Yeah, I don't trust them either... I checked my old Q after it had been declared a total loss, and I don't think an accident even showed up. Maybe since I retained ownership of the car and sold it to someone, the salvage status never showed up? It's definitely a garbage in, garbage out deal.
Even on the '05 G that I just got rid of after an accident, the insurance said it was a total loss (defined by 75% of market value in SC). They worked out everything so that the repair estimate was 74.88% of their value estimate. Round up to total, round down to avoid salvage paperwork and title branding with the state that makes the sale of the car at Copart take months instead of days. It all worked out great for me, but man they're good and working the system... a rounding error away from totaled
