Getting rid of a car… sell or scrap? Advice please?

camf

So I’ve finally bought another car and now I need to get rid of my 13 year Old Ford Focus Estate. It’s been a decent car but it’s always had an intermittent problem that meant it would sometimes stall when idling. Happily it always started straight away but it was annoying and potentially dangerous when it happened. It wasn’t really related to the engine being cold or properly warmed up and several mechanics looked at it but couldn’t find a cause and nothing showed up on the diagnostics. 

Anyway, despite having a newish clutch and exhaust and under 90000 miles and running fine, we don’t want to sell it privately when we know there’s a fault. It’s also had some paint scrapes and there’s some moisture in one of the headlights that could also need replacing (although it got through a recent MOT). 

The usual suspects like We Buy Any Car would probably offer us less than the scrap/salvage companies so we think we might just go that route, despite it being a decent car that someone might get a year or two out of it they were a bit handy (or desperate for an estate car). So, any advice? What would you do? Is there anything we need to know before scrapping it or do you just drive up there and ask for money?

WezV

you can compare quotes onlne for both we by any car and scrap companies.  i used car.co.uk a few years ago to scrap one. It was all pretty painless, I got a price that seemed fair to me

ewal

I think you should take it down to a beach, maybe Portobello, and drive it in to the Forth. A much more dramatic ending, fitting for an artistic man like you.

ewal

Sorry. That was in no way helpful 

camf

ewal said:

I think you should take it down to a beach, maybe Portobello, and drive it in to the Forth. A much more dramatic ending, fitting for an artistic man like you.

Album cover right there. (Haven’t you work to be doing?

camf

WezV said:

you can compare quotes onlne for both we by any car and scrap companies.  i used car.co.uk a few years ago to scrap one. It was all pretty painless, I got a price that seemed fair to me

Cheers. Will maybe give that a go. 

ewal

Listening in to a conference, eating my pieces while annoying you on the Fretboard. That's work!

camf

I’m guessing them pieces will be more interesting than the conference. 

fastonebaz

Westbury car auctions.  Costs £50 and you have no liability.  Sold as seen. 

Haych

Personally I would list it on eBay/Gumtree as spares or repair.  Be up front and honest about the faults, but don't dumb down the good bits, you may be surprised what you get for it.

A few years ago my wife's old Fiesta packed up, gearbox decided to throw a wobbler.  I told her we'd repair it but she insisted on replacing it.  We listed it on eBay as spares/repair and got about £500 for it, and it had quite a few other faults as well.

Some chap came and collected it on a low loader, I'm convinced he was a breaker and wanted it for parts.  He was happy, we were happy and got rid of the car.

I also sold a crappy old Citroen Picasso thing as spares/repair on eBay.  Got £750 for it!

robgilmo

These days scrap value can be worth more than the car if the repair is uneconomical, there are loads of people outy there who cant afford a car but need one, I see it often on facebook etc.
The stalling thing could easily be fixed by someone with a bit of know how and some time, paying a garage probably wouldnt be economical.

With this in mind you have two options, sell it with the fault listed, ask for offers, facebook market place or any groups associated with your neighbourhood.

Put it on EBay with a reasonable reserve or starting price again listing the fault.

Get the scrap value to guide your pricing.

Snags

I'd sell it privately, but be honest about the intermittent stalling issue in the advert and price it accordingly. Someone will take it, and may well even get it sorted. And if you haven't hidden the issue, no harm no foul.

If it cuts out when you're doing 70 down the dual carriageway that's different, but if it just occasionally craps out at tickover, not so much.

I recently sold a C-Max of similar vintage and higher mileage that had a few minor issues: mixture of cosmetic and mechanical, but nothing actively dangerous. Disclosed them all in the advert, reiterated them all to the bloke who bought it, and he was delighted to get a car that should last him a few more years with no major expense for not a huge amount of money.

bobblehat

Stick it on Facebook with the faults listed. My nephew does up old houses and often needs a run about for trips to the tip,picking up building supplies etc. He buys unloved crappy estates or people carriers that have an MOT for a few hundred quid and scraps them when he's finished the job.

Gassage

Use it to deliver a wonderful Martin to a wonderful fretboarder as its last task and bury her at sea.

camf

Gassage said:

Use it to deliver a wonderful Martin to a wonderful fretboarder as its last task and bury her at sea.

All true!

bertie

last time we took a car to be scrapped,  about 15 years ago  - we had to pay them !!  seriously

camf

Thanks everyone. I’m checking various sites and seriously considering the advice re Gumtree/Facebook Marketplace. 

bluecat

Sounds like fuel filter to me with those symptoms,replace said filter , sell as a runner. Must get you more money than scrap value. Simples.

Chris.B

A number of years ago my wife's ageing Fiesta failed it's MOT for a number of reasons.  

Rather than go through the potential troubles of selling an MOT failure we gave it to one of the charities who recycle and scrap old cars. 

The charity took the car away, solving a problem for us and we later got an email stating the amount raised for charity. 

I can't remember which one we used but there a number coming up with a Google search.

snowblind

Try WBAC. Their prices have gone up over the last couple of years. I sold them a BMW estate which, although I'd fixed all its faults, I knew was just looking for another excuse for some expensive repairs. I didn't have the heart to sell it to a real human being so although I took a loss on it they did give me more than the £50 type sums they'd been offering in previous years. 

Generally anything with a year's MoT on it is worth money to someone. 

And seconded on the suggestion that the fault is a fuel delivery issue. Not sure of the details of your car but that can be a symptom of bubbles getting into the fuel lines. I'd be surprised if there wasn't some kind of diagnostic error stored somewhere. Not like we're talking a Capri here.

ICBM

WBAC prices are shit on old low-value cars. I sold my old Renault Scenic to an independent dealer for twice what WBAC offered, and even that was probably half what I could have got for it privately if I’d been willing to accept the hassle of selling it myself. It was perfectly mechanically sound too, just a couple of minor issues.