Originally Posted by AtomHeart

LOL...that's kinda the point of this post, InfernoRed. The damage ammount SHOULD be $18,000 or so if they were fixing the A-pillar correctly. Once metal has bent, the glass-brittle bonds break on a molecular level. You can then push the metal back to exactly the shape it was in before and it will look great. But if you try to bend it again...guess what...it bends easier, and in the exact same spot as before, because all of those broken bonds are still there in the metal. It's called fatigue stress failure. That's why if you bend a paper clip four or five times, it will break.

I have no problem with them fixing my car instead of totaling it. The POINT was...they need to tear out the dash, remove the A-pillar that is crushed, and then check all the things behind it that it is attached to to make sure none of THAT is bent or buckled.

This is the structural rigidity of the car we are talking about, and the car doesn't just have to look fixed. It has to perform just as good in any future collisions as it would if it were new. A weakened a-pillar allows a car that hits me in the side to get into the drivers seat compartment easier and therefore endangers my life in the next accident. Now I have all kinds of sympathy for Allstate not wanting to pay to have the interior removed, windsheild removed and everything, but if that's what is needed to put the car in pre-accident condition, then the repair estimate needs to go up. if it goes up so much that they would rather total the car, that's fine too...but I will not have the a-pillar pulled out and repainted.