 6 car accident (3 of them took off) and I was given more money than I thought the car was worth. When does that ever happen? You need an honest appraisal if you want to get more than what the depreciated value is (assuming it is in excellent shape).

It was a very mint Corolla GT-S Twin Cam (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/data/500/medium/latelamentedleft.jpg)BTW. My 1st new car. You are looking at original paint except for the left front fender, plus I blended the trunk after repairing some rust under the rear spoiler. 14 Ontario winters (5 months of wet & road salt) and 350k+ kms. (about 220k miles) It passed every emissions test easily with the original catalytic converter and oxygen sensor. I'd still have it today and in even better condition were it not for the accident. I retired it from winter and bad weather duty. It was still shiny black underneath. The fenders still had the original spot welds and there was no rust (amazingly). Rich-L79 can appreciate how durable and rev-happy the old Toyota 4AGE is. I never burned oil and it revved happily to 7000+ rpm.

I have a small claims court date for the end of this month. I'm trying to get State Farm back onto this planet, instead of wherever they get their vehicle valuations from. I don't know where that is, must be Planet Q or something.

I've presented values from Old Cars Price Guide, from NADA, and sent 18 pages of used vehicle ads to them. I'm showing that they are about 50% of true value. There's always an excuse as to why my evidence of value isn't good enough for them.

I don't know what the law is in your state, but I expect you are owed the VALUE of what you lost. So you have every right to pocket the money, or to partially or completely fix the car. Your choice. And, by the way, you lost Genuine GM parts, so they can pay to put GM stuff back on. That's what I'd tell 'em, anyway. As far as I'm concerned, you are BETTER OFF with used GM parts than new aftermarket junk sheetmetal. Just like repo sheetmetal for the classic cars: The aftermarket stuff is thin, and not stamped properly. No telling whether it's properly rustproofed, either. It may be that they reserve the right to use aftermarket stuff via a clause in the policyholder's contract--but you didn't sign that contract.

Does your car even have bumper shocks? Many newer cars have a plastic honeycomb behind the plastic bumper cover instead of pressure cylinders.

My best advice: Start doing some research on what your car is REALLY worth. DO NOT discuss your claim with them except in writing. SAVE all your correspondance with them. EXPECT and PREPARE to go to court. It's simple and easy, and you should not be afraid of Small Claims paperwork or the hearing. Sue the OWNER of the car, NOT the insurance company. This tells the owner that his insurance company is ****ing people off. I paid to have the Sheriff serve the papers. It becomes a learning experience for the owner. You may wind up facing the insurance company in court, but the owner may also have to be there. If so, he will most likely assist you by bitching and complaining to his own insurance company. They may agree to settle. (probably not--I think car insurance companies enjoy making people angry.)