The decision after a crash
A crash leaves you with two bills to compare: what the repair would cost, and what the car is worth fixed. When the first number beats the second, or the car simply isn’t worth keeping, selling it as it sits saves you the shop time. If you want a figure to set against the estimate, send the details through the form on our home page and we’ll call with an offer. Our guide to what sets a junk car’s value explains how damage changes that number.
Insurance can complicate the order of things. If a claim is open, finish it before you sell, since the insurer may want to inspect the car. And if the insurer has already paid out a total loss and taken the title, the car is theirs to sell, not yours.
Describe the damage, then we price it
The more precise you are, the steadier the offer. We’ll ask:
- Where it was hit. Front, rear, side, or more than one place.
- Whether it still runs and rolls. A car that rolls on its own wheels loads differently from one with a broken suspension arm.
- Glass and airbags. Shattered windows and deployed airbags are common and fine; we just want to know.
- Fluids. If it’s leaking oil or coolant onto your parking spot, say so.
- Where it is now. On the street, in your garage, at a body shop or in a tow yard.
If something was stolen from the car after the accident, the catalytic converter guide covers police reports and insurance before you sell.
Pickup from wherever it ended up
Wrecked cars end up in awkward places. One gets pushed to the curb on Broadway after a fender-bender, another sits in a body shop’s back lot off Clark, a third gets nosed into a Lakeview garage and never moves again. We tow from all of them at no charge, as long as whoever controls the spot knows it’s leaving. Cars that still drive get towed too; that keeps you off the road with a damaged car.
We pick up across the North Side and the near north suburbs. Sellers in Uptown, Lakeview and Evanston can find local pickup notes on their area pages.
If the insurer already called it a total loss
In Illinois a paid total loss usually makes the insurer the owner, and you can keep the car only in two cases. Our guide to keeping or selling a totaled car explains them, and salvage and rebuilt titles covers the paper you’d end up holding.
If it’s burned or flooded instead
Fire and water damage get their own page: selling a flood or fire damaged car covers the extra questions those cars raise. And if the crash left it unable to start, selling a car that won’t start explains how we handle dead cars.