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You might feel like an accident is a perfect time to change things up a little bit with your car. After all, you're about to have an insurance settlement check to put towards modifications such as body kits, new paint jobs, new wheels, or anything else you can imagine. While you're generally free to do anything you want with your insurance money, there are some excellent reasons to use that money only for repair.
Modifications and Long-Term Value
In general, you should never forget that modifications rarely add value to a vehicle. Unlike improvements to your home, buyers are unlikely to appreciate changes, and you may even negatively impact your resale value. The impact of a car accident on your vehicle's history report can compound these adverse effects.
A critical part of repairing your car following an accident is restoring its value. While you may always suffer some depreciation due to an accident, you can mitigate this by working with an experienced and qualified body shop. The closer you get your car to its factory, pre-accident condition, the more likely it is to retain much of its value.
Unfortunately, modifying your car during the repair process means future buyers won't have confidence in the final product. You won't have proof that you used all factory or genuine parts, and modifications may leave questions about long-term reliability or other issues. In other words, your insurance money will go towards work that will only reduce your car's value.
The Proper Approach
Instead of looking for ways to change your ride, work with your auto body shop to determine the best and most cost-effective way to restore the damage. Your insurance settlement should cover this process, and a good shop can help point out any potential shortfalls in your payout. You can then use this information to negotiate, if necessary, with your insurance company.
Although you might not end up with a perfectly customized ride, you will have a car with much or all of its original value restored. You can then go ahead and perform any modifications later on since you'll have documentation for future buyers showing that you fixed the vehicle to the best of your ability. You can also choose to remove your modifications later, leaving a clean car to sell or trade-in.
Remember that auto body shops specialize in restoration. By repairing your car back to factory standards, you'll be putting their skill and expertise to work for you. Reach out to a local auto body repair shop for more information.
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