5 Signs Your Car Is Totaled

No one gets in their car anticipating that the trip is going to end in a car accident, but sometimes that’s what happens. Whether it’s your fault or not, you now have to deal with insurance policies and finding an auto body shop to have your car fixed up, if it can be fixed. This process often takes a long time to go through, so you might be left wondering if your car will even be able to be fixed in the first place. While only the professionals looking at your car will know for sure, certain signs indicate if your car is completely totaled.

Your Car Is Old

A major fact the insurance companies take into consideration when deciding if a car is totaled or not is the value of the car in the first place. If the cost of repairs is greater than the value of the car (or a certain percentage of the car’s value depending on the state), the insurance company will declare it totaled even if the damage doesn’t seem that bad. This means that older cars are more likely to be declared totaled in a minor accident than brand new cars. It doesn’t mean that your brand new car can’t be totaled, but it’s more likely to occur the older your car is.

Air Bag Deployment

It’s a common misconception that your car is automatically totaled the moment your airbags deploy. That’s not the case, though most accidents where the airbags deploy result in a totaled car. There are two reasons for this. The first is that the airbag system must be replaced after it goes off, and it’s expensive to do that. When calculating the repair costs, the airbag system can easily push your total over the threshold in the eyes of your insurance.

The second is that the airbags only deploy in the case of a serious accident. They don’t go off during a simple fender bender, but they do when your car is wrapped around a tree. The level of damage to your car needed to force the airbags to deploy usually results in costly repairs. So, even though deployed airbags don’t necessarily mean your car is totaled, they do mean your car has sustained a significant amount of damage (and might be totaled).

Frame Damage

Frame damage is a significant and expensive thing to fix for your car. This sort of damage occurs during a head-on collision with another vehicle or an inanimate object (like a tree). The mechanic has to replace the entire frame of your vehicle, which is an expensive and time-consuming process. Often the insurance companies will declare cars with frame damage totaled because of the price of fixing the frame as well as any damage done to the area around the frame damage (often significant as well).

Liquid Leaking

Leaking fluids after an accident are often a sign that things are seriously damaged within your car. Not only are those fluids necessary for your car to function properly, but they can also cause extra damage around the area where they’re leaking from. It takes significant time and effort to find the exact source of the leaks and repair or replace the pieces needed on top of refilling the liquid that leaked out. This sort of repair can become costly quickly, so it’s often accompanied by the insurance company declaring your car totaled.

Fire Damage In or Around the Engine

The engine is the most important part of your car (obviously) and therefore often requires expensive repairs. If your recent accident led to any sort of smoke or flames coming from beneath your hood, there’s a good chance you’re going to need serious repairs. Most damage like that results in those parts needing to be replaced in order to work properly again. These replacements can be expensive and drive up the total cost of necessary repairs.