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For many years, I worked full-time at a local shop in Columbus, Ohio. During that time, there was always a customer ready to move on to a new car for one reason or another. Depending on the situation, if they suggested hauling their old ride to the junkyard, we’d encourage them to try several other avenues first.

Sending cars straight to scrap saddens me to my core. Sure, I’m a car person, but it truly can be a waste of many useful machines with some life left in them. Enthusiast emotions aside, alternatives to immediately scrapping can actually benefit you and your community.

Why you shouldn’t just junk a car without pause:

  • Junkyards only pay “scrap value”
  • Someone else might need it
  • An enthusiast may want it

Scrapyards pay hardly anything to take a vehicle off your hands. I’ve seen offers range from 50 bucks to a couple hundred, even if the car runs and drives well. It’s just the standard business model. The yard often covers the tow and then has to store the vehicle – possibly for years – while it parts out the car.

In theory, then, you’d get a lot more cash if you sold it yourself to a private party or even a dealership.

Case in point:

We have a 2004 BMW 325i. It’s an E46…a beloved Beemer platform in certain circles. It has a manual transmission. It runs and drives great. For kicks, I got an instant offer from Peddle. The service is known to provide drivers an easy “out” for used cars that folks feel are ready for the junkyard. It’s similar to Copart.

Peddle asked me whether I had the keys and a clean, lien-free title, if the 325i had all its wheels and inflated tires, whether it runs and drives, and how the interior and exterior condition looked. In the end, Peddle offered $250. Keep in mind that this is my husband’s daily driver.

I’m not saying Peddle is doing everyone dirty, of course. It has great customer reviews and has its place.

However, if you junk or otherwise “off” a good running car from your area just because it’s old, you might be inadvertently removing a cheap vehicle from the market that someone in the community could really use. 

For years, our shop partnered with a charity program wherein folks would donate their “junk” cars to be inspected and then gifted to those in need of personal transportation. Sending all those cars to scrap would have left dozens without the opportunity to use them.

Back to my enthusiast soap box, my husband once drove a mid-90s Honda Civic. It lost power steering, which would have been expensive to fix (IYKYK). The odometer broke at 197,000 miles…years before. However, we listed it on Craigslist and someone came by. They were absolutely giddy to pay our low price with information on the vehicle’s condition up front. 

What would have been maybe $125 in scrap turned into much more cash for our household. Moreover, it gave another driver looking for a cheap 90s-era Honda exactly what they wanted.

The E46 will be no different.

Don’t ever send a car to the junkyard before trying 3 alternatives:

If the car runs and doesn’t need major repairs… 

  • List it for a fair market price on the used car market.
  • Check with family and friends. Who knows who might be interested in it?
  • Offer it to a local charity.

If the vehicle requires a major repair…

  • List it for a fair market price and explain its issue(s) up front. Someone might want it anyway.
  • Call local shops and see if they’re interested in it. They might be able to fix it cheaply and keep the car going.
  • Consider parting out easy-to-remove components and listing them on Facebook Marketplace before calling a junkyard.

When it comes to parting out a car yourself, start easy. Think side mirrors, headlamps and taillights, seats, the center console, glovebox, and even body panels like the front and rear bumpers, fenders, hood, and trunk. Some folks move on to door panels, visors, and other niche parts. These components bolt on take just basic skill. There could be a decent market for engine parts, too, but be aware of the technical skills needed to properly remove them.

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Of course, if the vehicle is unsafe to drive, repairs aren’t within reason, and you can’t physically part it out, it could be time to send it off to car heaven. At a junkyard, the operation will either immediately process it as scrap metal or part it out themselves.

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