What do you do when you total a car and still owe the finance company more than the retail value that insurance will pay and you have no gap insurance?

I hate to have to be the one to tell you this, but there is not too much you can do. If you feel the insurance company's valuation is wrong, and the settlement is unfair, you could discusss your situation with one or more ATTORNEYS ["usually," a first visit is free]. Don't go to any attorney that doesn't offer free first consultations, as there are many who do. Otherwise, you're just going to have to make the best of a bad situation. In order to do that, I sugguest: 1. Discuss your situation with your finance company and, with a whole lot of luck, they MAY forgive PART of your note. 2. UNLESS there is a PREPAYMENT PENALTY clause in your loan note, take the ENTIRE settlement money and pay it ALL to the finance company. This gets your balance as low as possible. 3. TO PREVENT DAMAGE TO YOUR CREDIT RATING, AND a lot of continuing collection pressures, continue to make your payments until your loan is fully paid off. Not only will this protect your credit record, and prevent a lot of harassment, it is the right thing to do.