Vehicle title branding
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Vehicle title branding is the use of a permanent designation on a vehicle's title, registration or permit documents to indicate that a vehicle has been written off due to collision, fire or flood damage or has been sold for scrap.
Even once rebuilt and inspected, a branded vehicle must retain a permanent record of its traumatic past.
Total loss
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In insurance claims, a total loss or write-off is a situation where the lost value, repair cost or salvage cost of a damaged property exceeds its insured value, and simply replacing the old property with a new equivalent is more cost-effective.
This building will be a "total loss" if its insurer determines that the cost of repairing it exceeds that of its insured value.
Even though only partially sunk in shallow water, in 2012 the relatively new cruise liner Costa Concordia was declared a "constructive total loss" due to escalating environmental and salvage clean-up costs.
A severely damaged automobile with repair costs greatly exceeding its value
Richard Byrd's Fokker "America" was completely written off after its forced ditching in the Atlantic in June 1927. Byrd and three others survived. The original destination Paris was socked in by fog making a landing impossible at LeBourget. Souvenir hunters stripped the aircraft of its fabric skin and other components.