So the building accepted full responsibility for the damage to our 2016 Subaru Legacy.  That means our insurance is not requiring us to pay our deductible and will be going to settle with them.  That's the good news and it took until mid April for the building to decide to accept responsibility.

The problem?  We are likely having the car considered salavaged either way.  I called to set up our appointment and the repair shop said it would take 2 months.  I flipped out because our insurance covers 30 days and $50 a day rental reimbursement.  But the very nice man said "you won't need it. the car will likely be salvaged within a week."  He went on to explain it's an estimate and when they take apart the car they may find more things wrong and that will change the estimate and just by looking at the hours of labor, 100 hours, to repair he could pretty much guess after 20 years in the business that the car would be salvaged.  I said I'd call him back after talking with my insurance company.  

I called my insurance company who said everything he said was correct.  That even though we are "repairing" the car depending on what happens when they start to work on it the company can choose to total the car.  They can choose to not fix it and instead call it a total loss.

In WA if repairs are more than 80% of the salvage value then it's a total loss.  So right now we are at $12,388 and the 80% is $12,800? Or something like that.  So basically they open it up and find one thing wrong and it's a total loss.  The repair shop guy said guaranteed that he'll find something, no way to know what's wrong until they open up a roof.  So he said he could already tell me the car is dead, besides if the frame is bent (which they can't tell by looking or photos) then it's structurally compromised and too hard to fix.  So he said look for a new car.

Now we're back where we were in February.  Figuring out what sort of car we want and can afford.  UGH.  And we're still in the predicament of wanting a car to hand down to DK1 in 2 years, January 2026.  We would like an EV but unsure if it makes sense because trying to upgrade the panel is $15k and I'm not sure we can do it otherwise.  So what to do?