Accidents, like most life-changing events, come when we least expect and almost always leave the victims in shock. After experiencing one, it is often more important to think of the lives that were involved in the collision. However, the vehicles themselves were of some value. Although it may be hard to get compensated by your insurance company for all the worth of the damaged car, you could try several ideas to get the most money back from what is now a scrap car.

The process is less strenuous if you had insurance to cover your vehicle and kept with the ritual of paying premiums when due. Without insurance (which is unlawful), driving around in your vehicle, or one borrowed is a risky activity that can have the police on your case. Be it as that may, it is only fair to exhaust both scenarios, revealing how best to squeeze the most value from the worst adversity.

Related article: Car Scrapping Services: How does it work? (in Toronto)

Options When You’re Covered By Insurance

In a euphoric world, an insurance company would right away replace the car with a new one in the event of total damage through an accident. This, as you may already have figured, is almost never the case. Most Insurance companies only cover your vehicle’s damage if the accident was not caused by circumstances that can be assumed to be intentional. 

A lot of grey areas in insurance contracts leave clients with a lot of feelings unexpressed. Especially considering how a long used vehicle transcends value, emerging as almost being a family member in most households.

With that cleared out of the way we approach the situation, the very best action of the cost would be to have a willing purchaser (could be a recycling firm) assess the after-accident value of the vehicle. This way, you can claim the discord between that appraisal figure and the original monetary value before the damage. 

It is necessary to mention the term ‘monetary’ since to you the car has always increased in value as you grew to trust in it. In the books at the insurance firm, your car’s value is a set of numbers, and nothing more. Talk about this option with your insurer as a diminished value claim. 

After getting that value reimbursed, you can go ahead and sell the vehicle to willing buyers. Often this would mean paying towing fees from the damage assessment points at which the police leave it after the accident. You won’t have to do this if you were dealing with one of the many companies that tow and buy the car with no extra cost to you. With that appraisal figure still in your head, you can now get the remaining value from even the pile of metal left behind. If your car was of a new design, there may be some surprise value up-ticks as the usable parts from the junk can be salvaged and resold. 

You Get Into An Accident Without Insurance

Say you have borrowed the car, and you get into a pileup, even when it was totally not your fault. Firstly, the police will not look at your case with as much leniency as they would with someone insured. After proving indemnification, the owner of the vehicle would have to search for means to retain value as most insurance companies turn a blind eye to such scenarios. Expect a worse situation if all fingers point to you as being the cause of the accident and associated damage to third-party property.

The most logical route would be to also have a private company assess the damage along with the final value of the vehicle. There is no option to appeal with any insurer, and so your best route is to work with either a damaged used car dealership to sell the car as-is or to have it towed with no further costs, allowing you to salvage the most of the current vehicle value. 

The dealership route means you have to tow the car to a secure location while they match you with a willing buyer. This not only costs you money but takes more time than the towing route. This defeats the purpose of trying to get the most from a bad situation. With free towing, you start saving from the get-go, then you also get a fair share of the salvageable parts from the mess, along with how much will be realized after the car is crushed and smelted into usable metals. 

It hurts realizing that once considered scrap, you can no longer share the bond that may have developed between you and your vehicle. Well at least with the hands-on advice provided above you can start afresh with closure.  

Related article: Scrap Car Removal vs Selling Used Cars in Toronto