I have 2 crepe myrtles that look really bad. Should I take them out or top them?

I would thin them out, but not top them.

I started using Dr. Jimz tree secret, and it's turned a number of my trees around so maybe worth buying a bottle and giving it a shot.

It is freeze damage. You can try to clean most of the dead back. Or cut them back.

I cut a couple that were over grown level with the ground and let them grow back from the stump. When they grew back, I selectively cut the shoots keeping only the ones I wanted to form the tree. In a relatively short time, it was a decent tree.

I wouldn't top them or take out. Just needs a solid pruning then fertilize and water pretty heavily.

They need to be thinned a little, for sure, but they don't look terrible. It's still March. I've got crepe myrtles near me in Houston that don't have a single bud yet.

Thanks for all the responses. I fertilized them today.

If you like digging 8 feet deep to get to th bottom of the root system, pull them out :-)

My wife likes them. One of ours is within 10 feet of our blackstone. I curse it often.

I hate them too. Cut em, and glyphosate the stump.

I like them but they are a domesticated tall flowering weed. If keeping, don't commit crepe murder and top them. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. If you want to keep them, either cut to the ground and start over, educate yourself how to properly trim, or hire a trusted Arborist to make the appropriate cuts, If not, dig'em out and good luck with that.