Sometimes accidents happen, and while hopefully in the short term there were no minor injuries involved, it may be the long term that you’re worried, specifically about what happens when you finally try and sell your post accident vehicle. While it’s going to be more of a challenge, don’t give up yet, here’s our guide on how to sell a car after it’s been in a crash.
Assess the Damage
Your first step should be assessing the vehicle’s damage, taking thorough notes of all the issues both major and minor around the car. These notes are going to be useful for two things. One is showing to any potential buyers, and two is calculating the cost of fixing the issues and the potential profit to be made.
While fixing damages before selling the car might feel like the obvious thing to do, that’s not always the case. Fixing some problems can be critically expensive, and if you do the math, it might be that fixing the problem will cost more than the money you’ll make by selling the fixed car.
While it’s not going to be possible to get exact numbers, you can calculate averages and get a rough estimate of what repairs are worth doing and which aren’t.
Do Not Lie
It’s absolutely critical when you’re selling a car that’s been in an accident that you do not lie about the car’s history. If a car has been in an accident then it will be registered on the vehicle history, which is relatively easy for a potential buyer to access. If you’re attempting to hide the facts then more than likely you’ll be found out and suddenly be considered a very untrustworthy seller.
The best policy is total openness, tell the buyer exactly what happened, exactly what the damage was, and if you did anything to fix it tell them that too. Many buyers will be willing to fix the car themselves, as long as they know what’s broken.
If The Car Is Dead
In the event that a crash has resulted in a total write off of the car, meaning it’s been damaged beyond repair then your options are going to be distinctly more limited. If you’re in this situation then it’s possible that your only option is the scrap yard but before turning the wreck over to them it may be worthwhile to investigate the car yourself.
Just because the car is wrecked doesn’t mean there’s nothing to salvage, if there’s any intact engine parts or other intact pieces you may make more money selling those yourself rather than giving it all to the scrapyard.