Will My Car Be Repaired
Or Declared A Total Loss?
Your insurance company makes the total loss decision, not the body shop, and it compares the cost of repairing the car with the car's value before the accident. A shop's job is to document the damage honestly so that comparison uses the real number.
How the decision is made
A total loss is a financial call. The insurer looks at what it would cost to repair the car and sets that against the value of the car just before the accident. When repair costs get too close to that value, the insurer pays out the car's value and does not repair it. The insurer sets the rule it follows and makes the declaration. A body shop cannot declare a car totaled or decide that it should not be.
What pushes repair cost up
Cost depends on more than the dent you can see. Structural damage raises it, because the structure has to be measured and pulled back to specification. Deployed airbags and the parts around them raise it. Driver assistance systems that need calibration after the repair add to it. And hidden damage found at teardown raises the total after the first estimate was written.
That last point is why an early, thorough estimate matters. If the number the insurer is comparing is a low first guess, the decision can move once the real damage is found.
What a shop can and should do
We document every point of damage, tell you plainly what the repair involves and send that estimate to your insurer. If structural damage is severe enough that repairing the car stops making economic sense, you deserve to hear that early, not after weeks in the shop. Because the choice of shop is yours, you can also bring a car to us for a free estimate before you accept a total loss decision, and that estimate gives you something concrete to bring to your insurer.
What happens after an accident
In The Shop.
Related Reading And Services
More on this topic from the shop:
Repair or Total Loss,
Answered.
Who decides if my car is a total loss?
Your insurance company decides. It compares the cost of repair with the vehicle's value before the accident. A body shop supplies the estimate but does not make the declaration.
Is a car with structural damage always a total loss?
No. Structural damage can be pulled back to factory specification when the measurements support it. Whether that is worth doing depends on the extent of the damage and the car's value, which is the insurer's comparison to make.
Do I still pay for an estimate if my car is totaled?
No. Every estimate at Precision is free with no obligation, including one for a car that ends up declared a total loss.
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