Total Loss? Why? I paid for the car way more than the repairs!
The reason why the total loss of vehicles is a big headache is because most insurance policies only allow payment for actual cash value (ACV). What that means (as it should be defined in the policy) is that the insurance company will only pay for what the car would sell in your market the second before it was hit. This will allow for the depreciation of the vehicle.
The total loss of vehicles is entirely up to the insurance companies, the set if they total vehicles when the repair bills exceeds 60, 70, 80 or 90% of its value. Since vehicle’s depreciate and repair bills can amount to a lot of money, many vehicles can be totaled very quickly.
You can protect yourself by double checking the insurance company estimate, making sure that the repairs are not inflated or too low. Also check the comparable the insurance company is looking at to make sure all the options that your vehicle have will be listed.
Read more about the Total Loss Process
