1977busman said:
I am looking at a wrecked 02 manual jetta, with 135,000 miles. The damage is all in the front end. My concern is that it looks like the guy took some parts off but im not sure what. But he only wants $3200, and it is only a few hundred miles away. Here is a link, it has a link with like 60 pics. Tell me what you think. Oh yeah I would have to pay about $400 to get it here.
I'm currently driving a 2001 TDI (5spd, 160k miles) purchased from an insurance salvage yard. Here is my post showing the state of damage and costs to repair:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=207595
I paid around $4000 and spent $3000 in parts/materials (all dealer parts, all my own labor, friend did paint labor for free). Despite the appearance of my car in the yard, it did not need to be pulled straight, just the end of the frame rail replaced.
That car will need most of the front end parts I bought, plus fenders, both frame rails, inner fender panel, radiator, AC condenser and whatever miscellaneous stuff got bent/broken on the left side. The car will also surely have to spend time on a frame machine being straightened which will likely necessitate pulling the engine/trans. Unfortunately, the pictures don't show the angles needed to assess just how bent the front end really is.
Bottom line - that's an expensive repair job even if you do all the mechanical and paint labor yourself and use junkyard sheet metal. $3200 is double what a similarly damaged TDI goes for in the insurance salvage yards.