What To Do With A Totaled Car: With Or Without Insurance.

You’re probably wondering what a totaled car means. Well, for your car to be totaled, it means it’s wrecked from an accident and the cost to fix it would exceed its value. This will surely leave you in an upsetting situation as the thought of fixing it doesn’t sound financially reasonable. So you ask, “What do I do with a totaled car?” Well, the good news is there are options to choose from when your car is completely totaled.
Below are the typical options when you have insurance…

Get Paid and Let Your Insurance Company Take the Car

If your car is insured, you can decide to get paid out by your insurance company and let them take the car. Every insurance company has its method for declaring a car ‘totaled’. Hence, after an accident, an expert – known as an insurance adjuster – from your insurance company or of the driver at fault is sent to inspect the car to check whether it’s totaled or fixable and to also determine its replacement value. The insurance company then writes you a check for what they’ve determined to be your car’s market value or the repair costs. An old car costs more to fix than its value. So if your car is an old one, you’re likely to be paid the market value of the car so that you can buy another car that’s in a similar condition as your former car before it got totaled. So, if your $52,000 Mercedes Benz gets totaled, it makes a lot of financial sense to go down this lane by taking the insurance check and starting afresh. Get Paid and Keep the Car Let’s say your car is worth $8,000 and the payout from your insurance company is valued at $6,000. You might want to fix your car instead especially if it can still be driven safely or towed to the body shop for repairs. If you have done the math, you can choose to get paid by your insurance company and keep the car. Here, they will pay you less since you are keeping the car. If your car is old, it’s quite likely that getting the replacement value for it won’t provide you with enough money to get a more reliable car. Therefore, going with this option is also smart. Although, this might mean you’ll have to repair your car unless you don’t mind still driving your car around even if it looks like a beat-up golf ball.