We spend a lot of time behind the wheel of a car. Trips from one part of the city to another have become commonplace, and travel by personal transport has ceased to be exotic. But despite all the advantages, the life of a motorist is accompanied by all kinds of risks, and the most important of them is an accident.
Of course, in a collision of cars, their final technical condition is not so important as the life and health of the driver, passengers and pedestrians. But if everything is in order here, and except for the body and the insides of the car, no one else and nothing has suffered, car owners face another problem - how to return their handsome men to their former appearance and spend at the same time a minimum of their savings.
CASCO as an option to save on car repairs
Car repair after an accident is a troublesome and costly undertaking. The best solution to the issue, without a doubt, at all times has been and remains CASCO - a car insurance system that, on a voluntary basis, allows you to receive compensation for damage caused to a car after an accident, up to the market value of the car at the time of the accident.
CASCO is especially relevant for owners of premium cars who are not accustomed to counting money, but may simply not be ready for sudden expenses.
Imagine a businessman who has an expensive car. Even a small accident here can result in a round sum from one to one and a half million rubles. In order not to withdraw money from the business (and OSAGO will pay no more than 10 percent of the specified amount), it is more profitable to issue a CASCO and save a lot of money on expenses after an accident.
For whom is this car insurance option not suitable? First of all, for owners of budget cars, the restoration of which after an accident may well be pulled by a standard policy of compulsory insurance of automobile civil liability.
It is also quite possible to do without hull insurance, if the car is not very popular with hijackers, is operated in a region where there have been no cataclysms, and the owner himself treats the car carefully, observes traffic rules and parks correctly, which is a good prevention against those who are not indifferent neighbors in the parking lot.
Other ways to save
In any case, the costs after an accident will fall on the shoulders of the car owner, even if he is not to blame. But OSAGO is ready to pay only part of the cost of repairs, and CASCO is too expensive a pleasure for people below the middle class.
To prevent this from happening, follow this algorithm of actions:
Immediately after the accident, record the scene of the accident, the cars of all the participants in the accident, as well as nearby recognizable places - for example, shops, house numbers and stops, with a photo and video filming. These materials will allow you to further defend your rights in court and receive full payment from the perpetrator of the accident.
Call and wait for the traffic police. If you plan to meet the insurance payment and see that the damage in general allows this to be done, it would be unreasonable to resolve the issue on the spot - after all, the amount offered by the culprit may turn out to be several times less than the real cost of the repair.
In this regard, the following rule follows - the assessment of damage after an accident. In principle, there is nothing difficult in assessing the cost of damaged parts, taking into account their real wear and tear. But having in hand a document from a certified appraisal company, you can, firstly, increase the amount of insurance payments, and, secondly, obtain damages in court if the OSAGO still cannot reimburse the full cost of the repair.
If possible, avoid having your car repaired by an authorized dealer. Although this is the least troublesome option, it has two significant drawbacks - repairs are one and a half to two times higher than average market prices and waiting up to two to three months, while a good car service will be able to cope with the work in two or three weeks for significantly less money.
Check with an experienced auto mechanic to repair individual parts. Rebuilding a part is always cheaper than buying a new one. In addition, there are companies that put the restoration of worn-out spare parts on stream. Their resource and quality are close to the factory ones, and the cost can differ up to two times lower.
Feel free to entrust your car repairs to an emergency consultant. Such narrow specialists know the primary and secondary markets of auto parts from the inside and will be able to qualitatively repair a car at the lowest possible price.
Also, don't forget to visit the autosamples and see if there are suitable parts. Auto glasses, radiator grilles and even gearboxes can be in perfect condition on cars left for dismantling. However, there is always a risk of buying outright scrap metal and subsequently overpaying at an exorbitant price for repairs, so it is better to go to auto analysis with a competent master of his craft.
How to save money on repairs if you are the culprit of an accident
Even CASCO here, unfortunately, will only help you, and your insurance company will cover all the costs or part of them for repairing someone else's car. The remaining amount, if the insurance could not cover the entire repair, will be debited from you through the court.
And here you have all the available ways to protect yourself in advance at the upcoming hearing. First of all, record all the details of the incident on your phone. The opposite situation may also arise, when you may already be asked to disperse amicably, requesting an amount for repairs three or even five times higher than the real costs. After waiting for the traffic police officers, you have a real opportunity to save a significant part of the family budget.
Call the emergency commissioner - he will be able to assess the situation more objectively and without emotion and draw up an accident plan with millimeter accuracy. In addition, a competent description of the situation from a trained person to a traffic police officer can make you innocent, which is difficult to achieve alone, when stress, fear and poor health will certainly not play on your side, aggravating the situation if your opponent has a “well-hung” tongue and there is some legal knowledge.
For all sorts of offenses, the traffic police can send your car to a parking lot. But don't despair - there are methods like pick up the car from the impound without unnecessary headache.