> So why the write off nonsense

Write-off is about insurance policies, and whether it is cheaper to repair damage to the standard committed to by the insurer within the parameters (e. g., new original manufacturer parts) in the insurance contact or to pay the amount the insurer is committed to pay in the alternative.

It is only tangentially related to whether it is econonically viable to restore the vehicle to usable condition.

When hail totaled my car, I kept it for another 4 years. Just "cosmetic" damage. It's still kicking around in New Mexico; I guess it's 17 years old, now.

My current car was an insurance write off and looks good if you look at it casually though looking closely the line is not quite straight down the side where it was hit and you can see a boundary in the paint where the respray finished. Works fine though.

Writing it off is just the insurance company buying it from you for your insured amount because they owe you the value of the car and it'll be cheaper to just buy it from you than repair it. Normally you can then buy it back for what they expect to get at auction and do the repairs yourself with a salvage title.

At least in my country, insurance can only replace with original parts...

A newish car, a minor crash, bumper, hood, a front light or two, couple of airbags... at ~1500eur per light, 2-3k for original hood, 2-3k for airbags, body work, and low eurotax estimate of the price of the car, your repair cost is easily above 70% of the "car value".

A few trips to the dump, some aftermarket parts and someone to do the work for cheap, and you've got a drivable car.

Because it wouldn’t be economic to repair it to “good as new” status.

The people who buy salvage titled cars are usually happy to drive a car that doesn’t work quite right if they get a killer deal for it.

The insurance company is always looking at:

- what it would cost them to repair it (including the risk of having to get additional work done, etc)

- what the car was worth minus what they can sell it for at auction.

If the values get close, they total the car. Then someone else buys it: maybe for parts, or maybe to repair it to a standard that the original owner wouldn't have been happy with.

The original owner of the car has some ability to refuse the repair job. It may be impossible to (economically) bring the car back to its previous state. The insurance company prefers not to take the risk. They write a clean check and recover some cost by selling the salvage, which will likely be repaired and sold.

Risk mostly. Many of the vehicles won't be repairable and will just go to the scrap yard. Some will appear to repairable but after some effort end up scrapped too. And some will be repairable but only by guys who specialize in such things and have customers willing to buy a retitled salvage vehicle. For the insurance company, it's not worth the effort and added risk. That someone else can make some money off the missed margin isn't a big deal to the insurance company.

> So why the write off nonsense. Just send it to a repair shop directly and if it cannot be repaired, then initiate a write off.

Well to get the owner of the written-off car installed into a new vehicle of course! With a whole new loan and likely a higher insurance premium esp. if they "upgraded" in the process.

Cars bought at auction have a salvage title, and they are not repaired to a level that would be considered acceptable by most people. Those cars are usually mechanics projects using junkyard parts and zip ties.

The other thing is that generally, a person is free to buy their car back from the insurance company instead of taking the cash from the totaling. That is when they will discover they can't just send it to a shop and get it repaired for any reasonable amount, plus the salvage title means no one else wants it.

Isn’t that exactly what happens?

You send it for an estimate. If that estimate is too high, insurance gives you a check then sells the car as a salvage.