black92 said:
My two cents
Paying full coverage isnt woth the money. Insurance companies will most likely total out a SHO.
Michelle knows more then I do. But I heard some companies total out anything after a sertain age of the vehicle.
I have full coverage on my Taurus considering it is a 2001 and worth a few pennies still. I pay somewhere around $900 a year for it, but please keep in mine that I am 19 and pay my own insurance.
As far as companies totalling out a car, I know from the aspect of after the company settles with the owner and we get the car. We "junk" certain cars based on our contracts with certain insurance companies (i.e. Allstate junks all cars that are '96 and older - even if it is a theft recovery and has no damage!), leaving a perfectly good car to be sold as parts only.
But in terms of insurance companies and coverage, these SHOs are getting old and as sad as it is, they aren't worth that much anymore in resale value, which is what the insurance company will base your settlement check off of. So since the ACV is low, the ECR (estimated cost of repair) can easily be more then half (totaling out your car) or even more than the ACV (which would make it junk per the DMV and Wisconsin's rules). Trust me, I have seen a handful of nice SHOs run through our auction that have minimal damage, but enough to be higher then the ACV (leaving it with a junk title), or old enough to be junked by default and an OTL (obvious total loss, as we call it).
Granted, there is a benefit to low ACV's - even if your car has minimal damage, you can buy it back and part it out and probably make more then whatever your settlement check would be.
