WOULD you consider letting a garage or bodyshop fit second-hand parts from a scrap dealer to your pride and joy? If the answer’s no, then you’d better check the small print on your insurance. Any number of policies these days have a clause in the T&Cs saying that repairs can include salvaged parts at the whim of your insurer.
They call the parts ‘recycled’ or ‘green’ rather than second-hand, which puts a more positive spin on the proposition, and insurers don’t allow any safety-critical used parts to be fitted when dealing with a claim, regardless of their reported condition. Used body and trim parts are fair game, though, as long as they are in a suitable condition, and as long as the car they came from is no older than the car being repaired. In the eyes of the insurance industry, this means customers will not be left in a worse position than they were before an accident.
In spite of the terminology, the trend towards recycled parts is not driven primarily by the desire to save the
