update w/ G35...

[BlkCD5]

oops

[JennB]

I thought most insurance companies want to make money Isn't the margin if damages exceed 20% of the car's value, they total it?

Not even close. And how would they make money off of totalling a car? When they deem it as totalled, they have to write you a check for the current value of the car. If a car was worth $20,000 and had $4,000 in damage, I see absolutely no advantage to paying out $20,000 to total it instead of paying $4,000 to get it fixed.

It's much, much, MUCH higher than 20%. I would think 70-80%... of course not taking into account frame damage and other things that just cannot be fixed. But say your car was worth $3000 and it was keyed and needed a new paint job, they would go for a good amount (a couple thousand) of paint work before considering it totalled.


ETA: Did the research, it's between 50 and 80 percent depending on the company. Most fall closer to 80%