Well I have a ton of recent experience with this situation. My first experience was having my VX totaled by a drunk driver. In that situation even if the body had been repairable, the frame was creased on the passenger's side so totalling it was the only option. I haggled with the insurance company for about 2 months to get a check for $12K or so. BUT that included the replacement costs for my mods, an adjustment for the relatively low mileage (73K), and a little extra for the rare color (Foxfire). I had to get Richard Payne (member here, he owns a dealership in Colorado) to write an estimate of what he would charge for my VX on his lot in pre-crash condition for them to go that high. I bought it back as salvage and ended up trading it to Buffy in exchange for his labor to put the 5-speed in my new VX. The way they set the salvage price (at least at GEICO) is by taking the max price that a junkyard offers them when they list it on their auction site. I paid $1400 for a VX with a bent frame but otherwise intact powertrain (engine, transmission, transfer case, etc).

The second situation occurred while test driving a VX in Colorado to replace my totaled truck. I rear-ended a guy on the freeway in Denver; turns out when a guy in a Kia comes to a near stop in the middle of the interstate to change lanes and your car has bald tires and no ABS it's hard to stop in time. The adjuster out there told me that it would likely be totaled during our first conversation. I told him that was crap because the damage was minor and the vehicle was worth much more than he thought. Basically I told him to do his research and call me back. When he did he said he was wrong and that it was no problem to get it fixed.

So a couple of suggestions and questions for you. First is you need to get multiple written quotes to repair the damage. This should be pretty easy since you can still drive it around town. (Btw, I'm not sure why the insurance company thinks replacing the entire right side of the body is somehow better than repairing it considering they would probably have to cut the existing section out and weld the new section in - seems like that would decrease structural integrity going forward.) Then you need to get some quotes together as to what your vehicle is worth. Start with KBB, NADA, AutoTrader, and Edmunds, then if you know a dealer who would write you a fair quote go ahead and get that together as well. Unless your mileage is really low I can't see you getting $8/9K for a '99 VX, but you never know. In any event doing that legwork will make you very prepared to argue with the insurance company.

Have you filed a claim yet? If not, I would wait until you get all the info together. Once you start the claim I'm not sure that you can cancel it, and then you're more or less at the mercy of the insurance company when it comes to totaling or salvaging it. Once you do file the claim don't be afraid to hold out. In many companies the adjuster (and the claims office as a whole) get rated by how quickly they close claims, so they will become increasingly likely to make you a better offer the longer you drag it out. Again you have a huge advantage in that you can still drive your VX, so there's no reason to be in a hurry.

One of the things you need to decide during this process is whether you intend to keep your VX forever. If that's the case, who cares whether you end up with a salvage title? If you have no choice but to have it totaled follow the suggestions above to get as big a check as possible, get your cheap mechanic to fix it for a lot less, then laugh all the way to the bank. If you are concerned about resale value then you need to fight as hard as possible for a high valuation and a low repair estimate.

Hope that helps, here's a link to my thread after my crash. Might be interesting reading.

Is This the End?

Good luck!