There is a tendency to overlook the fact that while the insurance company has an interest in writing as low an estimate as possible, the shop has an interest in writing as high an estimate as possible.
A dude backed into the driver’s door of my sister’s ‘95 Sebring. The estimates ranged from $1500 to $3500. Her insurance company wanted to write the car off even though it was rust free and had only 45k on it. This was in 2011. Once the insurance company’s adjuster actually looked at the car, they fixed it.
I had an insurance company try to write off my ‘89 Crown Vic for a windshield! Other than the rock in the windshield, the car was in immaculate condition.
Insurance companies are extremely happy to take your premiums, but they try every trick in the book to avoid any sort of payout on policies, ever. Then they wonder why “insurance company” is often used as a pejorative.
and somewhere in between lies that it costs to fix it ;)