[Soundy]

ICBC will declare a vehicle a write-off if the repair value exceeds a certain percentage of the replacement value - ie. if it will cost more to fix than the car is worth on the market. If a Cayenne has been written off, you can be pretty sure there's more than $3k worth of damage. If someone's telling you that's all there is, they're blowing smoke out their ass.

When I was doing a job for ICBC in Terrace, there was a Viper in the estimator's shop that was mangled - front frame rails crumpled, engine smashed, hood jammed back through the windshield, and other expected body damage. Apparently the guy had been racing with a motorcycle and they both went off the road into a swamp - the Viper hit a huge stump and was still going at a good clip (since it had been airborne). I asked the estimator if they were going to write it off... he said, "it's ONLY about $10k worth of damage (in 1999 dollars, mind you) so we figure we'll repair it." Seeing as they're about an $80k car, $10k is well within the repair-rather-than-scrap range.

Generally if ICBC writes off a vehicle, they'll pay you out and then take it to their own scrap yard. Cars can be bought there at auction, repaired/rebuilt, inspected, and then re-insured as "rebuilt" status. Thing is, ICBC's repair estimates assume the car will be returned to the condition it was in before (or as near-new as is practical, depending on the age of the car), with the work all done at book shop rates. If you can buy it and return it simply to road-worthy and not-too-ugly shape for less, then you can come out ahead. I used to know a guy who did just this - had some immigrant mechanics working for him for cheap, bought write-offs from ICBC auctions, had his guys fix them up good enough to sell but not enough to overinflate the cost, and then re-sold them (after passing inspection) for a decent profit. He traded me an '82 Subaru GL that his guys had rebuilt, in exchange for some work I did for him... that was a great car, served me well for years (and the guy I sold it to after I threw a rod, repaired it and drove it across the country... twice).

The catch to all this, of course, is that the car now must be listed on the insurance papers as being a rebuilt, and if you sell it, you have to note on the transfer forms that it's a rebuilt vehicle. This alone reduces its resale value substantially.