I would much rather buy a second hand car which was a little older than I might like, than have to drive a car which has been in a serious accident.

These days a “write off” often means purely cosmetic damage. It can cost several thousand dollars just to bend a single panel back into the original shape and re-paint the panel so that it matches the sun faded colour of the other panels near it.

If you’re less picky (for example, just buy the exact same panel in almost exactly the same colour from the wreckers) you might be able to fix it yourself for a hundred dollars plus 45 minutes with a spanner and screwdriver.