Getting rid of a dead car

We had a catastrophic failure in a car with little value. I never been in this situation so I am not sure how to get rid of it.

Thoughts?

Call your local pick & pull to see if they're interested?

Look in your Yellow Pages, there should be a list of people who haul away junkers.

When we are tired of a car or it needs more fixing than we want to bother with we typically call Purple Heart for a donation. It is a very simple process and they will take non-runners in my experience. If you do not need that scrap value consider paying it forward to those who might...

Sometimes it can actually help out some people that could really use it; and I would be lying if I said that the tax right off isn't a consideration for us.

Is it worth less than scrap? Scrap it. Pull any parts that will sell for cheap on CG.

And if all those fail, you could always pull the plates and roll it onto street parking. (We had a person live with us a short time years ago & that was her solution, good or bad.)

What is it = Challenge car

Jerry wrote: And if all those fail, you could always pull the plates and roll it onto street parking. (We had a person live with us a short time years ago & that was her solution, good or bad.)

In the late 1970's guys would call these kind of cars; "Leavers". Pull the plates and "leave it".

Never make it nice since it's a "leaver".

O.K., I'll bite. What kind of car and what happened to it? Maybe someone here is looking for a LeMons/Chumpcar entry.

put it on CL, someone will want it

Scrap metal value is probably 300

what is it?

In addition to the Purple Heart there is also Heritage for the Blind. Google for your local group. They will come get a car/truck for free. Heritage for the blind contracts with local towing companies or towing companies provide free towing. They come get the vehicle and if it cannot be repaired they scrap it. If it can be repaired they have volunteers who work on vehicles that they then sell or provide to those that need transportation.

Friend of mine had a van that had not run in several years that heritage made arrangements to pick up. Simple process you call they ask a few questions and then come and get it. You do have to have a title for the vehicle. Its a win win for everyone, a donation to a good cause and you can write the valus of as a donation on your income tax.

junk guys on CL will pay you about 50% of what they get for it at the crusher. if it has no cat don't expect much out of them.

In reply to patgizz:

I was thinking list it as a parts car. Yeah CL scrappers around here normally give 1/2 of going rate as well.

i'll jump on the bandwagon: what kind of car, and what broke?

Put it on Craigslist as a parts or repair car, list at $700 or so for a compact, $900 for a full size, you'd be shocked. Prices have gone up a lot for beaters lately. I got $850 last spring for a late 90s Bonneville base model with a motor that had a nasty main rattle above ~2500rpm and no oil pressure at idle, with two bottles of STP in it. And the trunk had about 5 cans of great stuff foam filling all the huge rust holes. I don't think I had it listed more than a month.

last winter the early 90's escort died... it was more than I was willing to do for the car... called a few junkyards and had them out there in a few days handing me almost $450 to take away a car that didn't run and without the new battery I'd put in a few months earlier... all said and done I don't think I spent $50 a year to own that car outside of the cost of gas...

Kenny_McCormic wrote: Put it on Craigslist as a parts or repair car, list at $700 or so for a compact, $900 for a full size, you'd be shocked. Prices have gone up a lot for beaters lately. I got $850 last spring for a late 90s Bonneville base model with a motor that had a nasty main rattle above ~2500rpm and no oil pressure at idle, with two bottles of STP in it. And the trunk had about 5 cans of great stuff foam filling all the huge rust holes. I don't think I had it listed more than a month.

I did this with a '97 LeSabre. Same foam in the same spot of the trunk. Far too rusty to put more money into. I figured I could get $400 easy for scrap and the newish tires were worth $200 selling themselves. The car did not run of unknown origin (believed to manifold gasket issues.) I listed it for $900. One week later it left for $600. I had rationed to the guy he could always get his money back with $400 in scrap and $200 selling the tires.

Scrap value is about 12 cents a pound right now. Do the math. 4000 pound car works out to $480. Don't know about you guys, but that sounds like a fair amount of cash in my pocket to drag a junk car to the scrap yard on my trailer. I'm sure there is a scrap guy on your local CL willing to take that off your hands. There are people who have turned this type of work into a profession. They will pull the radiators, the cats, alloy wheels, the battery, and anything else that has extra value above and beyond 12 cents a pound. I don't have any work lined up today, so the day is going to be spent cleaning up the last months worth of scrap my plumbing job has created. Have a boiler, a couple of water heaters, a well tank and another 500 pounds or so of steel. Also have a couple hundred pounds of copper pipes at $2.70 a pound.

Not that I need another project but what is it?

I mean I'm just curious, I can quit whenever I want.

I only look at cars because I want to look, it's not like some sort of compulsion...

WHAT KIND OF CAR IS IT!?

I used junkmycar dot com... I gave a description of my car, was given an offer and sent a tow truck in a couple of days with a check.

If you're giving it away to charity or junkman, I think they're going to want a title with it.

I feel like this thread was some sort of sick social experiment, meant only to prove the ridiculousness of our collective addiction/habit.

Or some E36 M3.

But hey, what kind of car is it? And where are you? I have a truck and a trailer.

Whatever you do, don't tell us what kind if car it is.