Your car was totaled. Keep it, buy it back or sell it?

“Total loss” sounds final, but in Illinois what happens next depends on the car’s age, the kind of damage and who’s paying. Some owners have no say over the car at all. Others get a choice, and a few never get the call from an adjuster in the first place.

Here’s how the three paths work, and when selling the wreck is the better deal.

Who decides what happens to the car

If your insurer pays a total-loss claim, it usually becomes the owner. Under 625 ILCS 5/3-117.1, the insurer takes ownership and gets a salvage certificate. The exception: by agreement between you and the insurer, you may keep a vehicle with hail damage only, or “any vehicle 9 model years of age or older.”

The Illinois Department of Insurance puts the same rule more bluntly in its consumer notice on total-loss claims: the insurer “must take possession of the vehicle, if the vehicle is eight model years or newer” (Ill. Admin. Code tit. 50, pt. 919, exh. A).

So for a newer car, there’s nothing to decide. For an older one, keeping it is a negotiation, not a right.

The three paths

If the insurer takes it: check the settlement

The Department of Insurance rules in Part 919, Exhibit A set out what a cash settlement has to follow:

• Retail value comes from guide books or computerized valuation data, or written dealer quotes if the car isn’t listed. Newspaper ads usually aren’t acceptable sources.
• Deductions for wear and tear, missing parts and rust can’t exceed $500 in total and must be itemized. Old, unrepaired collision damage can be deducted without a cap.
• Sales tax: if you prove within 30 days of a cash settlement that you bought another vehicle, the insurer must pay the applicable sales tax, transfer and title fees, up to the value of the totaled car.
• Your side: most policies want a sworn proof of loss within 91 days, and you have to protect the car from further damage.

If a number looks wrong, push back in writing. The Department’s Consumer Services line is (866) 445-5364.

If you’re allowed to keep it

Owners keep totaled cars for good reasons: the damage is cosmetic, they can fix it cheaply, or the car is worth more to them than the payout difference. Before you agree:

• Get the terms in writing, including how the settlement changes and what title paperwork follows.
• Don’t drive it until that’s settled. Illinois law says a salvage or junk vehicle “may not be driven or operated on roads and highways within this State” (3-117.1), with narrow exceptions such as an inspection trip.
• Price the repair honestly. Our guide to a blown engine or transmission has a simple way to compare a repair bill with what the car will be worth afterward.

If the repair doesn’t add up, a kept car can still be sold for junk. For what a salvage certificate means at that point, read junking certificates and salvage titles in Illinois.

When there’s no total loss at all

If your policy covers liability only and you caused the crash, your own insurer doesn’t pay for your car, so nobody “totals” it. You simply own a wrecked car.

The same is true when the other driver’s insurer pays you cash for the damage and leaves the car with you. Either way it’s yours to repair, keep or sell.

Two things to settle first:

• A loan. If a lender is on the title, it has to be paid and released before you sell. See selling a car with a lien in Illinois.
• Storage. A wreck at a tow yard or body shop can collect storage charges every day. Move fast, and get the yard to tell you in writing what it takes to release the car.

Selling the wreck

We buy wrecked and totaled cars where they sit: the street, a driveway, a body shop lot or a tow yard once it’s released. Tell us what the crash damaged, whether the airbags deployed, whether it rolls, and what title you hold. The wrecked cars page covers what we look at.

Send the form on this page, or call (872) 356-9799 with the year, make and model and where the car is now.