01-26-2019, 06:02 PM
(01-26-2019, 03:50 PM)Cormanus_imp Wrote: I’m finding this discussion really interesting—probably because I’ve never really thought about it.Yes, it is all a matter of money for the insurance companies. Some totalled vehicles can be inexpensively repaired, some not so. Sometimes it's all cosmetic fairing parts from sliding down the road. Sometimes it's an oncoming car that turned in front of the bike. Every accident is different.
If I’ve got it right from this conversation, the decision to write off a vehicle is made by an insurance company entirely in financial grounds. No consideration is apparently given to whether the vehicle could be repaired and operated safely.
I suspect that’s because the cost of assessing, for example, whether a motorcycle’s frame has been damaged is significant and should not really be trusted to anyone other than a regulator. On one level, it makes sense that taxpayers are not burdened with this cost; on another, in a world where waste and dealing with it is a serious issue, it seems crazy to declare something unsafe to repair just because it’s cheaper for an insurer not to fix it.
The totalled bikes are usually taken by the insurance company and are auctioned off. The easily/cheaply repaired totals get resurrected and re-emerge as salvage or rebuilt titled bikes. The really bad ones become parts donors.
Bent frames were infrequent, but usually easy to detect from the other damage. It takes some practice, but it's not rocket science. As a service manager years ago, I wrote many hundreds of estimates. In some shops, the mechanic writes it, or the insurance company sends out their own adjuster (or a contracted independent).