&gt; The car was only blue booked at 5k at the time, but we had to replace it with a 25k car, so I count that as a decent amount of loss.<p>That&#x27;s twisted logic.  There was a loss of perhaps somewhat more than $5k all things considered, but you didn&#x27;t have to replace a $5k blue-book-value car with a $25k car.  That $25k may have been a big outlay if you paid cash, but it&#x27;s not a loss for that amount.  So far, you&#x27;ve only lost $25k-(current bluebook value), which is much less than $25k (as long as the car hasn&#x27;t been damaged) even if the car was new and dropped a thousand or two the moment you bought it.