From the moment a vehicle runs out of a dealership to when it is sent for scrap, it loses money. This is known as depreciation and is a fact of life for every car owner. You may be assessing your options as your current vehicle is at the end of that journey, and you may be wondering if you'll be able to get any money at all for this vehicle, given its age or condition. Yet, a scrap merchant may well take the car out of your hands and give you something you can put down as a deposit on a new one. However, you should always present the vehicle in a certain way to stand the best chance of success. What do you need to bear in mind?

Understanding The Scrap Car Process

Scrap dealers are naturally in the business of making money. They only have a certain amount of room on their compound and will only want to feel that space with an end-of-life vehicle if they are likely to earn a certain amount of money. They know that certain components are worth more than others, are likely to draw interest from other buyers, and won't be too interested if you've already removed those parts. Yet, you may think you can get the best of both worlds by stripping your car of its more valuable "bits" and selling the rest to the dealer.

Reasons To Pause For Thought

There are several potential issues with this approach.

Firstly, for example, you may still struggle to get a good price for an alternator. Intuitively, you may not know where to turn to sell the part and may not get as much interest or, by extension, a good return.

Secondly, if you take too many parts off the vehicle, it may no longer be movable, at least in the traditional sense. If it doesn't have any wheels, you may need a crane of some kind to lift the body onto a flat-top trailer, which could involve additional cost or complexity.

Lastly, if there is very little value left on the vehicle due to your stripping activities, don't expect a scrap car dealer to be too happy. Again, they may not want to take up some of the prime real estate on their compound with the shell of a vehicle that may not generate any real profit.

The Best Approach

So, before you take your spanner to your end-of-life car, get in touch with a scrap car for cash dealer first. It may be better for you to hand over the vehicle as it is for you to get the best return from the deal.