Have you been in an accident that your expensive SUV or Sedan is pretty damaged? It’s a tribble situation to be in! You look at your car, it is fully crushed, airbags are opened, the engine is smoking from under the hood. You are devastated, doing the math in your head and wondering what to do with your car that is not worth fixing anymore! Definitely, at that moment you are panicking and don’t know what exactly you should do.
How to know your car is not worth repairing?
Accidents are not the only cases that you are in the situation of not knowing that your car isn’t worth fixing! There are many other mechanical issues that are too expensive to repair. Engine failure and other major problems require costly repairs. But how to know if your car is worth fixing or not? It is simple! when the repair costs outweigh the value of the car, then your car isn’t worth fixing.
Here is some idea to find out if your car is worth fixing
ASK FOR A REPAIR QUOTE
ُIf you don’t have a repair estimate how can you find out how much the cost will be? You should get three or more quotes from different stores just to be sure your estimation is correct. Just make sure you consider all the repair and labor costs and the shop is giving you an official quote that covers everything.
CHECK IF YOU CAN DO THE WORK YOURSELF
You can do the many basic repairs by yourself. Just with a simple youtube search, you will see how easy some non-expert replacements are. Just get the right part and follow the steps from the video guidelines. Most of the times shops charge you more for the parts and replacement cost is also high. For example, for a simple headlight bulb replacement, they may charge you $40 for the bulb and $40 for the replacement. You can find the same bulb on amazon or other online stores for a cheaper price and the replacement only takes 2 minutes and is very simple.
DO SOME RESEARCH
Look in the second-hand market for the expensive parts. Sometimes you can find good deals for even brand new vehicles part. Some people sell their car parts for a fair price just because the engine is blown, since the engine is one of the most expensive car parts they decide to part out their car instead of a replacement just. Search the expensive parts and components that you need on Kijiji or other second-hand marketplaces. You can find airbag components, transmission system components, and other expensive car parts for a cheap price.
When is the time that your car may not be worth fixing?
When your car is too old or you did the math and found out that repairing cost is higher than the value of your car then it is not worth fixing.
Now what are the options? What you can do to lower the damage?
There are two options:
- Your car is not that much old then you can part out your car and make some money out of the valuable parts.
- Your car is pretty old or completely write-off then you have to find the best scrap car removal company and sell the whole car to the scrapyard and get cash in the spot.