STEP 1
Describe the damage in the intake
Which panels, whether airbags deployed, whether it starts and drives. Photos help and take a minute.
Accident damage, priced honestly
Sell a Damaged, Wrecked or Totaled Car
Damage doesn't end a car's value. Age plus damage does. A newer Accord with a crushed quarter panel is still a valuable car carrying a repair bill. An older Accord with the same hit is a car whose repair costs more than the car itself. Orange County's fleet runs newer than most — freeway rear-enders on the 5, the 405, and the 55 are a fact of life here — so the first kind is a car we buy every week, and we'll decline the second kind plainly, before you waste a Saturday on it.
Get my guaranteed offer →The offer we make is the offer you get for 7 days, when the car matches its description. If hidden or unreported damage is found at pickup, any adjustment is shown with photo evidence before you decide.
The rule we use: the newer the car, the more damage we can absorb
There is no model-year cutoff printed here, because the real line is a ratio: what the car is worth whole versus what the damage costs. Newer cars sit far enough above their repair bills that a serious hit still leaves value. That's why the same collision is a purchase on a late-model car and a pass on an old one. Damage we regularly price in on newer cars:
- Front or rear collision damage — bumpers, fenders, hoods, trunk lids
- Deployed airbags on a newer car
- Side-swipes, door and quarter-panel damage
- Hail damage across the roof, hood, and trunk
- Suspension or wheel damage from a curb or a ditch, on a car new enough to carry it
If your damaged car also sat in the driveway for months after the wreck and now won't start, that alone doesn't change the answer — a dead battery after sitting is a small thing. Year and damage decide.
Where we say no
The combinations below fall outside the program, and we'd rather list them than discover them at your curb:
- Old and crashed together — the repair exceeds the car
- Major structural or frame damage on an older car
- A car that's burned out, stripped for parts, or missing its major pieces
- A trashed interior on top of body damage — damage plus neglect
- No working key, whatever the damage
Totaled by insurance is two different situations
"Totaled" is an insurance math decision — the repair estimate crossed a percentage of the car's value — not a statement that the car is worthless. Late-model totaled cars are exactly the ones whose numbers still work for a buyer like us.
If your insurer kept the car, it's theirs to sell and there's nothing to discuss. If you kept it — owner-retained — the car typically comes back with salvage paperwork, and that changes the title, not our interest: with the salvage title in hand, it's a normal purchase (see our salvage title page). Tell us in the intake which situation you're in.
How selling a damaged car works here
STEP 2
Get a written, guaranteed offer
Priced on the condition you reported — damage included, not discovered later. The offer holds for 7 days.
STEP 3
We pick it up and pay you
Free tow anywhere in Orange County. If the car is worse than described, you'll see photo evidence of any adjustment before you decide anything.
Damaged car questions
Do you buy cars with deployed airbags?
On newer cars, yes — deployed airbags are priced into the offer like any other repair. On an older car, the same hit usually ends the math, because airbag replacement alone can cost more than the car. The deciding factor is always the car's year against the size of the damage.
My car was totaled by insurance but it still drives. Can I sell it to you?
If you retained the car after the total-loss settlement, yes — that's a normal purchase for us, and it will typically carry a salvage title, which we buy when the title is in hand. If the insurance company took the car, it belongs to them and can't be sold by you.
How much damage is too much?
There's no single line — it's the car's year multiplied by the damage. A heavy hit on a newer car can still work; moderate damage on an old car often can't. Submit the car with an honest description and you'll get either a guaranteed offer or a plain no, in writing.
Do you buy hail-damaged cars?
Yes, on cars new enough to carry the repair — hail is cosmetic panel damage spread over the roof, hood, and trunk, and it prices like other panel damage. Fire and flood damage follow different rules; they're covered on our <a href="/sell-a-car-with-fire-or-flood-damage/">fire and flood page</a>.
Ready when you are
Complete one vehicle intake, see your offer, and arrange free local pickup. No obligation, and no strangers coming to your door.
Get my guaranteed offer