Flying Volvo and Insurance

Just a note – whether an insurance company “totals” a car has very little – at least directly – to do with whether the car’s frame is bent or you can’t drive it. Insurance companies determine this mathematically – if the price of fixing the car is at or above a certain percentage of the vehicle’s value, then they will total it. It’s as simple as that. I had a bad accident once in a VW Passat that did almost $10k worth of damage, but because it the repairs did not reach that threshold I had to fix it. So my advice is not just to try to get a repair shop say that the frame is bent, but first get several repair estimates (which will include assessment of a bent frame if there is one) and then research values of your car (Kelly, NADA, etc.). Then ask them what their “total” threshold amount is. Finally you ration the average repair estimate and the vehicle value, and see if t exceeds your insurance company’s threshold. If it does they MUST total it!

Oh and my guess is since your 850 Turbo dates from the 90s, as awesome as it is I can’t imagine there is any may it will be worth more than the price of any sort of substantial work, frame or not. You just LOOK at a Volvo repair shop, whether mechanical or body, and that costs a grand (this is from experience — I love the cars and have owned several) :slight_smile: