Sometimes, the reason a car is 'totalled' is because there is someone who would pay a premium for a car model that they want. This (in cases like these) is a form of insurance fraud, and some of the parties involved are compensated. Its like the repair shop that front end loads a repair bill after they get a signature, insurance totals the car, the owner gets the check, and the repair place gets a car they can fix for almost nothing and sell it or transfer it to whomever they want for whatever they can get (insurance companies will usually take the highest offer and the original owner got a pittance but doesn't realize or care to buy back the car). Every case is different but there are these types of horror stories and they are more frequent than you realize.