Epic91GT

from my cousins experience the damage to the car needs to b 75% of its worth or cost (cant remember)

he has a rsx type s and his driver and passenger seats alone cost $11,000!!!! he said if the radio would have gotten stolen the car would have been totaled

Sxynerd

11,000$ for seats? I wanna see those gold lined Hand made by Jesus seats.

Demon 340

i think that when i worked for dodge, the viper seats listed for something ridiculous like that...

Epic91GT

not made of gold, made of stereos. the seats had the amps in them

essexdan

As an appraiser I can assure you that you can't be forced by an insurer to fix any car. I'd take the money and just go buy another one. Most shops are not going to make a lot of money on a job like that anyway. Big repair = big headaches = small profit. If you have a lien on the car have the insurer make the check out to you and the lien holder, send the bank the check as a payoff, and they will refund you any overpayment in a week or two. As a plus you also still own the salvage and it has a clean title.

If you're being paid by the other person's insurance company in most states they're not obligated to protect your lienholder so the check would be made out to just you anyway.

Some states have obligatory total loss thresholds like 75% of the value of the car. In other states there is no specific formula. But generally the formula they are working off of is: (Vehicle Value 5 minutes before crash) - (Vehicle value 5 minutes after crash) = (Amount needed to reach total loss threshold). Usually this means 100%-20%=80% for salvage but the second number ("20%" salvage value) can vary depending on how old the car is or where the damage is on the car.

Personally I'd question any appraisal that suggests spending $13,000 to fix a seven year-old car worth $18,000. Sounds like the type of thing that could easily turn into a big can-o-worms.