What to do if your car is damaged in the yard

Damage can be dangerous or non-hazardous. Sometimes, after an accident, only a scratch remains on the body, but in other cases, an impressive dent is left, or a seemingly harmless stick jumps up so much that it pierces the crankcase and destroys the front suspension arm. The first damage does not affect safety in any way, but the last one can lead to unpredictable consequences.

In some cases, inspectors may impose a ban on further use of the vehicle and leave it on the side of the road until the owner corrects the identified technical faults. In the vast majority of cases, such actions cause protest from drivers. How can you prove, when meeting with police officers, that your body item is so harmless that it does not pose a threat to others, especially when traffic police inspectors are sure of the opposite?

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Repair a car after an accident

If the car was damaged slightly in an accident, it can be repaired. In this case, when you sell, you will definitely get more money for the car.

Note! It will most likely not be possible to hide the fact of the accident. Any specialist will determine in a matter of minutes whether the car has been damaged, even if the repairs were performed very efficiently. Therefore, the cost of even a fully restored car will be lower than that of an analogue that has not been in an accident.

What are the disadvantages of this option?

You will have to look for a buyer yourself, for example, using free advertisements on specialized Internet sites. The execution of the transaction falls entirely on the shoulders of the car owner (the vehicle will have to be deregistered, etc.). You will waste a lot of time. Repairs, searching for a buyer, re-registration... The matter can drag on for a long time. If you need money urgently, then it’s worth considering other options, especially since they exist.

What to do if your car is damaged in a yard with CASCO coverage

So, you came to the parking lot in the morning and discovered damage to your car. What to do first?

Many drivers have a CASCO policy. This gives every reason to immediately seek help from a traffic police representative. However, there is one important condition that many drivers forget about: traffic police officers deal exclusively with traffic accidents. That is, if the damage to the car clearly proves that another vehicle was present at the incident, then the driver can contact the police, and the result will be positive. If, judging by the damage to the car’s surface, it can be decided that the scratches were caused by an attacker, it is useless to contact the traffic police. In this case, it is better to contact the local inspector, giving him all the details.

Advice! To act correctly in any unusual situation, it is better to call your personal lawyer and get advice. You should never leave the scene of an accident, especially if your car was damaged by another vehicle. This is a direct violation of traffic rules and entails liability.

Despite the fact that the owners of a CASCO policy can fully count on covering any costs of insurance events, you need to understand that if restoring the damage is not so important for you, it is better to do it yourself. Why? The point is that if you contact your insurance company for something as minor as this, they will help you. However, the occurrence of another insured event will significantly increase the cost of the policy in the future.

So, we damaged the car in the yard. What to do? CASCO is a reliable insurance policy. If the damage to your car is really significant, and you still decide to apply for payments, you need to know what to do correctly. So where to start?

First of all, you should call the traffic police.
They will draw up a report certifying the appearance of scratches on your car.
Now you can contact the insurance company.
Provide the policy, as well as a report drawn up by the traffic police.
Wait for the insurance company's decision.

If you do everything correctly, you can rest assured that a positive decision will be made in your case. At the same time, you should not expect that you will receive all payments at once. The fact is that in criminal proceedings a thirty-day period is always given to conduct the necessary investigation. This means that you can only count on receiving your compensation after 30 days.

Sell for parts

In every major city there are companies that buy used cars for spare parts. And this can be considered as an option. Transactions in this case are carried out quickly. How much money will they give you for a damaged car after an accident? You can only get the answer to this question after an auto expert examines the wrecked vehicle.

In addition, the price also depends on who will disassemble the car. You can:

dismantle the spare parts yourself and then you will get more for them, but you will waste time and money (you will have to pay for disassembly);
hand over the car in its original condition - in this case, the revenue will be less.

Let us add that usually such transactions are carried out without unnecessary hassle. Money is issued immediately after completing the necessary documents. In addition, most companies operating in this area carry out car removal on their own, meaning the car owner does not have to order a tow truck and pay for its services.

I crashed my car. What to do?

On the roads, no driver is safe from getting into an accident, even if he is extremely careful and attentive. What to do with a broken car?

Should I sell my car after an accident?

After an accident, the car owner inevitably faces the question: should he repair the car and continue driving it, or should he sell it and buy a new one? A lot depends on the damage caused. If the damage is minor (broken glass, scratches, dents, but the geometry of the body is not damaged), then the repair is obvious. You can even try to fix something yourself to save money. In the event of a serious accident, you should not make hasty decisions and call auto mechanics or resellers, but it is wiser to first calculate what will be more profitable .

First you need to find out how much the repair will cost . It is better to contact several places and find out the average cost of repairs. Sometimes the amount turns out to be disproportionate even to the purchase of a new car. In addition, it is imperative to take into account the feasibility of restoring the car - if the structure of the body was damaged, then the tires will begin to wear out more, the balls will have to be changed more often, and defects will require constant repairs.

How to evaluate a damaged car?

There are two options here:

Contact several organizations for buying used cars.
Call an independent expert.

Most appraisers claim that their company offers 90% of the value of the car on the market. Perhaps some organizations do just that, but usually the price is significantly lowered in order to make more profit. An independent expert is a disinterested person, and he will be able to accurately and impartially evaluate your car. In addition, after the examination, he will issue a document with the amount written in it, which will subsequently be a powerful argument in conversations with those who want to buy back the wrecked car. Yes, you will have to spend money on an independent expert, but, on the other hand, in the future this will help you sell the car at its real price, and not at the one that resellers will offer you.

Is it better to sell the car in parts or as a whole?

Probably, many people think that if you disassemble the car yourself and then sell it in parts, then you can earn more from this than selling it entirely. There are some nuances here. This option is good for those who have contacts in the service station. If there are no connections in the service station, then it will be much more difficult to get the real cost of the parts - auto mechanics deliberately lower prices several times.

There is an option to place advertisements on various sites yourself and indicate your price. Then you can really get much more than in a showdown. But there are several BUTs here. Firstly, this will take a lot of time and effort, since the announcement for each detail will need to be made separately and you will have to conduct dialogues with each potential buyer individually. Secondly, you need your own garage or shed to store spare parts, since renting a room for this is extremely unprofitable. And thirdly, you will need to conclude a purchase and sale agreement with each buyer in order to protect yourself from unpleasant situations (for example, if the engine that is registered with you appears in an accident). It is also necessary to deregister the car with the traffic police.

Considering all these factors, it is easier to sell the entire .

Pros of selling to resellers:

Save time. The entire transaction is completed quickly, usually within one day.
The company takes care of all issues with documents; there is no need to collect any certificates or stand in lines for hours. The only documents required from the seller are: citizen’s passport, technical passport, insurance (if any), registration certificate, TIN.
Most often, the purchase is made for cash, which is convenient for the seller - there is no need to wait for the money to arrive in the account and worry once again.
The visit of a specialist to evaluate the car, tow truck services and paperwork are also paid by the buyer.

Let us remind you that before signing the contract you need to read it carefully. It may take an extra 20 minutes, but this way you will protect yourself from pitfalls on the part of the organization.

And, if you decide to sell a car to a company, then it is better to think about safety and choose one that has been on the market for a long time, has a good reputation and positive reviews.

Happy trading!

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Where do intact and repaired parts go?

All parts of the car that survived the accident (even with a little help from engineers) have one path - to the warehouse. There they play the role of spare parts in case there is an urgent need to replace some elements on the car, and newer components run out or cannot be created for financial reasons. Parts that did not have to be restored have a better chance of returning to the race: after all, even the giants of Formula 1 cannot afford to bring a completely new car for every weekend. They try not to use refurbished ones - they are actively used in racing only by not the most wealthy teams like Force India, Haas or Sauber. More complex restored components such as power plants and gearboxes are returned only in exceptional cases - under the threat of the same penalties for overusing new elements of power plants and gearboxes.

What happens to unclaimed spare parts? They remain in warehouses just in case until the technical regulations expire. After the rules are changed, unnecessary parts are sent to service cars for exhibition races, to produce advertising models of cars and to museums. If some of these elements remain unclaimed, they often go to auctions and the hands of craftsmen - then a bunch of different things are made from unnecessary pieces of carbon fiber and metal: watches, coffee tables, wall decor, chess sets, jewelry, table lamps and even spinners.

The fidget spinner craze has hit Haas F1! Check out this gadget a crew member made. Cool, right?!
Show us your best fidget spinner tricks! pic.twitter.com/vteZIIIvWW
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) June 13, 2021

Also, some teams put used parts up for auction and officially sell them to anyone. For example, Haas does this - it frames elements of its cars in acrylic capsules and provides autographs for the drivers. The variety of offers is amazing: you can buy everything from small parts from the deflectors for $250 to the entire rear wing for $4,700.

Completely useless things that are of no use to anyone are sent for recycling, as are broken ones.

Damaged parts are not thrown away

If an accident occurred during qualifying or free practice (that is, a day or two before the race), the damaged parts of the car will be immediately replaced with new ones, but the substandard parts will not be sent on a direct flight for disposal. Each part of the machine will be carefully packed into containers and sent to the base, where, following the example of more or less intact parts, they will be subjected to many checks - primarily through tomography, ultrasound and eddy current testing. This way, engineers will be able to obtain maximum information about the extent of damage to the product and calculate the feasibility of restoration. If the repair costs are determined to be less than the cost of producing a new part of the car, restoration will begin.

If it turns out to be financially pointless to bring the parts back to life, they will be sent to the base plant for remelting. However, after processing, the material is unlikely to be used for the manufacture of new combat elements - most likely, “recycled” carbon or metal will be used on experimental parts for purging in a wind tunnel or testing, or they will be used to make a car specifically for the mandatory FIA crash tests.

When a more complex part of the car breaks down, such as electronic circuits, gearbox, cooling system or power plant, teams act completely differently: they traditionally almost always prefer to restore them. It's not a matter of greed: simply for overspending on these elements, teams receive a penalty on the starting grid. However, there are nuances here too: for example, only places that can be restored without breaking the FIA seals on the homologation of the part are subject to repair (after all, if they are broken, the team will receive the same fine). Most often, stables do not try to deal with such components themselves, but return them to suppliers for repairs - for example, this is exactly what Red Bull did with Renault engines at the end of 2021 and in mid-2018.

We damaged our car in the yard at night and fled – what to do?

There is nothing more unpleasant than finding your car damaged in the morning. What is the algorithm of action in this case? So, you damaged your car in the yard: what to do?

Decide whether you need help or whether you will handle the repairs yourself.
If you still need it, call the traffic police.
Immediately report the incident to the insurance company.
Upon arrival of the police officers, carefully re-read all the documents and fill them out if necessary.
Contact the insurance company and submit all the necessary documents and certificates.
Write a statement and wait for a decision on your case.