It's an unusual make - an Abarth (jotted vup fiat basically) hence the repair costs. And five years old. Good nick. Logbook serviced. Would be out of pocket to replace (bought when first in market and more expensive now).

But yeah I have had that niggly, fish curry, not quite right feeling after repairs before on other older cars (even minor repairs) so I am timid. I am only considering repair because it's been so good and I do really like the model. But I am being offered a good price and can survive for a bit while I watch car sales for a good deal...that's why I am so conflicted.

I would much rather buy a second hand car which was a little older than I might like, than have to drive a car which has been in a serious accident.

The last time our car was repaired under insurance, our car slightly brushed against the rear bumper of another car at about 2km/h (carefully reversing out of a tight parking space). It left a scratch on our car that wasn't even deep enough to reveal metal - only the clear coat on top of the paint was scratched - the actual colour paint was undamaged. Seriously we have worse scratches elsewhere on the car from minor misshaps (e.g. we have a 3 year old... sometimes he plays near the car). Also the plastic headlight protector fell off and needed to be glued back on.

If we didn't need to do an insurance claim to fix another scratch just as minor on the other car, I wouldn't have even bothered fixing it. A bit of a polish with wax and it'd buff right out but we wouldn't even bother since the car has a dozen scratches. And who needs a headlight protector anyway? Previous owner of the car's decision to install that, I would've just taken off the one on the other headlight.

But we did need to involve insurance, and the smash repair company is incentivised to get as much money as they can out of every repair... So they charged $12,000 to fix it. The car was valued at $14,000 so it was almost a write off.