What does "wrote it off" mean?

[Pooh]

"The car was so badly damaged that the insurance company wrote it off."

What does "wrote it off" mean?

[Topaze]

The sentence means that the company no longer recognizes the car as an asset. They simply deleted it from all accounts.

[Pooh]

You mean that
the insurance company does not pay the insurance of the car
because of the too much damage?

[Topaze]

Nah, they simply decided that the extent of the damage was so great that it wouldn't worth it to repair the car, because it would cost too much. That's how I see it.

[Pooh]

I am so confused now.
Who does this car belong to? To the insurance company?
I think the car belongs to a owner who insure the car for its damage.
So the insurance company has to pay money to that person
no matter how big damage the car got.
Whether to repair or not totally depends on the owner of the car,
not the insurance company.
Am I right?

[Topaze]

Unfortunately, I don't know much about insurance terms. Someone who is more familiar with the subject can explain it much better.

I can only say this, and realize that I have very limited knowledge of these things:

If a car is damaged so severely that the repair costs would be too high, the insurance company will probably 'write it off'. In such cases, the company is expected to pay the owner an agreed price and then take care of the car (to salvage it).

The first explanation I gave you was probably incorrect, because I paid little attention to the context of the sentence (since the company referred to is an insurance company, the car, in all probability, did not belong to the company itself - they simply insured it, which changes the context). My apologies.

[Pooh]

I don't know insurance terms either.
So I don't know what kind of handling was made in the account.
However, I feel thank you anyway.

[Cerberus™]

I think Topaz is right. The "car was so badly damaged" implies that it is a total loss, i.e. that repairing it would be more expensive than replacing it. If we assume the normal situation where the client owns the car, not the insurance company, it means that the insurance company will not pay the owner more to repair it than its total value before the accident, or than what it would cost to buy a new one, but instead will pay him its total value, or the value of a new one, according to what it says in the contract.