You have just run into a car owner’s worst nightmare — literally and figuratively! You got into a major accident and you do not have the financial ability to get your previous vehicle back on the road.
Your car insurance will only cover a fraction of the accident despite all of the high premiums that you pay for this exact situation. So what can you do if you can’t afford to fix your car? Fortunately, there are plenty of options that you can take.
While your car might be totaled, you still need to get around. Your kids won’t take themselves to school, no one will drive you in for work, food needs to get on the table… You get where I am going with this, right?
You need your vehicle to practically do anything of importance in your life! But here you are — the car broke down, no money to fix it, and stuck.
The first step you will most likely take is to rent out a loaner vehicle. We all know that this is a temporary solution until you can find a way to fix your precious car, but you need to get around now. No one is going to run your errands for you.
Luckily, there are plenty of places that you can rent a vehicle from. Just simply Google around and you will find plenty of options. While you are shopping for a rental car, you should keep an eye on the following items:
Rental Lengths
Mileage Prices
Insurance Policy
So now that you are prepared for or completed with step one, you now need to think about...
The first thing you will want to do is have a mechanic inspect the damages that your car has procured. Before you move forward with the inspection, you should ask the mechanic how much it will cost for them to say hi to your vehicle.
Most mechanics will charge anywhere between $100 to $200 just to look at what’s wrong with your vehicle. It’s just like going to the doctor’s office; you will need to pay for their expertise. If you have insurance on your vehicle, that might cover some of the cost just like your personal insurance will cover for some of your doctor’s visits.
If the damage on your vehicle is totaled to the point that you cannot drive it to the mechanic, you will need to pay for a towing company to bring your damaged car to the mechanic’s garage (just like an ambulance will take a patient to the emergency room). Insurance can cover this cost too, but you might still have to pay for something out of pocket.
Be careful though — some towing companies will take your vehicle to the nearest mechanic or to a mechanic that their company is affiliated with. You should look into the towing company’s affiliates before you call them to tow your vehicle.
So now that your vehicle is at the shop, you will need to give your mechanic a few days in order to figure out what is wrong with your vehicle. The amount of time it will take your mechanic to figure out the issue will be determined by the amount of damage that your vehicle has procured.
A simple job could take a couple of days. A major accident could take a couple of weeks. Before you select a mechanic, you should ask them for an estimated diagnosis date.
You might now be saying, “My car broke down and I have no money to fix it?! What makes you think I can afford all of these extra fees?!”
If you don’t have the money to take care of these fees, you can always have the towing company bring your vehicle to your residence. If you have a garage to store it in, you can let your car sit in there until you have the time to fix your vehicle.
If you don’t have a garage, you will need to place your vehicle out on the street for anyone to look at. If it’s too big of an eyesore, someone can call the police and have your vehicle towed to a junkyard AND put a lien on your license that can be traced with your car plate.
Either way, that means you will be renting a loaner vehicle for longer than you are expecting, spending more of that hard-earned cash that could not go into fixing your damaged vehicle. If all of this sounds expensive to you, maybe it’s time to…
If you are saying, “I can’t afford to fix my car,” this is the best option for you. Fortunately, there are plenty of options for you to look at. Let’s take a deep look into these options.
Junkyard. They will pay “by the pound.” That means you will only get money equal to your car’s scrap value. This is one of the quickest ways to sell your damaged vehicle, but the least fruitful option available to you.
Chop Shop. They will pay a little bit more, but you will take a hit because the shop will need to break the vehicle down and figure out which parts are salvageable. Again, you cannot expect to make close to your car’s fair market value.
Sell the Car for Parts Yourself. This will require you to have motor vehicle knowledge and to have a lot of time to break the vehicle down. With all of your other responsibilities, it might take a long time before you even make anything from this option. Not just that, but you will have to deal with hagglers working your price down.
So with all of those options exhausted, where else should you go? I got the perfect place…
Unlike all of those other options, we make the process quick AND we make sure that you get the fairest market value for your vehicle. All you have to do is:
Send a request to CarBrain
Answer a few questions
Submit a couple of photos
Receive and respond to your no-obligation trade-in price
If you like the price that we give you, you can schedule a time for one of our towing vehicles to pick up your damaged vehicle with NO COST TO YOU. We provide your payment on the spot when we pick up your vehicle.
Now, you have the money to make a downpayment on a new vehicle that you own.
If you want to get the best value for your vehicle, you should contact CarBrain — we give you a fair market value price for your vehicle that you are not obligated to accept.
Unfortunately, there is no way to fix your car without any money. You can break the car down yourself by looking for the schematics online, but you will need to replace the part once you find the issue. However, you run the risk of exacerbating the problem because you aren’t a professional. If you can’t afford to repair a car, it might be time to junk it and take profit.
There are five options that you can take if you cannot afford car repairs:
You could try to fix the car yourself. The schematics are available online, but this still takes a lot of time, especially without profession knowledge.
Take the car to a junkyard, but they will only pay for your car “by the pound.”
Bring your vehicle to a chop shop, but they will also expect you to take a discount because they need to spend time breaking the vehicle themselves.
Break the vehicle for parts yourself, but you will run into the same issue you had with fixing the vehicle yourself with the addition of having to work with hagglers looking for a cheap deal on your valuable parts.
You could store the vehicle yourself, but that will take up a lot of valuable space in your garage or on the street, but be warned: if it’s an eyesore on the street, you risk tickets and/or getting towed. Taking your car to the junkyard or chop shop will not put the fair market value of the vehicle into your pocket.