Cars hold a great sentimental value and they’re very hard to choose if you’re buying cars from the used market. After a great deal of saving up and research, finally, you’ve found your dream car. The best car, however, has a small flaw. It has been an accident.

The first step towards buying a used car must be checking the history report. You can find out a lot about a vehicle by looking at its vehicle history report. It will tell you if there have been any major repairs made, if the vehicle has ever been in an accident and if there are any liens or other issues that may affect the value of the car. 

Situations like this are pretty common to encounter, with data showing that over forty percent of cars get banged up, and over 8 million cars have been in accidents. However, for an average buyer, numbers and data don’t mean much. The fear-mongering knowledge of accidents on one hand, and the tempting price discount on the other. We’ll explain to you what you should do when buying a used car.

Checking the Damage

You can start by checking the nature of the accident and what was repaired. The overall damage the car received will tell you about the impact on long-term endurance. The vehicle has to follow some safety standards maintained by the governing body. If everything looks and works fine, you can purchase the car without any worries. 

Checking the damages caused by the accident is not only to ensure safety but also to use as leverage. The damage history can be a key tool in hitting that discount jackpot, where the price will be significantly reduced if you play the cards right. Even if the damaged components are swapped with new ones, the quality does not get much improvement. This is due to the underlying incompetence of repair persons, in comparison to the manufacturing factory. 

Devil’s Deal?

Most people are hesitant to purchase vehicles with a history involving accidents. It could be due to the possibility that someone died inside the vehicle, or caused someone’s death. A ghost coming to haunt you every day while you’re driving surely sounds like a plot of a great haunted movie. Keeping things real, the reluctance comes from the damages to the vehicle that the accident might have caused. The car might have sustained some long-lasting damages, which will cause additional problems along the way. 

Vehicles are largely mechanical, and mechanical systems fail. They’re more prone to fail if they have already been hit once or twice. You can never be certain, as to what impact the accident caused. Weakened chassis, problems lying at the corners where the repair person's eyes don’t reach, and if nothing else, just the fear of uncertainty. You can only pray that the entropy doesn’t sink your ride while doing 80 miles on the road.

Reasons to Buy the used car

If you personally don’t want to own a car that’s been in an accident, you should definitely trust your instincts. However, purchasing a used car isn’t always the bad choice. As we already discussed, most cars you find on roads have been in accidents. After a good repair and a quality inspection, you might land on a really good deal. The biggest reason to buy a used car with an accident history is the reduced cost. It will cost cheaper than clean titles so you might be able to grab a premium model for a sub-standard price.

Should you buy a repaired car?

Let’s be honest, most of the repair shops are geared towards keeping the costs low and completing the repairs fast instead of providing a quality repair. After all, it’s a business and they have to meet the profit figures at the end of the year, somehow. 

That’s why, if you have decided to buy a used car that has been in an accident, hire a private inspector or call your trusted mechanic and have him check the entire car. This is extremely important, as it might prevent some life or death situations. In most cases, there should be no issues. 


At the end of the car’s life, you may think that it was a great deal, or you may end up spending much more on future repairs than the savings you made. Whatever you decide to do, our recommendation is to conduct a proper inspection of the car. That will surely save you from probable disasters down the road.