The thing is this--if the car is fixed at a good shop, there is no reason not to keep it. Most unit frame cars are much better to repair than old body-on-frame vehicles were. The reason for this is because the old vehicles were hard to straighten, while unit frame vehicles are much easier to straighten. SUVs can be a bitch to straighten out because the frames are so damn hard to get aligned right. Same with some trucks. They're miserable.

Also unit frame cars are a lot better with respect to cutting parts out and putting parts in. The same reasons apply; since the whole car is the frame, it isn't like chopping a piece out of one of two frame rails on a body-on-frame vehicle. And welding it properly restores the structural integrity as it was.

Also, with only 5k of damage, it wasn't damaged that badly. I had a 240 get hit in the left rear door and quarter with over $10k in damage... and it didn't look all that bad!

I'll recount a car I saw at a shop that I used to have to go to for parts for work. They did a TON of Volvos. And at some point, they had rebuilt an S70 that had been rear ended. They put an entire rear clip on the car, which is a pretty big project. Then they sold the car, and it was a pretty piece.

A couple of years later, some kids were driving the thing at 70mph and ran into a tree. And the shop bought it back from the salvage auction. It was literally destroyed... but not unusually destroyed. In fact, it was typically destroyed like a Volvo would be. No unusual crazing or distortion. They did a good job of putting it back together. And that is really all that matters. Because with a unit frame vehicle, it isn't as if you have suddenly compromised the only thing that makes it a unit. And it isn't as if you can't restore the strength and longevity to the car.

A lot of old-timers are still hung up on the "never be the same" mentality, but in reality, that kind of died when cars started being built as units rather than being mounted on frames.

As far as your daughter in law goes... she is upside down enough in the car. With four years of payments on the thing, there is no way she is even-up with the value of the car. Also a car with fresh paintwork isn't going to bring praises at trade-in time. However, if the object is to have a car that was never hit (because it'll never be the same) then she should definitely get rid of it. Because if you think it'll never be the same, every single problem will be inappropriately attributed to the collision. Every squeak will be a result o fthe accident. Every unplanned repair will be because the car got hit. And every inadequacy of the car at any time in the future, will be a direct result of this collision. Of course that won't be true, but it will always be in the back of your mind... because remember what grampa always said... "That thing'll NEVER be the same!"

--
Chris Herbst, near Chicago.