Keeping a vehicle that your car insurance company has totaled. If you decide to accept the insurer's decision to total your car but you still want to keep it, your insurer will pay you the cash value of the vehicle, minus any deductible that is due and the amount your car could have been sold for at a salvage yard.

They will still have to pay you the actual cash value of the car, but may deduct the amount the car would have brought at auction (salvage value); this is buying the vehicle back. ... Many insurers will allow you to "buy back" a vehicle they have totaled out if you wish to repair it and make it roadworthy again.