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Re: Totalled 9-3 settled. Advice? Posted by Snowmobile [Email] (#686) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Snowmobile) on Fri, 7 Feb 2014 08:06:04 In Reply to: Totalled 9-3 settled. Advice?, AlexA, Fri, 7 Feb 2014 05:36:05 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
This is the dilemma of owning a nice car. Cars get damaged by driving them, whether it is a collision, like this, or just wear and tear, salt/sun/rain/snow... of course not driving them ruins them also. Cars are disposable items, not investments (even if we might hope otherwise).
So it depends on a few things: how much does having a pristine example of this specific model matter to you? do you now need a daily driver? maybe you would enjoy a different pristine saab as a collector model?
With that insurance payout, you could probably buy a 9-5 daily driver (for which some parts, eg those nice wheels, would switch over), part the rest of the car out and make a profit to use towards restoration of some other classic saab to keep mint as a non-daily driver under (cheap) historic agreed-value insurance. If you have space, that is what I would do. Then don't worry too much about the 9-5 if something happens. They are super safe and comfortable practical cars with basically no collector value.
Alternatively, you could restore your car, but it would never be worth what it costs to make it right because it was crashed. So if it is just for you, maybe that works? Just get really good paint work done, because the cheap stuff will cause you headaches down the road.
Finally, you could try buying another minty og9-3... they do exist, but will become fewer and further between as time marches on. Probably that is the cheapest route, and you could still part out the one you have (or swap parts, eg those nice wheels!)...
I agree with Brett, that there is some frame straightening required, and it is not going to be a cheap or easy job making that car right (by your high standards).
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