How much is my junk car worth?

A car nobody wants to drive is still worth money, and the number is less mysterious than it looks. Buyers are working out what they can recover from it as parts, as scrap steel, or as a car somebody else will fix, then subtracting what it costs to go get it.

The four things that actually move the number

Weight and metal. A car that is only worth its materials is priced by the ton. That is why a full-size pickup or a big SUV is worth noticeably more dead than a compact sedan in the same condition — there is simply more of it.

Which parts survive. The catalytic converter is usually the single most valuable piece on a scrapped car, and on some models it is worth several hundred dollars by itself. Alternators, starters, wheels, and an intact set of body panels all add up. This is also why a car that has already been picked over is worth less than one that is merely broken.

Whether it is worth fixing. If the car runs, drives, and has a repair story somebody would take on, it stops being a scrap car and starts being a cheap used car. That is a different, higher number.

Where it is. Every offer has a tow built into it. A car in a driveway ten minutes from a buyer is worth more than the same car two hours out, because someone has to pay for that drive.

Rough ranges, honestly

• A small non-running sedan with the converter intact: usually a few hundred dollars.
• A full-size pickup or SUV, not running: typically several hundred, sometimes more.
• A car that still runs and drives, even badly: normally over a thousand, and it climbs fast with condition.
• A car stripped of its converter and wheels: near the bottom, occasionally at the floor.

Ranges are a sanity check, not a quote. Two identical-looking cars can differ by hundreds because one has a converter and one does not.

Two things that cost people money

The first is describing the car optimistically. An offer built on "runs fine" that meets a car which does not start is an offer that gets rewritten in the driveway, and that is the worst possible moment to find out. Say it is dead if it is dead — the number comes back lower and stays there.

The second is paying for towing. If a buyer takes their fee out of your payment when the truck arrives, that is a lower offer wearing a costume. Free pickup should mean the number you agreed to is the number you receive.

Get the real number

Ranges only get you so far. Tell us the year, make, model, mileage and honest condition and you will have an actual figure in about two minutes — one that holds for seven days. Get your offer, or read about selling a car that will not start if that is where you are.