Getting Reasonable Money for a Junker

What is the best way to get a reasonable money for an old car you want to dispose of. In this case, it's an old minivan with a bit too much rust and enough small-to-medium problems to just not be worth the effort to me to fix. Most significantly, a strut tower is completely rusted through and it has a transmission leak.

I know that best money would be going through the effort to sell it private party, but I do NOT want to deal with the headache of cheapasses on FB/CL to get a few more dollars. I don't want to spend the time or take up the space to part it out in my driveway for a couple hundred more dollars.

I want to deal with one party and either drop it off or have it driven away and get a semi-reasonable sum of money.

Carmax gave me a $600 offer, but when I took it in dropped it to $300 citing rust. No E36 M3. You were selling this for scrap anyway.

Other online "we buy any car" places have given me offers of $450, and they'll haul it away. Only caveat is that, here in Ohio, the title needs to be witnessed by a notary. Place I talked to last night gave me a location to get the title notarized for free.

Am I likely to get more than $450 if I drive it up to a dismantler? Or is this the best I can expect?

I don't desperately need another $150, but I'm not going to pass that up if it will only cost me an extra hour or two of my time.

Try copart?  Not sure how high their offer will be but I bet they're less discerning than carmax when it comes to the actual condition of the thing.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Try copart?  Not sure how high their offer will be but I bet they're less discerning than carmax when it comes to the actual condition of the thing.

That is who the $450 offer is from.

Hmm.  Then yeah, the only way I could see easily getting more than that is if one of your local junkyards has a "if it drives through the gate we give $X" type deal.

At least one of my local junkyards will give you a quote over the phone and there's really no squabbling over condition.  Might not hurt to give at least one place a ring on the jingle machine and see what they'd offer.

I'd take the $450 and run. You may get another $100 if you haul it yourself but it's not worth the hassle if you don't have the equipment to do it. 

You could try Edison's or Woodys on McKinley but I doubt they would be over $450.

I think the $450.00 offer is pretty generous. I'd take that in a heartbeat.

Toyman! said:

I'd take the $450 and run. You may get another $100 if you haul it yourself but it's not worth the hassle if you don't have the equipment to do it. 

Car drives and can make it across town fine. Just a question of which pothole is going to eventually send the strut through the hood. If I can get an extra $100 by having my wife follow me to a yard and drive me back after, that's arguably worth it.

But otherwise, my suspicion was that any extra money would not be worth the time/hassle.

In reply to Beer Baron :

For little to no effort to sell the car, I too think the $450 offer is kinda generous.

I scrapped a f150 yesterday in Ohio, got $461. 

Check to see if the catalytic converter(s) are worth significantly more than $450.  If not, take the $450 and run.  

Read this section. Now read it again from the perspective of a potential buyer. How much would you pay? I bet it's less than $500

Beer Baron said:

it's an old minivan with a bit too much rust and enough small-to-medium problems to just not be worth the effort to me to fix. Most significantly, a strut tower is completely rusted through and it has a transmission leak.

I have always received the best price for junkers on Peddle, but the last one I junked was over a year ago.

Is it a 3.6? I think that engine would be a good challenge car implant in the rear of something 

chandler said:

Is it a 3.6? I think that engine would be a good challenge car implant in the rear of something 

3.8

You could part it out I suppose.  Engine/trans is probably worth $300 to someone.  Seats any good?  Catalyst is a good thing to check.  See what you can get for em.

There are likely several things you can strip from it that will bring money but won't reduce the scrap value by the same margin.

You might take a swing at listing it as a driver.  I know when I was 18 and going to college, this would have tripped my radar.  Fix the strut tower and rivet on some aluminum sheet to cover the holes, and I would have a decent starter car and shaggin waggin in the fall when I went off to university.

Make a youtube channel with 1000 followers (we'll help/follow) get a helmet and neck roll and jump it until it dies. Take the $200-250 you get for it at that point and see if you get a few hundred dollars from monitization over the next few years. 

Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

Make a youtube channel with 1000 followers (we'll help/follow) get a helmet and neck roll and jump it until it dies. Take the $200-250 you get for it at that point and see if you get a few hundred dollars from monitization over the next few years. 

This makes the most logic sense, really. 

Do you live reasonably close enough to another state that doesn't require a notary to sell a car?

Uncle David (Forum Supporter) said:

Do you live reasonably close enough to another state that doesn't require a notary to sell a car?

Already got the title notarized. The exchange of title doesn't have to happen at the notary. Only the seller needs to get their signature notarized before sale.

In reply to Beer Baron :

That might not matter.  Importing states follow the rules of the seller's state.  PA is a notary-required state.  If I buy a car in NJ, the title doesn't have to be notarized... because NJ doesn't require it.  Notarizing a state document that doesn't require notarization is kinda not possible.  There has to be a notary spot on a document  If there isn't, it's just a random stamp.  If I buy a car in NC which is a notary state, I have to have it notarized there because both states require notarization.

If you sell it to a non-notary state, it doesn't matter if it's notarized since they don't require it.  Every state is different, but call the DMV of your closest states and verify what is needed.

Having said that... I'm curious what Uncle David is going to suggest.

Uncle David (Forum Supporter) said:

Do you live reasonably close enough to another state that doesn't require a notary to sell a car?

As someone who has lived in idaho for his adult life I forget that you need a notary for car sales.

In Idaho we just each sign a potato and swap them.

I've got scheduled for it to be picked up Monday morning. I have the title notarized and ready to go.

I may or may not take photos and list it on FB to see if someone will give me $600+ this weekend, but I probably won't put in the effort.