Totaled at 120k

[Geojake]

I always figure about $500 per panel or major item.

Hood, bumper, fender, headlight... core support? Inner fender? Maybe an airbag or two?

That's 8 items if the airbags popped.

And airbags these days are often more like $800.

So, yeah... could be $8500. Remember, their job is to make the car 100% exactly as it should be. YOU might choose to do a lesser repair (as would I), but if the insurance company is paying to repair your car to perfection, that's their goal. 100% perfect repair. So, they should be replacing everything that's bent, dinged, scratched, etc. They can absolutely go overboard with it. But... they should. That should be your expectation.

In this case, it's "just a Mirage". But, what if it was your new sports car? You WANT that level of repair from the body shop that's working for your insurance company to make your car right again.

And now we know why there are so many salvage and repaired Mirages out there. Doesn't take much to get one to where the insurance company is going to write it off.

Back in the early 2000's with 94-97 Miatas... it was the airbags that were the kicker. If you had JUST enough of an impact to pop the airbags (no passenger sensor, so both airbags always popped), the passenger side airbag cover would ALWAYS break the windshield. So, you'd have front bumper, hood, two fenders, headlights, an $800 windshield, and $1500 worth of airbags. Spec Miata, here we come!

Certain cars that don't hold their value (Mirage), or are unusually expensive to repair "by the book" (early Miatas) end up getting totalled a lot and become absolute bargains to "rebuild".

Very true. In this case no airbags went off, however in the bodyshop's first estimate they did not include the windshield cost because it had a huge crack caused by the accident as well as right rear quarter panel damage...it was a larger couch an L shape to be exact and after hitting the short point of the L it slammed the longer end straight into the right rear quarter of the vehicle.