Larger businesses typically lease their fleet, but smaller businesses may find that buying outright and maintaining a car throughout its life can be a more cost-effective approach to business transport. But taking this approach means there will come a time when the car comes to the end of its useful life. And unless you’re a professional mechanic or a leading economist specialising in scrap metal markets, it can be a major challenge to work out the approximate scrap value of the car. When deciding to dispose of an asset like a company car, it’s essential to generate the most revenue possible.
Happily, in the digital age, modern services like Scrap Car Network are making things easier for everyday drivers. They can give you an online valuation instantly — all you need to do is enter your car reg and postcode onto their homepage, and the entire process takes as little as ten seconds. But these valuations aren’t arbitrary — their calculations take into account some very significant factors that affect the scrap value of your car, and the price you’ll get for it.
Your car’s size and weight
This is undeniably one of the most pivotal factors in determining the value of your scrap car. The heavier a car is, the higher its scrap value will typically be. This is mostly because larger cars naturally have greater amounts of scrap metal in them, which can be re-used or sold by scrapyards. By the same token, smaller and lighter cars present smaller resources for scrapyards to utilise, so you’ll get less money for them than bigger models.
The make of the car and its exact model
This one is broadly common sense too; the latest models and premium brands tend to reflect their higher price tags when the time comes to scrapping them. (Good news if you paid a lot of money for your car!) Depreciation also plays a major part too. According to industry experts, mainstream production cars generally lose about 60% of their new price over the course of 3 years. In fact, the majority of cars tend to lose the bulk of their value within the first three to five years after their sale. After eight years have passed though, this depreciation slows to more or less a stop. Premium brands like Land Rover and Maserati manage to retain their value better than budget brands such as Mazda.
If it’s had parts removed
Individual car parts can hold quite a lot of value in themselves, such as the engine or the catalytic converter. Plus, taking certain parts off the car can make it lighter, and we’ve already covered how this can lower its value. Taking parts off seriously impacts the value it holds for the scrapyard, and therefore the price they’re willing to pay you for it. Unless you’ve got a professional level of mechanical knowledge (and the sales skills along with them), it’s generally not worth it.
Obviously, these won’t initially affect online valuations, but in almost all cases you’ll find scrapyards clearly stating that if they find parts have been removed, it’ll affect the price they offer you.
The overall scrap metal market
This is obviously the factor you have the least control over. In the age of globalised trade, the value of your scrap car is heavily dependent on the international prices of recycled steel, copper and aluminium. Therefore, the timing of when you scrap your car can often have an impact on its price. However, unless you’re willing to do some serious research into the process (and in many cases, the time you put in probably won’t be worth the incremental gain it gets you), it’s generally not something to worry about.
Although it can be advantageous to have a general knowledge of what sort of prices affect the scrap value of your car, you’ll usually only have direct control over one or two of them, so they’re not anything to get too stressed over. Where you live is also a factor, which is why companies like Scrap Car Network will ask for your postcode along with your car reg — so they can get you the very best price for your scrap car.
