My '73 Super Beetle was backed into and the young lady was honest enough to leave a note. I had a recent experience with Old Dominion involving another vehicle that got hit, so I chose Old Dominion to do the repairs. I had to have the VW towed to OD because the master cylinder needed replacement. That's when the problems started. When the car was delivered, I spoke with the office manager and explained the situation to her - including the fact that the car was towed due to previous brake issues. On a subsequent call, I spoke with a different office employee who, without even looking at the car, told me the car would, most likely, be totaled. No insurance adjustor had looked at it yet. When the owner of OD found out the car had been towed due to a pre-existing condition, he refused to do the work and gave me the bullshit excuse that the VW with bad brakes made it dangerous for his employees to move the car around the lot. He admitted that had the VW been rendered undriveable due to the crash, it would, somehow, mysteriously, be safe for him to move around the lot. Mind you, none of this was my fault. Not my car being hit, not towing it OD (bad brakes), it wasn't even my insurance company. The more I tried to explain this to the owner, the more he dug his heels in, and the excuses as to why he wasn't going to do the work multiplied. This conversation finally ended with me telling the owner that I would have the car towed from his lot and taken to someplace that would do the repairs. His response... "Good luck with that - no one will touch that car until you get the brakes fixed". "Oh, and good luck getting your insurance company to pay for the tow". So, it turns out that during my first conversation with the insurance company, when I told them that the VW was undriveable due to a pre-existing issue with the master cylinder, he should have advised me that the tow would be out-of-pocket. He didn't. The owner of OD thought I was lying and trying to stick him with the tow bill. Even after I told him that every conversation I had with every one of his employees I explained that the car had a pre-existing condition. It didn't matter. He didn't have the professional integrity to find out where the miscommunication occurred. So, I spoke with the insurance company again. They realized their error and agreed to pay the original tow bill, and then tow the car to my house. OD wasn't done yet... When the tow company got there, the office manager, rightfully, called me to authorize their release of my car. She couldn't resist adding one more dig about needing to "get this car off my lot". Flash forward a couple days. The adjustor comes to my house and looks at the VW. I tell him the story and he says, "Oh, they won't work on a car that old"... And, the repairs were nowhere near "totalled". I did them in my driveway.
If you do decide to use OD, you better call first and find out if your car fits their plug and play style of body repair. Also be aware that totaling your car might be more financially convenient than labor costs read more