Can I get rid of my car and make money?

Miss_J

I am trying to get rid of a Daewoo Lanos. I have a brand new car and I'm wasting money each month paying insurance on the Daewoo. The car is MOT's until July and Taxed until January, however it is previously accident damaged which is recorded on the log book.

I contacted an online salvage firm who offerred me £200 which I thought was a good deal as I could keep the tax disc and get a refund of the road tax. However I've been waiting for over a week for them to turn up and it looks like this good deal is living in cloud cuckoo land. Having still not heard for the above mentioned salvage company I took it to a local dismantling yard after calling them the see if they would buy it. They said if there was nothing wrong they would offer about £250-£300 for the car.

Great I thought and headed off there today. Get there and they drive it around the corner and the guy comes back and says the brakes are grinding and the engine is misfiring. So I tell them the brakes are possibly grinding because it's been parked up for the last couple of months and that I knew nothing about the engine misfiring. I even had the engine serviced a couple of months back. Anyway they take all the spark plugs off to see what the problem was and couldn't tell so they offerred me £100. I said I'd think about it and drove the car away, only I managed to get about 200 yards down the road, could really accelerate the car and was worried the car would break down on the way home.

Took it back and asked if they'd left a spark plug off seeing as I was having a problem with driving it, they put a new spark plug back on and said that the exhaust was also gone and car shouldn't have passed the MOT. Headed back off home and although slightly better, car still wasn't running like it was when I went in. So off I turned back to the yard. Guy said it sounded like it had when I'd driven it in and that there was nothing more he could do. I argued that the car was driveable when I went in so would he consider upping his offer to £140 seeing as the car now seemed to have developed a problem. He refused and said he was trying to help me out offering £100. I left very disgruntled.

Anyway after my long winded moan/ rant. I'm wondering if I'm living in cloud cuckoo land myself thinking that the car is worth at least a couple of hundred pounds. Anyone know of any reputable places who would take the car and give me some money? Also anyone heard of cartakeback? They're offering £140 to recycle the car.

frothey

for a cat d/c Daewoo i reckon £100 isn't too bad! just ask yourself is it going to be worth the extra phoning around/hassle/fuel for potentially £40?

MX5huggy

Put it on eBay and see who much you get.

motorguy

Salvage companies value a car by weight. there are items on the car that have value in themselves and are processed separately by salvage companies

(a) remove the battery - worth £10-£20
(b) cut off the catalytic converter - worth £40-60
(c) losten the wheel nuts and when the car is lifted up take the wheels off - good second hand tyres worth £15 each on gumtree
(d) if the wheel trims are in good condition, remove them and sell on ebay. (£10-£20)
(e) if there is even a basic CD player, remove and sell on ebay (£20)
(f) check out the value of rear lights, headlights and indicators on ebay. Consider removing these and selling seperately.
(g) handbook / service manual - may be of some value on ebay.
(h) remove the grille - may be of some value on ebay.

gmm30

pgilc1 wrote: »

Salvage companies value a car by weight. there are items on the car that have value in themselves and are processed separately by salvage companies

(a) remove the battery - worth £10-£20
(b) cut off the catalytic converter - worth £40-60
(c) losten the wheel nuts and when the car is lifted up take the wheels off - good second hand tyres worth £15 each on gumtree
(d) if the wheel trims are in good condition, remove them and sell on ebay. (£10-£20)
(e) if there is even a basic CD player, remove and sell on ebay (£20)
(f) check out the value of rear lights, headlights and indicators on ebay. Consider removing these and selling seperately.
(g) handbook / service manual - may be of some value on ebay.
(h) remove the grille - may be of some value on ebay.

To follow up from the above post, a good trick is to go on eBay and search for "completed listings" (it's under Advanced Search) with the term "Daewoo Lanos". That way you'll see what stuff has sold for (and just as importantly, what doesn't sell). Then you can identify which parts have value. And you won't waste time removing bits that nobody wants.

If the car model has a few weak points and you have working parts to fix them, prices can be surprising. I once got £30+ for the radiator expansion tank for a Rover 800, because they're very scarce in scrapyards. All told got about £150 on eBay parts and another £100 for weighing in the shell.

bigjl

This is a standard procedure for a salvage yard, offer X on the phone, when seller turns up, offer X-Y, when the mechanic takes a look at it muck about with the engine in some minor way.

It is how salvage yards have always worked and always will, nothing new about going for a walk in the mud and coming back with dirty shoes.

You would have been better off putting it on eBay first, as if you have let a salvage yard bloke under the bonnet god knows what he has been up to.