What to do with my written off Astra (with new parts)?

droopsnoot

If you weigh the car in for scrap, the scrapyard will be basing their price on the weight and how much (roughly) of that is actually metal. Most scrapyards will actually deduct money if you leave tyres on the car, as it costs them money to dispose of them now - sometimes the scrapman will deduct around £8 per tyre - so their price should actually be higher if you remove wheels and tyres.

It sounds as if you've tried only one scrap guy and he possibly doesn't do a lot with cars. I'd phone around a few others, perhaps find one that's a vehicle dismantler as they will also take into account what it is and how likely they will be to get their money back. Right now, around £120-£140 is about right for weighing a car in, it varies according to the price of scrap steel which is currently high.

In order of "green", you should: (a) repair the car and carry on running it, or (b) dismantle it for parts, either yourself or sell it to a dismantler. The trouble with dismantling it yourself is that you could take quite some time to get rid of the parts. Sadly a 97 Astra isn't the most desirable of vehicles, on the plus side they're a cheap reliable workhorse and you might find some demand from those who run stuff like this by choice.

[preach] And when you get a replacement, make sure you get the cambelt replaced at the correct intervals. [/preach]