The original owner of the car has some ability to refuse the repair job. It may be impossible to (economically) bring the car back to its previous state. The

The original owner of the car has some ability to refuse the repair job. It may be impossible to (economically) bring the car back to its previous state. The insurance company prefers not to take the risk. They write a clean check and recover some cost by selling the salvage, which will likely be repaired and sold.