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[Gwolfski]

Hi,

our car was involved in a  car crash recently, it is going to be scrapped anyway, are there any things worth salvaging? The car is a fiat seicento. It was a 30kmph crash into a stationary car, the front is all bent, but anything but the radiator , headlights and possibly engine look fine. Any suggestions?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

this what it loks like (before crash)

[wierd]

Do you intend to purchase a similar make/model vehicle?

If so, the dash panel, and many other parts can be salvaged for spare parts in most cases.

For instance, my 97 ranger recently had a 70mph impact into a concrete divider (due to ice)-- I am fine, but it is not. I have replaced it with a 98 Explorer.  They are sufficiently similar that they have the same instrument cluster and undercarriage.  That means I can salvage parts off the corpse of the ranger.

[nenjin]

If you're willing to go to the effort of actually getting the car cut up, there is real money in just about all the metal parts of it. Scrap guys you sell it to are just going to evaluate the metal in the vehicle by the pound based on current market rates, and give you your money based on that. But an auto parts yard might give you significantly more for the engine, transmission, body panels, doors, rims and a few other things. It might be worth your time to call up a parts dealer and ask them if they buy vehicles and parts, and if so, what they'd give you for some of the things mentioned above. (What is valuable to them can vary wildly based on the year, make and model of the vehicle.) The thing that rarely seems to go for good money to me is upholstery but there are exceptions to that too.

(I work in the automotive and truck salvage industry in America and attend heavy truck parts auctions several times a year. While we aren't as heavily into auto stuff as heavy truck stuff, I work with a lot of auto yards who buy wrecked and salvaged vehicles to tear the parts they can do something with off to resell them. I'm actually looking at doing the same thing when I get ready to sell my car.)

[Thief^]

When my car was scrapped (in the UK) as too expensive to repair following a crash, the yard staff told me that it was probably going to get shipped to somewhere where safety standards were lower and would most likely be put back on the road. This might be more difficult in the US, not as many countries nearby, but they may still be expecting to part it out themselves.

As I was claiming under my insurance, technically the insurer owned the car, so I wasn't allowed to remove anything that was listed specifically on the insurance. I was allowed to swap the sony CD stereo back to the original tape player though (there had to be a stereo), and remove any personal shit.
I believe I had the option of buying the car back from the insurer / scrap yard, but getting a car back on the road in the UK is expensive and is permanently marked on its record as having been previously written off by an insurer, making them hard to sell for much more than scrap value. It wasn't worth it, I just took the insurance money and bought another very similar car (same model and year, fewer miles ).

TLDR: If you are claiming on your insurance you may not be allowed to cut the car up yourself, the insurers own it.

[nenjin]

When my car was scrapped (in the UK) as too expensive to repair following a crash, the yard staff told me that it was probably going to get shipped to somewhere where safety standards were lower and would most likely be put back on the road. This might be more difficult in the US, not as many countries nearby, but they may still be expecting to part it out themselves.

A large % of our business is with overseas buyers for exactly this reason (other nations also have looser emission standards than the US and much of Europe.)

Based on the pic I'm guessing this isn't America though, so I don't know how useful what I said would be for them.

[Funk]

Metal prices are down right now so you wont get much for scarp.
The engine and gear box are the main valuable items, but if you have a buyer any part can be worth money.