Insurance claim

diymirage said
the point of insurance is to be "made whole"
after the claim is handled, you need to be in an equal state to where you were before
sometimes, that means they pay to fix your car, sometimes it means they pay you the value of your car so you can replace it

to me, the total loss thing makes sense, but if you are comfortable fixing it, have them total it, then buy it back and fix it
personally, ive come to a point where i simply dont always want to deal with fixing things myself
chasing down parts and rebuilding them may be fun on a project, but on a daily driver that needs to get back in rotation, id let the insurance pay a professional

but, thats just me

Not according to any insurance company I've spoken to. I tried explaining this to them over and over and they just try to weasel their way out of anything! I agree on letting the car go. It's totaled for a reason.. it's not worth fixing. I have to deal with this weekly and to me it rarely makes sense... unless you're a body/paint guy who can fix it easily yourself. I have personally done it a few times but as you mentioned... they older I get the less I want to do that crap.

You pay the ins. company for a car you already own, you then pay someone to fix it.. or fix it yourself with parts you have to buy... and in the end you get to pocket what? $250? Charging them $100/day for it to sit in my parking lot usually moves them along quickly! Also, if this is filed under another parties ins. company they would owe you for a rental. This all depends on how liability was determined.