wife's car was struck by another...am afraid her vehicle will be totaled, which

It really depends on how close the estimated repairs come to the actual cash value of the vehicle. It's been several years, but I used to work in insurance claims and handled these cases all the time.

Usually if the estimate repairs hit 80% of ACV, the insurance folks will try to total the vehicle. They will usually only negotiate that on newer vehicles, but I did see a few times where we did so on older vehicles in extraordinary shape(i.e a 12 year old car with very low miles, or lots of aftermakerket upgrades, etc.)

You may be able to take settlement for a specified amount, and register the vehicle with a salvaged title. Those cases went above my head and I'm not at all familiar with the process.

You'd probably be better trying to negotiate the settlement offer. That is usually negotiable, and a lot of times they'll lowball you with their first offer.

Mu uncle bought a Toyota truck in the mid 80s. Drives it every day. During Katrina, a tree fell the back of it, caused some fender damage and messed up the tailgate. They totaled it out and I want to say offered him something like $800 bucks for it (it was almost 20 years old at the time).

He negotiated (not sure of the exact specifics) but ended up getting a smaller amount, but got to keep the vehicle, with a salvage title. He can't carry comp or collision on it anymore because of the salvage title, but he can carry liability. He got the tailgate fixed and declined to fix the fender damage (it wasn't much).

To this day, he still drives that truck every day. I think the only original parts are the body... but he estimates he's driven it 340K miles (the odometer stopped workings at about 260K which was about 7 years ago.

If it is totaled, you may be able to buy it back from the insurance company.

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we prefer not to be the case. It is an older vehicle, runs like a champ, we have no debt on the vehicle, maintain comprehensive/collision on the vehicle...am afraid we will have the vehicle totaled and receive a nominal amount and will turn around and replace with another vehicle and a car note, which we would prefer not to do...is there a way to negotiate the repair of this vehicle, most of the damage is to the exterior of the vehicle...thank you

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solution.

don't report it to your insurance. tell them you dont want it on your record and you will handle the repair yourself.

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wfallstiger

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This is a troll. No one can be this naive.

Go get a cheap brand new car with a warranty. Finance it for 150 mnth. Pay for most of it with insurance check. Burn old piece of shite that's a speed bump away from being totalled and you walking.

Why is she married to you? Lol