Best ways to scrap a car? 7 December 2022 at 9:18AM in Motoring 10 replies 314 views

poggle99

Complete motoring ignoramus here. I need to get rid of our car as it is not economical for us to repair. It cost us £600 5 years ago, and has just failed its MOT, with a quote of £500+ to get it roadworthy again.

We also have *another* car which has been under a SORN since the pandemic, and similarly a cursory garage inspection suggests it will need many hundreds of pounds of work. The garage that looked at it said it would need to go to the dealer for a proper assessment. 

What is the most economical way - and least hassle, because there might be a tradeoff there - to offload these cars? Very grateful for any advice, please and thank you.

(For context, it's not that we're rolling in it with all these cars - the first was bought so that we could afford to insure the children to drive, but 2/3 have now left home so that's no longer a priority; and the SORNed vehicle was our main family car for nearly 15 years. We're not vehicle-less now because my mum gave us her old car when she upgraded recently - otherwise the 'not economical to repair' question might look different.)

MikeJXE

Ring the local scrap yard they may collect it and possible give you £50 for it 

chrisw

There are many companies out there which buy it off you and collect, including We buy any car, We buy any scrap car, Cartakeback, etc.

Get a few quotes off them.

Ebe_Scrooge

As above - ring a local scrapyard, or just Google for "Scrap cars <Birmingham or wherever>", you'll find loads of companies who'll collect it - both independent scrappies and the national firms mentioned by the previous poster.

The alternative is to stick it on Ebay, Gumtree, Facebook etc., stating "Spares or repair".  Describe the known faults honestly, and you may well find someone would be glad of it - either to repair it themselves if they're handy with a spanner, or to strip and sell it for parts.

Breaking it yourself and selling the bits individually can make more money, but to be honest it's a hassle - you've got to have somewhere to store the parts, you've got to advertise them individually, and you've still got to get rid of anything that can't be sold.  So the least-hassle option is simply to see which scrappie will give you the most for it, the second-best option (a bit of hassle but can potentially make more money) is to advertise it for "spares or repair".

Flight3287462

OP have you looked at the price of cars recently?

I would think twice before scrapping, picking the best one and paying £500 is probably the MSE thing to do.  I paid £430 to have discs and pads done all round the other day so £500 is not a lot.

What's wrong with them?

poggle99

@Flight3287462 If we were scrapping and then buying another one, it might well be a different story. But we don't need to run them any more, so they're simply a money sink for us, unfortunately (I don't feel good about this, believe me).

The family vehicle isn't needed any more as 2 of our 3 kids have left home - so we no longer need a car that would accommodate them plus visitors/luggage (and anyway that's the one that's likely to be very expensive to repair).

The 'cheap to insure' vehicle is less critical now, as the child still at home will only be driving from March next year, so not independently for several months. We have a car, handed down, that is in good condition and runs, and it's more affordable for young-driver insurance than our previous main car.

So really the money we need to save here is MOT + tax + insurance + any repairs each year, which on 2 older vehicles (2004 and 2006) is quite a bit.

poggle99

@Flight3287462 - oh, and as to what's wrong with them: one needs at least 2 new tyres, and new shoes etc on the parking brake. The other one the list of likely repairs was so long that I've forgotten it!! The garage we took it to basically said they couldn't handle it and it would definitely need to go back to the dealer to have their proprietary diagnostics run on it, but they anticipated many hundreds of pounds of work.

Ebe_Scrooge

poggle99 said:

@Flight3287462 - oh, and as to what's wrong with them: one needs at least 2 new tyres, and new shoes etc on the parking brake.

What car is it?  Unless it's something sporty or with massive wheels, 2 new tyres won't cost much, especially if you're not looking for premium brands.  Brake shoes (by which I assume you have drums rather than discs on the rear) are similarly a simple job for any mechanic worth his salt (heck, I used to do them myself when I was a youngster).  If you can find a decent independent mechanic locally, surely it's got to be worth spending a couple of hundred quid (maybe less) to get it through the MOT and sell it as a runner?

Herzlos

It'd be worth looking at what the cars may be worth in good running order. I wouldn't be surprised if your £600 cat from 5 years ago is worth more than that now. It's mental, but there's basically nothing on autotrader under £1000 that's advertised as working.

poggle99

@Ebe_Scrooge we took it to our 'good local mechanic' for the second opinion and £512 was what they quoted us for the tyres plus brake shoes etc. But @Herzlos' point about re-sale value is a really good one that I hadn't considered. If we could spend £512 and then sell it for more than that, it would definitely be worth doing. Will research, thank you.

diystarter7

Herzlos said:

It'd be worth looking at what the cars may be worth in good running order. I wouldn't be surprised if your £600 cat from 5 years ago is worth more than that now. It's mental, but there's basically nothing on autotrader under £1000 that's advertised as working.

I was about to state similar, scrap prices depending on the size, IMO will get a lot more than the 50 someone stated

Just looked up values and found this

https://www.scrapcarcomparison.co.uk/scrap/car-scrap-value/

NB: Please do your research etc if you are wanting to use them but at least you may get a hassle free indication to compare

Thanks