[genxguy]

Has anyone had experience getting their car rebuilt after being declared a total loss by their insurance, then getting it re-registered (with a 'rebuilt' title) and insured for street driving? I've been asking around, and few insurance companies are willing to insure a car with a rebuilt title.

This is for my Cayman S, just to confirm Porsche-related topic, and it's in VA.

[BlackTalon]

You might want to confirm in your post that this is in Virginia (or DC, or Maryland, etc.), as the rules likely differ between the three.

[Dr K]

In MARYLAND, I rebuilt a wrecked tub into a full race car (but with lights and a horn) and had zero problems insuring it as "historic." This was 12 years ago but I doubt it has changed.

[Elric42]

Originally Posted by genxguy

Has anyone had experience getting their car rebuilt after being declared a total loss by their insurance, then getting it re-registered (with a 'rebuilt' title) and insured for street driving? I've been asking around, and few insurance companies are willing to insure a car with a rebuilt title.

This is for my Cayman S, just to confirm Porsche-related topic, and it's in VA.

This is more about what an insurance company will do, rather than a specific state. You may just have to shop for a company that will insure a car with a re-built title.

About 10 years ago, a friend was not able to reinsure his car with USAA after it was totaled and rebuilt. He switched to some small company for that car.

Historic and Street Rod vehicles are pretty easy to insure, but your Cayman is not old enough to qualify in either category.

Of course, YMMV.

Elric42

[John Clay]

There is specialty insurance available for newer cars as well as the historic. I'd start there if you can work within their use restrictions.

[Patrick3000]

Originally Posted by genxguy

Has anyone had experience getting their car rebuilt after being declared a total loss by their insurance, then getting it re-registered (with a 'rebuilt' title) and insured for street driving? I've been asking around, and few insurance companies are willing to insure a car with a rebuilt title.

This is for my Cayman S, just to confirm Porsche-related topic, and it's in VA.

I have had two cars with rebuilt titles registered in Maryland and insured without issue by State Farm insurance. The process was no different than insuring a unbranded title and yes my insurance company knew the titles were rebuilt. In this case both cars had been rebuilt out of state and titled and registered as rebuilt when I brought them into Maryland.

If you own the car when it was wrecked, ask your insurance company if you can retain the title to the car before they payout the damage. I have seen this happen more than once. If you retain the title it will not receive a brand even though it will have been declared a total loss by the insurance company.

One other option is to just have you insurance company simply pay you directly for the cost of the damage and not total the car. We did this recently with my son (James’s) 2001 Bullitt Mustang. The car cost about $12k post Pandemic August 2020 and the accident damage was $11,150 once everything was fixed. The car should have been a total loss but the insurance company paid me directly and I worked closely with the repair shop to keep the car on the road. I believe all in, there were 5 supplemental claims filed before the car was fixed and road worthy. It did not receive a branded title. We later found a crack in the front windshield adding another $380 to the damage list but the boy paid for that out of pocket.

This is the reason why an insurance company will decide to declare the car a total loss when the repair cost exceed about 75% of the current market value, they do not want any supplemental claims to exceed the value of the car.

Unfortunately with crashing Joe in the house, nine accidents before he stopped driving, I have had the opportunity to work with the insurance company on more than one occasion