Expert: Mark Haben - 1/29/2009

Question
I have a 99 Silverado pickup.  Someone hit the rear end of the bed while it was parked at my son's High School.  Quite a large dent in the back side of the bed, tailgate is stuck closed, tail light is broken, bumper has a "V" in it.  We have gotten 2 estimates for about $4k to fix everything.  It is paid for, has 75k miles on it, nothing else wrong with it.  The truck is worth about $2500 trade in per Kelly Blue book, and I don't want to put $4k into it.  Do you think I can find a body shop to do repairs that are necessary without doing everything at once? A couple people have told me to check with local High Schools or tech schools to see if they will do the repairs as part of the training for a lower cost.  Is this realistic or not?  I just don't want to put that kind of money into a 10 year old vehicle for my teenager to drive, but I would like to be able to open the tailgate and the tail light needs to be fixed or it won't pass State inspection.  I am a single mom and don't have lots of money to pay for all repairs, right now.  I don't want to sell it because it has been in my family since it was new and I have kept up all maintenance on it.  Any advice you could give would be helpful.

Answer
Kelly-

It is hard for me to make a judgement on this when I can't actually see the damage. I do understand your circumstances however and can give you some advice. Feel free to call me. 971 226 8113 or email images of the damage to, mark93cobr at hot mail dot com

Mark