[jyl]

Sigh. My daughter is on a roadtrip in LA with her brother, in her 2007 Honda Element EX AWD. It is a wonderful, perfect car and she loves it.

"Was". As they were sitting at a stoplight, a much larger SUV plowed into them from behind, crushing the entire rear window/hatch and the adjacent quarter panels and C pillars forward by a few inches, blowing out all rear glass, and sending them forward into the large pickup truck stopped ahead, destroying the front end. The car is drivable but not far.

She took copious photos, got everyone's information, went to Urgent Care (diagnosis: whiplash), has made a claim on the other driver's insurance (Mercury).

The kids need to get back to Tahoe to complete their summer jobs, then back up to Portland for school, so they need a rental car ASAP and the Mercury adjuster is not moving fast enough. She thus made a claim on our insurance (State Farm) who promised it won't affect our rates and set them up with a rental car. They will leave the Element parked at our friends' house in LA for the Mercury adjuster to deal with.

I am fairly sure the car will be totalled. So, I'm seeing Kelley Blue Book private party value for Excellent Condition 2007 Element EX AWD in Portland at about $5,000-6,000. However, that year/model/option car cannot be bought in Portland for that sum. They cost about $8,000-9,000, and that is private party on Craiglist.

Anyone have tips for how to get a realistic settlement from Mercury?

If they choose to repair the car, which is very unlikely, anything to watch out for? The car is in LA and we are not, so we are not going to have much control over the process.

They will have some other expenses. Urgent care visit ($200), various Uber charges ($70?), rental car (?), one night hotel ($100), and potentially flying down to LA to pick up the repaired car and driving it home w/ attendant gas/hotel. Any tips here?

I have managed to live over five decades without ever making a claim for accident damage to a car. So I am kind of clueless.