A friend of mine lost his daily driver -- a 2008 Lexus GS 350 -- when he was t-boned on the passenger side recently. This guy babies his cars and keeps them forever (he has had a 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix as his weekend car for over 30 years).

As expected, the insurance company totaled out the car after the wreck. The passenger side airbags deployed and there is damage, but it is at least "driveable" (whatever that means in this context). The engine, transmission, A/C, brakes, etc. still work and he put $7,000 in suspension parts and upgrades shortly before the accident. He can buy the car back from the insurer at less than $1,000.

Assuming that the drivetrain and such are in good shape, this seems like a good dollar-per-horsepower value. Unfortunately, I usually have more enthusiasm than skill, and am not sure what, if anything to do with this. Options would include:

• Turn it into a Lemons racer (though I already have one of those)
• Pay a body shop to fix the damage and turn it into a cheap (?) daily driver
• Buy another Lexus with a bad drivetrain to create a Franken-Lexus of the good stuff from this one.
• Do some other weird body swap
• Somehow shove the RWD drivetrain into the FWD Lemons car (2001 Honda Accord) and watch it explode spectacularly to the delight of the automotive weirdos that go to Lemons races.
• ??????
• Step 3 -- Profit

Any ideas? I know next to nothing about Lexuses and whether I will later regret even thinking about this.

If you don't need another Lemons car, parting it out is probably the only route that could potentially net positive money. Sounds like a lot of work.

If you want a DD, and have access to a shop and time, buying a non-running body donor could be an option. At least then you would have a clean title, running car that has resale value.

Knowing nothing more, a 2008 Lexus GS 350 Sedan 4D has a current resale value of $6,493 and trade-in value of $3,750.