"Totaled" is just a term of art in the insurance industry. It means that the cost to restore the vehicle is greater than its as-repaired street value. It doesn't mean that the vehicle has to be destroyed; it just means the insurer will only give you the fair market value of the vehicle as though you sold it used immediately before the accident, instead of paying for it to be repaired.

The problem, though, is that when an insurance company does that, it colors the title of the vehicle (e.g. "salvage title"), which makes it harder to sell and reduces its resale value.

But doesn't the vehicle become the property of the insurance company after the payout?

Yes.

They in turn sell it, where one of two things happens.

* It is parted out for spares for other cars.

* Someone actually repairs and resells it. This is one of the things you have to look out for when buying a used car. It may not be difficult to repair it cosmetically, but crumple zones are one use only.

No, you generally can buy it back for the scrap value.

But that means the answer to the question as posed is "yes".

Two deployed airbags in a moderate (but not life threatening) crash likely cost $1000 each to replace, in addition to whatever other damage has been done to the vehicle.

Which is considerably cheaper than the medical costs incurred by bouncing your face off the dashboard.

And vastly greater than the cost of adding airbags to the car at production time.

First, actually adding airbags does not add thousands of dollars to the cost of a car. Hundreds, maybe.

Second, I will gladly pay extra for such a highly effective safety feature.

Third, I'm quite certain the medical costs saved by airbags every year will more than offset the cost of installing them on every new car. And that's just cold calculation, without bringing the moral value into it.

I hope you don't think I am anti airbags, I'm not.

Because resetting the airbags can cost several thousands of dollars.