When my car was hit last time, I got 3 estimates ranging from 1800 to 2400. Insurance only paid me $1100. I sent my car to the bodyshop whose estimate was 2400 and gave them the check. It finally cost them 1600 to have the car repaired and they got the remaining money from the insurance.
If you want to pocket the money, you can forget about $3000 because insurance will certainly not pay you that much.
