If you are in a serious accident that causes a significant amount of damage to your vehicle, you might be wondering whether you should repair it or scrap it and buy a new one. In many situations this will be determined by the car insurance company that is paying on the claim. If you are in a situation where an insurance company or driver will not be picking up the tab for your repairs, you have to consider whether it is worth the effort to repair the car or not.
Fair Market Value
If you want to see if it makes financial sense to repair your wrecked car, your first step is to determine the fair market value of the vehicle after all repairs have been made. There are several online tools that will help you do this. You should also get several repair estimates. If the cost of the repairs is significantly more than the market value of the car, it really isn’t a wise investment. On the other hand, if the repairs are the same or less, it would be financially worth it to fix the car.
Emotional Value
Does your car hold special memories? Sometimes it is worth it to pay to keep something that is emotionally important to you. If your car means a lot to you and you don’t want to let it go, repairing it can be well worth the cost. Memories and enjoyment are worth far more than money.
Value of Your Time
Your time and effort is also valuable. Do you have the time or ability to hunt for another car? Would it be better to pay someone to fix this one so that you don’t have to go through the hassle of sales, test drives, paying taxes, and licensing the car? Only you can determine whether or not repairing the vehicle is less hassle than buying something else. Usually, it is less hassle to let someone else handle the problem for you.
If you have recently wrecked a car and need a repair estimate to determine if you should repair or replace, contact us today for an appointment.
