India, Jan. 30 -- Cars start losing their value as soon as you drive them away from the dealership. This decrease in value, known as depreciation, impacts both the price you can get if you sell your car and the amount your insurance company will pay if it's stolen or damaged. Knowing how depreciation works helps you prevent unwanted surprises during a claim and make better decisions or when you buy car insurance online.

When you file a claim, insurance companies check how much it will cost to fix your vehicle and what it was worth just before the accident. If repairing the car costs too much-often a certain percentage of the car's market value-the company might decide the car is a total loss.

In that case, they give you the current mark...