This happened to me. Hit a deer — minimal damage except it popped the airbag. Insurance “totaled” the vehicle, and cut me a check. I had two options: surrender the vehicle and get the full “totaled” value, or keep the vehicle and take a lower payout. I kept the vehicle.
The payment was (IMO) quite reasonable, considering the age of the vehicle. My insurer will still let me insure for liability, but unless I fix the airbag they won’t let me carry comprehensive. No big deal, that.
In TX you don’t need working airbags to pass inspection. You *do* need a horn, and when the airbag popped it also ruined the horn. So I’ll just install a junkyard horn and a button on the dash. Haven’t gotten around to it yet though.
Here is another kicker: when the airbag pops, the manufacturer may recommend replacing the seatbelts too. The adjuster is required to pay attention to these manufacturer recommendations when totaling up the damages. If the airbag doesn’t add up to enough to “total” the vehicle, toss in a couple $700 seat belt replacements and that probably will do it.
Tell you what, that airbag popping is no fun for the driver. Like getting shot in the face with a shotgun, minus the shot of course. :-)
Thank you for the information and advice.