I am a student in St. Louis Missouri and I saved every cent I had in the last year while riding the bus in the snow to school everyday with my 60lb book bag. After much struggle, I bought a 2000 Volvo S80 with about 250k miles on it for $3500 cash just in time to start work on April 5th. Unfortunately my mechanic( who is great and I’m not blaming him)said that it might not be worth full coverage, so I bought liability immediately with the plan of buying full coverage on my first pay check. The week before my first check and on my birthday(May 6th)just a month later, I was mugged and my car was stolen. They have Just now recovered the car and the condition of the car is as follows: The thief had been using my car in robberies so he has been driving it the whole time. The car has a busted rear window, they put some tacky tint on it, a dent in the door, and bullet holes in a locating I’m not sure of. They did apprehend the suspect while he was driving the car. I cant afford car payments because I am academically competitive and do not work much if at all during school.
My question is, Do you think the car is worth fixing, or should I just trading it for something else after saving more money?
Will your insurance pay anything on it? Youshould get estimates to fix it before you make any decisions. We could guess at the cost, but could be off by $1000 or more. And that would completely change the situation. Get 3 estimates. You might ask your insurer for recommendations on body repair shops.
I checked the Edmunds.com site to get your car’s value. As it sits, it is in “rough” condition and with the high miles and damage it is worth about $1,000. If the repairs cost less than $1,500 and bring the car up to “clean” condition it could be worth the money to repair it. If the repair estimates exceed $1,500 you probably won’t get a good return on your investment.
In addition to the body damage you need to have the car inspected mechanically too. The thief didn’t drive the car carefully so he could have run over curbs and who knows what else.
The last point is a 2000 Volvo with 250K miles is going to be an expensive car to repair and it will need repairs frequently. If you keep it you’ll need to have money for some hefty repair bills.
Thanks
Thank you, that answered my question.