[blue00gt]

It's not necessarily true that it would never drive the same, but it takes a good shop to fix a car with frame damage the right way and my experience tells me that a good shop is hard to find and it is impossible to tell ahead of time unless you have dealt with them before or know someone who is knowledgable of the business. I wrecked my '00 when it was fairly new to the tune of $13K - bent the K-member, killed all the front suspension, and the frame. It drives perfectly well now - no vibrations, alignment problems, or uneven tire wear. BUT I had to have it fixed TWICE to get it where it is now. The first shop that 'fixed' it had it for 7 months and after I got it back I could see that the wheelbase wasn't even the same on both sides and the frame was still bent. I uncovered some fraud that the first shop committed (re-used damaged parts that were on the repair estimate and even had receipts to show purchese, except for the fact that they returned the parts after buying them!). After threatening the first shop I was able to get it fixed at another shop that a good friend of mine recommended, and the car is flawless now.
I don't know if all insurance companies are the same, but for mine the damage has to be over 2/3 of the cars value for it to be totalled, so yours probably isn't.