Repair or Trash 2001 Century
 

My daughter has a 2001 Buick Century Custom in great condition with only 65K on it. It was my mother in laws car. My daughter had an accident in the snow last week. She's fine/car isn't. Damage to Front bumper, left fender both passenger side doors and with rocker and vertical support damage. No mechanical damage. Repair guy says repair exceeds car value. Since I rebuild jeeps in my spare time, I am thinking I may let him repair the rocker and vertical support and I can pull and replace the body parts. Am I crazy or is this repair reasonable to attempt? :confused:

Price it out with KBB.com against repair guys cost and body parts in a junkyard. Once you do this take into consideration you will not get this money back if you try to sell this car. I had to come to terms with this when I let my Century limited go. It sounds like a low miles unmolested Century where a same year Regal would be beat to death. Also take into consideration what it would cost to keep this car on the road vs finding an unknown used car what could be better or worse with service records. Where I live in a You Pick it junk yard the parts cost as follows

Door $44.99 each with $5 core charge
Bumper cover w/ header (if they don't charge you for grille separate) $69.79 with $4 core charge
Fender $36.49 with $3.50 core charge.

Another item overlooked in the Century/Regal is front anti sway bar that will eventually fail. I would avoid junk yard for this and go $99 dorman with better aftermarket bushings.

You may luck up and find all the parts on a same color car. Take into consideration Century and Regal doors and bumpers are not exactly the same. Here is a side by side with Century on the left and Regal on the right. I actually like the Regal front end better but couldn't find one that wasn't damaged.


Attachment 645