Yes, I’ve totaled several vehicles for biohazard reasons, including the scenario you mentioned. Also some murder and suicide vehicles. We totaled the BMW Tupac was in when he was shot. Car was easily repairable from a $ standpoint. That car still exists, has been fixed.

i would do some extensive research on the construction of the car before repairing or have a manufacturers certified shop do the repairs. cowl hits are a really tricky repair to do properly as per manufacturers recommendations. .
cars these days have high strength, ULTRA high strength and dual strength steel all built into the same 1 piece internal structure panel. this steel is NOT repairable as per the most manufacturers repair guidelines. a LOT of hack and uninformed rebuilder body shops repair and destroy the specialty safety steel when repairing it. making 5 star safety rated cars into 1 star safety rated cars.
the different grades of steel within the structurer collapse / crush at different rates transferring the impact forces away from the passenger compartment onto the outer areas of the car.
welding this steel also requires a specialty squeeze spot welder. a regular mig welder won't work.

a 4 years ago we had a 2018 VW Tiguan that only had a small crushed area in the "A" pillar. it looked like a easy fix, maybe $2K worth of repairs.. problem is the VW recommended repair requires the entire inner structure be replaced instead of repairing it. to replace this piece requires replacing the roof along with the entire 1/4 panel. the damages exceeded $30K for a proper repair. there was a extensive debate between the BS manager and several ins companies and multiple independent bodyshops about repairing this car. improperly.
i ended up meeting with several lawyers describing the proper repairs.
to this day the car is still outside the bodyshop. the dealership recently got possion of the car from past due storage charges.

That sounds so simple. BUT! WHO decides what ACV is? And what evaluation resources are acceptable?

80% of a 2 or 3 year old vehicle is one thing. But 80% of a nice low mileage 10 or 12 year old vehicle is another thing altogether. The customer can often not be made whole by those standards. And the average age of vehicles on the road today is over 12 years old so this is a very real and common issue. And one that we exploit every chance we get.

Another important part of this is shop rates. We are very rural, but the body shops here are at $150 an hour. That puts a lot of otherwise viable repairs out of reach. In some cities, the rate is even higher. That is why we go to the metro St. Louis area to buy cars.

This is a very complicated issue that so many want to make simple and use universal standards. But there are many, many seams and cracks and gray areas in the system. One size fits all simply doesn't work much of the time. So knowing the ins and outs of any given business is the difference between success and failure.

Insurance pool cars are the last, best values in the car business today. The buy here/pay here places, NAFTA rules on exports, repair rates, shortage of replacement parts, and lack of bank financing have convulsed the used car business the last few years.

And it is all going to only get worse. Buckle up.

Last vehicle I had totalled, the insurance adjuster provided a list of same vehicle/mileage for sale at dealers within about 500 mile radius from me. It was pretty nice. I also did some research and the value arrived at by the adjuster and documents was reasonable.

Had one before the system appeared to change where the value of the car was low trade in blue book or some random number pulled from thin air. I laughed and said you need to see what these cars are selling for in the real world. I can't replace it for that number, not even close. Original number was $1500, got almost 9K for it.

All fair points on which we agree. I'm curious as to whether or not you deviate from OE repair procedures when repairing some of these totals/borderline totals. Repairing UHSS instead of replacing it, repairing structural components with very minor compromising of crush zones, etc.?

Unlike your typical body shop, I get to pick and choose what I repair. No structural issues for me. Don't need it, don't want it.

I stick with primarily bolt-on side and rear damaged panels. And almost never buy stuff hit in the front. Just too much to deal with there and front panels can be nearly impossible to find used. Especially when shopping for the right color. The only deviation from that is the occasional deer impact where the front damage is superficial. But even then, that is rare for me.

Of late, I have been focusing on hail cars. I shop far and wide for replacement panels that are the right color. They are cheaper, take far less time, and what's better than factory metal and paint?

Theft recoveries are another area that I frequent. If the column and a door glass/door assembly is the whole story; I'm in if the money's right. I did several Kias and Hyundais last year. But columns can be difficult to find for them given all the thefts.

The luxury of getting to pick what I work on and not having any time crunches or other entities (other than the state) to satisfy, it might be closer to a hobby than a business anymore. I only do a couple of units a month now. I describe myself as semi-retired. If I had to put up with what the body shops do, I would have stayed in the mines. Better money and bennies. But the mine schedule can be grueling. And I always HATED midnight shift.

The owner of the body shop here in town that did my quarter panel repairs is totally burned out. We helped him get this rebuilder license last year. He figures he needs 5 more years doing what he is doing and then chucking it and going to just rebuilding for pretty much the same reasons that I did.

Being a rebuilder can be a really good gig for someone that is self motivated. But like every 'good gig', there are valid reasons that everybody doesn't do it.

Thanks for all the info. Really appreciate it.

The main issue we have now is that the ins. company is saying that the "blue book" value is about $10K but if you search for equiv cars for sale (exact year, model, mileage) you get 17K-20K.

How can you get them to revise their value estimate? If they went with replacement cost, no way would it be totaled.

Pull up examples of similar cars for sale,print them out and give them a number that is consistent with those examples. Do the math for em too...

Have them DOCUMENT their findings. Don't let them just tell you what they think. That was what made the difference in my example. Insurance companies know that typically time is on their side. Many (maybe most) people need the settlement in order to move on. If you have the time, you can come out much better than the initial 'offer'.

it's a good thing i have several "parts busses" to repair my "bus" [1999 caravan] if it gets slightly doinked and totaled.

DOCCUMENTATION is everything in the ins business. ANYTHING you find on values that differ from anything, PRINT IT OUT.. verbal anything isn't worth the paper it's written on and will be ignored 99.9% of the time when $$$ are concerned.

You are both correct.

When I had a write-off I went through the same thing with them under valuing it. I showed them a few ads to get the price up. They were picky about it being truly comparable vehicles and also location. I had to push at them to change their price and show them that I couldn't replace it for what they were giving me.