Question #1 - It is a personal decision if you want to put the claim for the damages to your vehicle through your collision policy or the at-fault party's property damage liability coverage. Normally most motorists will want to place the claim through the at-fault party's insurance policy so that they do not have to pay a deductible and so that the claim will not be on their claims history in the future, but you should still be able to place it with your carrier and let them assist you in the process. That is the reason you buy and should trust your insurance company.

Question #2 - If you place the claim through your insurance company and they want to repair the car but you believe it is totaled out you can discuss this with your insurance adjuster but it is not likely they will total it out unless their guidelines call for it to be declared a total loss. Without it being a total loss you would not receive a settlement check for the actual cash value of the vehicle, instead the car will be repaired.

As for not being able to get as much for your vehicle when you sell it, this is called diminished value. Diminished value (DV) is a term used, in regards to auto insurance, to mean the difference between what your car was worth before and after a car accident. If you can show that due to this accident to your car will suffer from diminished value you might be able to negotiate with the other party's insurance company for it.

How successful you will be with obtaining money for DV largely depends on what state you live in. Several states have had rulings in court saying that insurers must compensate insureds for any real loss of value from an accident. There are also many states that believe that DV is not necessarily true if the car is repaired properly and thus does not allow for Diminished Value. You may want to check with your state's insurance regulatory body to see where your state stands on this issue.

Question #3 - States, if they have a say, differ one what considers a car to be a total loss as do insurance companies. Some companies consider a damaged vehicle a total loss when the total cost to repair it exceeds just 51 percent of the vehicle's actual cash value (because of added storage costs, rental car, etc.), while others do not consider it a total loss until it is at 80% of the ACV.

An example of what state's insurance regulators say on this matter, the Florida Department of Financial Services states that if your vehicle is damaged 80 percent or more of the value of your vehicle, then the company must total the vehicle. Insurance companies in FL may choose to total out a car that is damaged less than 80% but that would be up to the insurance company and their guidelines.

If you place the claim with the at-fault party's insurance carrier they may have a different percentage of damage in which to total out a car. And while you can make known your thoughts about the car needing to be totaled out, it is unlikely an insurance company would do so unless the vehicle is total loss in the opinion of their insurance adjuster and according to the company's guidelines.