Your Car's Airbags are Expensive, But...

The cost to replace an airbag is between $500 and $6,000[1] [2]. The fact that an airbag is deployed however, does not determine if a car is totaled.

Insurance companies defer to state and local law when determining whether a vehicle can be declared totaled. Total losses and eligibility for a Salvage Title are generally based on one of two types of calculations:

• Total Loss Threshold (TLT)
• TLT Formula: Cost of Repairs/Actual Cash Value
• Total Loss Formula (TLF)
• TLF Formula: Cost of Repair = Salvage Value > Actual Cash Value

ClaimsJournal .com and CarInsurance .com lists US States and their statutes for determining Total Loss [3][4][5]

Twenty-Two States utilize a Total Loss Formula. The balance use a Total Loss Threshold percentage from 50% to 100%. When damages approach or exceed those formulas cars are totaled

In New York State, a vehicle eight model years old or newer with damage at or exceeding 75% of it’s value must be branded with a “salvage title”. [6]

Deployment of an airbag certainly increases the likelihood of a total loss on a lower valued vehicle, but it is not the determining factor. The amount of damages and how that compares to the Actual Cash Value of the car, are the two most important considerations in determining whether or not a car is totaled.

Footnotes:

[1] Should Car Owners Replace Airbags In Older Cars?

[2] Airbags Inflating Repair Costs, Total Losses

[3] When is A Vehicle Considered a Total Loss?

[4] Total-loss thresholds by state | CarInsurance.com

[5] When is A Vehicle Considered a Total Loss?

[6] Title Branding Regulation