Keeping a total loss vehicle in Quebec: the salvage buy-back, step by step
You can refuse to let your vehicle go: the insurer then deducts the salvage value from the settlement. That choice has consequences for the vehicle's status, its return to the road, resale and insurance.
You can refuse to let your vehicle go: the insurer then deducts the salvage value from the settlement. That choice has consequences for the vehicle's status, its return to the road, resale and insurance.
Two ways to keep the vehicle
Buy back the salvage: the insurer pays the settlement minus the estimated salvage value and you keep the vehicle. Or do not claim at all: you pay for the repairs, with no settlement — and no accident status on the vehicle.
What changes in the calculation
The insurer estimates what it would get by selling the wreck, and deducts that salvage value from the settlement. You can ask what the estimate is based on: it is often lower, and sometimes higher, than owners expect.
The status the SAAQ records
VGA (seriously damaged) can be rebuilt and put back on the road after the required steps, with the mention then becoming "rebuilt". Irreparable will never be allowed back on Quebec roads and is worth parts only. Scrapped requires a mechanical inspection before circulating again. The insurer must notify the SAAQ when it pays a total loss settlement.
Putting a VGA back on the road
Carry out the repairs, build the reconstruction file (the insurer's damage estimate is part of it), obtain the technical conformity certificate from an SAAQ mandatary, obtain the mechanical inspection certificate, then update the registration.
When keeping it is a bad calculation
Major structural damage, an irreparable status, a financed vehicle, unavailable parts or difficult re-insurance. For an older, paid-off, well-maintained vehicle with mostly cosmetic damage, the buy-back usually avoids financing a replacement.