Is Collision Repair Possible for a Totaled Vehicle
A lot of people, especially insurance companies, consider investing in a totaled vehicle pointless. But, they do not look at the situation from your point of view. Is your car paid off? Are you attached to the car? Can you afford a new car payment? What if fixing the car made more sense in your situation and can some of those funds come from the insurance company?
It’s possible to force an insurance company to pay for collision repairs if the owner can prove the car is valued more than the company’s estimate or if the repairs would be less than their estimate. If the owner can’t do that, they may at least be able to keep their damaged car.
Keep reading to learn about what it can take to get your totaled beauty fixed, if possible.
Will Insurance Companies Pay for a Totaled Vehicle’s Repair?
Not if the insurance company has anything to say about it. Insurance companies won’t try to find the true value of your car.
They don’t want to do that because it requires them to pay out more money when they determine they don’t want to pay for the necessary collision repairs. Even when a car can be repaired, your insurance company will label it “totaled” if the cost of repairs goes beyond about 60% of the car’s true value. Instead, they will make their decision about your totaled car’s value based on what a plausible cash offer would have been for the car before it crashed. Then, the insurance company gets a 3rd party opinion and gets their estimate.
Can My Insurance Company Pay for Totaled Repairs?
Don’t lose hope! You might be able to wring money for repairs from your insurance company if you get your own evaluation.
If the insurance company wants to say your car is only worth $2500 and then determines the repair cost would be at least $1500, they would mark it totaled. However, if you have an independent evaluation that proves the true value of your car is $6000, you could afford collision repairs up to $3,600 before it was labled as totaled. Be aware that you might not be able to do this without your insurer’s approval first. Check their policy to be sure.
Can You Keep a Totaled Car?
If you can’t combat the insurance company’s estimates or couldn’t get a better estimate from your chosen appraiser, you still might be able to keep your car. Usually, the insurance company will give you a check for their estimated value of the car and then send the car to the junkyard.
However, if you paid off the car and own it without some kind of lien on it, you can try telling the insurance company you want to keep the car. If they accept that request, they will still give you a check with the estimated value minus what they would have been paid by the scrapyard. That will at least give you a start for repairs.
In short, collision repairs are possible for even “totaled” cars, like yours. Maybe the only question to ask yourself now is how you can get through the headache of fighting your insurance company.
If you have been involved in an accident and seek collision repairs to get your vehicle back on the road and in pre-accident condition, then check us out at Quality Assured Collision Center. We are one of Yelp’s highest rated mechanical repair shops in the Long Beach area. To-date we have over 200 honest reviews from real customers. Many of our reviews offer real pictures from real customers. These people were not just satisfied, they were so happy they wanted others to see for themselves. You can check out our reviews for yourself.