The cars in front of me made a sudden stop and I hit an SUV in front of me at about 25 mph. My hood is bent and creased, the grilled is smashed, a headlight smashed, and other various damage.

With these cars being aluminum, are repairs extremely expensive? Can aluminum panels be repaired or do they have to be replaced? If/when I get to a body shop, is there anything I should be looking out for? Any other advice from people who have been through this?

 

Repairs at a Jag certified body shop very expensive. Most likely will total your car.

Even at a 3rd rate body shop, they will tell you that you have frame damage.
That's what 25mph impact does.

Insurance Co. Will total it due to age and Jag depreciation.

If repaired, doubt it will ever drive the same.

Time to find a replacement.

 

So the first thing is to make sure I'm at a Jag-certified body shop.

KBB says the car has a private party value of mid-$8000's, which is a shame, because this car, with low miles (67k) and it's physical condition, might easily sell for $11-12k.

It sounds like this first piece of advice is to hope that the car is, in fact, totaled. What if the insurance company does not total it?

 

Hanfrac - it all depends on frame damage (and whether you hit the other car face-on or obliquely). In the UK the insurance Co will decide on the repairers and they will first carry out a frame squareness check. If the front panels have moved back to the engine then it's probably totalled. I believe most external panels on the X350 are bolted on, so if it turns out to be cosmetic then it's probably repairable.

I have had two XJ's totalled - and actually made money out of them! The Ins Co gave me 'book' price for both cars, but at the time you couldn't give the cars away. So I got more than I could have sold them for.

In the UK if a car is totalled, they mark the registration document. You can buy the wreck and rebuild it, but future insurers and buyers will know it was totalled. Many buy the wreck for a few £'s and break them.

 

I hit the car in front of me dead-on - no turning or twisting. My bumper rode under the SUV's bumper and I believe the SUV's bumper rode up on top of mine and then made contact with my grille and hood and driver's side headlamps. The airbag did not deploy.

I drove the car this morning and if I didn't know about the accident, I wouldn't have noticed the car driving any differently, so that's good news. I would rather pay my deductible and get my car back in good shape vs. having it totaled unless I got a fair value for it. I suppose when I take it to a body shop, I can get the insurance estimate and the "what if it's totaled and I buy the car back and have it fixed" estimate.

 

hanfrac..If you have the time and a few $$$, get a certified independent appraiser to value the car as it was before the collision, that is..in good condition. Insurance companys will low ball it just to get rid of it.
Trust me on this one....BTDT...
You can fight the insurance company and have them not declare it totalled. BTDT.
I saved my "baby" one time doing that..an 86 black Olds 442...that was hit in the front by a 'almost' drunk driver. His BAC was just under the limit ...
Good luck.

 

I am under the impression that aluminum bodied XJ Jags were not built until the 05 model.
I am probably wrong, but that's my understanding.

 

X350 XJ, aluminum body, 2003.5MY onwards, 2004 onwards in the US

 

OK lets see if i can help: My Jag was hit 3 years ago in a parking lot, and it was at about 15 mph. No frame damage. Also since it was not my fault I did not have to pay, but the total for the repair was $10,500. No you do not want them to try to straighten the hood or body, because the labor to do that would be more than it is worth. Also make sure the frame is not bent. I have included the damage from my Jag. Also the hood and or fenders will not fit a perfect at the original, because this is stamped. So just beware. I also purchased the passenger side light assembly, because the new one made the original one look really bad. that was a $1,300 cost I chose to make, and for me it was a good one. The repair on mine is great, and I am sorry that I do not have pics for that.

 

Sorry it was 4 1/2 years ago

 

I have seen them with less damage and written of by insurance here in Australia

They are worth quite a bit more second hand over here than the US or UK seems the front rails collapse as part of the crumple zone

it will most likely be totalled shame really

 

Here are pics of my damage. The car is at a body shop getting estimated. The preliminary estimate was around $6000, but they need to get under the hood to see what else there is. The body shop does not think there is likely to be frame damage - the hit was too high - and very much doubts this is a total.

It looks like a new hood, bumper repairs, new headlights, and a new grille. The shop owners were shocked when I told them the book on the car was around $8500 - they thought it would be $20k. They still don't believe me.

 

Insurance company will total the car when repairs reach 80% of the cost of the car. An $8k value car will be totaled when repairs cost $6,400 or more.

I really doubt a Certified Shop in Aluminum repairs can do your job for $6K. Reputable insurance companies may require the repairs to be done by a Certified Shop in Aluminum repairs

 

I would agree, doesn't look like a write-off at all. But yeah $6K is probably on the low end for a proper repair with new parts. You could possibly save a little with salvaged parts, but not that much...

 

Your's looks worse then mine, but mine was over 4 years ago, and the car was worth more then. Here were some of the cost of the main items. Hope it helps.
Hood with leaper (ALU) $1,775.00
LT Headlamp assy $1,239.00
Front Bumper $ 944.00
LT fender $ 815.00
Body labor $1,200.00
Paint labor $ 750.00

So it is hard to tell if you have frame damage, and my guess you don't, but get more then one quote. I am just guessing, but I say if you do not need the bumper or fender you cost may be about $6,250 to $8,500. Good luck

 

My deductible is $1000. Assuming no frame damage, I'd rather get the car back well-repaired than to have it totaled and get $8500 less $1000 for it.

The body shop (which is aluminum-certified - they are certified by Audi, Tesla, and others, but not for Jaguar) said that at $6000 or $6400, their computer said it was at 50%. The guy said it would get totaled at around 70%. They said they don't expect this to go to the aluminum facility, as they don't expect to repair any panels - it will be just replacing them. Like Luke, they said the hood will be about $1800, but they expect the insurance company to ask them to find a salvage hood.

If the insurance company offers me something more like $12k, I think I'd be more ok with the car being totaled. But I don't see why they would do that.

 

Had a similar situation when my wife got read-ended by a text reading kid. I had, what I thought was, cosmetic damage - bumper cover, new exhaust, etc. My indy told me to take the $$ as it also had floorpan damage, which isn't repairable, in his opinion.

Insurance co tired to really lowball me - they used the Comps method to get car's value, and some arbitrary formula to correlate my car with those being sold. Trouble is they were using two cars for sale that were being sold at wholesale prices, and these cars were no longer for sale. Fought with them for 6 weeks, all the while the car was racking up storage fees at my indy (which insurance will pay). Finally got $11500 for the car (started at $9500).

If you go the total route, and can afford to wait, do so. Insurance will come around as long as your settle price is reasonable and you can back it up with your own research.

 

The body shop where the car is is a preferred provider of my insurance company.

Can I trust their estimate or do I need to take it to an independent/get multiple opinions? Might the first body shop potentially not tell me about frame damage in an effort to keep the repair job cost below a "total" so that they get the work?

 

YES!!!!
See post #6

 

There is no need to use new panels for wings and bonnet, bumper, lights etc The damaged parts are well use, so why fit new parts. This gets the cost down considerably, but inevitably labour charges will add up. When I had my Rover 75 rear-ended in 2008, I made sure the repairers knew I was happy with them using used parts. So I managed to get the car repaired, and drove it for thousands of miles subsequently