A Charlotte, NC, resident told a local news station her 2016 Toyota Highlander wound up being declared a total loss by her insurance company, after the repair estimate on what looked like a minor scrape and dent came to $17,000.
Meghan Murray told WCNC Charlotte she was in a hurry in December 2022 when she accidentally scraped the right side of her SUV along a pole in her garage, damaging the rear door.
Murray said just before Christmas, she took the SUV to an auto body shop in the city's NoDa neighborhood, where she was given an initial estimate of $5,000.
In January, she got a call from her insurance company, informing her the estimate had ballooned to $17,000---more than 75% of the vehicle’s pre-accident value, the threshold established by the North Carolina Department of Insurance.
WCNC Charlotte shared photos of the SUV outside the body shop, with its front and rear bumper covers removed, as well as several interior panels and the rear seats. The news report did not include the estimate itself.
"The only way for it to be drivable would be to go forward with the work and fix it because, at that point, it was completely taken apart,” Murray said.
Murray advised other owners to do more research and find the “reasons behind a business getting one-star reviews.”
