The insurance company normally has the sole option to either repair, replace or reimburse you for your car’s actual cash value (ACV). The amount your vehicle would have sold for on the date of the accident is the actual cash value and is usually a question of cost efficiency. When the vehicle is economically impractical to repair, your insurance company will elect to replace your vehicle or reimburse you for the ACV. If the cost to repair the vehicle equals or exceeds the vehicle’s ACV on the date of the loss, the vehicle is considered economically impractical to repair, or a total loss. In many instances an insurance company will total a vehicle if the appraised damages equal 80% of the vehicle’s ACV because often, once repairs are begun, additional damages or “hidden damages” are found which would render the vehicle a total loss by definition.