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    There is one catch to that: The insurance company will now consider the car to be worth nothing. So you can still get insurance coverage for liability, medical, etc. but you will not have (they won't sell it to you) insurance for the car itself. In other words, any future accidents will be on you to repair, totally at your own cost, whether a fender bender (that you might get somebody to hack into place for $100) or another tree or something worse.
    – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
    Commented Aug 10, 2021 at 17:09
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    @manassehkatz-Moving2Codidact: Indeed - you could either save the remaining cash for that, or shop around for new insurance. New insurance might decline to insure the vehicle if they share information that it was previously totaled, or they might request to do an inspection of the vehicle prior to insuring it to assess the value. But once they've agreed to insure it, they'd be liable to pay for any new damage up to the assessed value.
    – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
    Commented Aug 11, 2021 at 14:52
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    A lot depends on how much it really costs to repair. Which depends on a few factors: how much cosmetic repair can you skip (e.g., scratches & dents that don't affect safety), your local regulations (some jurisdictions require yearly or every other year safety inspections, some only when a car is sold), how much can you get done at a discount rate (which can be for a variety of reasons). My hunch in this case is that it isn't $250 windshield vs $10k everything but more like $250 windshield + "some amount to deal with bending frame, etc." vs. $10k. And if you are OK with a mismatched junkyard
    – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
    Commented Aug 11, 2021 at 14:57
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    hood instead of an OEM perfectly painted replacement, etc. then you can get it done for a lot less than the insurance company will pay and have some leftover. But the car won't, at that point, be truly worth the value that it was pre-crash. A lot of variables involved...
    – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
    Commented Aug 11, 2021 at 14:58