It would depend on the damage caused. If it was minor damage like a dented fender or bumper I would just get it fixed. If the frame was bent or airbag deployed I would just take the check. It is very hard to determine the long term effect of damage done to the frame or body parts, stress fractures can be hard to find and lead to more damage down the road. I am still making payments on my truck so I would have little say in the matter. As such, if they wanted to pay off the truck I probably would go for that, it would get me out of the payment which lately is hard to pay.

Another thing to conciser is that some states, like mine, require a 'Salvage title' when damage exceeds certain parameters. Once the title is changed it is next to impossible to register the vehicle again.

Never had this happen so I could not vote.

The first time this happened to me it totaled the car beyond repair. My back bumper was against my broken front seat. I had to take the check, not that I would have ever driven a small car again!

The second time this happened, I got my door fixed. A teenage girl backed into the back door on my car. I took the check and went to a highly reputable body shop that owed me money.

Obviously depends on how tied you were to the car and how bad the damage was.

Thanks for responding you guys. The damage is rather minor, just a little bit of buckling on the hood and the weather strip has a small tear in it, so possibly a little bit or water could get under the hood if it rained.

It's an older car that already has a few scrapes on it, and quite honestly, I could really use the money, so I'm not sure if it's even worth getting repaired.

I have not had this happen to me, but I would take the check. better safe then sorry

In most cases I would do a direct repair, but if the damage was entirely cosmetic I might just take the check on it. I'm not an expert with car repairs, so in general I opt towards just having things fixed so they work correctly.

It hasn't happened yet. But I'm glad for it. I guess it would depend on my car. It is a piece of junk now. So I think I would take the money for it.

We've actually never been offered a direct repair? Is that odd?

1. Some gal hit us at a stop sign, it was an attempted hit and run, but lucky for us a cop was RIGHT there and I was able to flag him down.

Damage was so minor we took the check and didn't worry about repairs.

2. Car key'd. Police never found who did it so our insurance paid out. but at the time we couldn't afford the deductible. So we kept the check...

3. We would have done direct repair if it was offered, but insurance totaled our car out. (Neighbor hit us....grr..) so it was just one big fat check.