Scrap Car Prices
A scrap car is bought as material, not as a vehicle, so what you are paid comes down to how much metal it contains and what that metal is trading for on the day you sell. Enter your registration above and the current figure for your car comes back in under a minute.
How the price is worked out
Take the kerb weight, apply the current scrap steel rate, adjust for what can actually be recovered, and that is your quote. Condition barely features. The car that failed its MOT on corrosion and the car that drove itself to the yard contain the same tonnage of steel, so they are worth close to the same money.
This is the most expensive misunderstanding in the market. People assume a non-runner is nearly worthless, take the first offer they are given, and lose a hundred pounds or more doing it. A seized engine, a failed gearbox or a rotten floorpan changes remarkably little about what the shell weighs.
Kerb weight for your exact model is printed on the V5C and in the owner's handbook, and it varies between trim levels of the same car, so the figure on your own paperwork is the one that counts.
What moves the number
Beyond the shell, a handful of components carry real recoverable value. The catalytic converter is the significant one, since it contains platinum, palladium and rhodium, and removing it before collection will cost you considerably more than you would get selling it separately. The battery and alloy wheels each add a little. Aluminium panels add value per kilo while reducing overall weight.
In the other direction, anything already stripped out comes off the price. A car missing its engine and gearbox is missing a large share of its weight, and the quote reflects that.
Why prices move month to month
Scrap steel is a traded commodity, so its price shifts with construction demand, energy costs at the mills, and how many end-of-life vehicles are coming through the system. A figure quoted in March can be honestly different from one quoted in September on the same car.
No buyer can publish a fixed price list and stand behind it indefinitely. What a decent one can do is guarantee your figure once you have accepted it, so nothing moves between booking and collection.
Comparing quotes properly
Compare what actually reaches your account. A headline that is £30 higher is not the better offer if collection turns out to cost, the price is subject to inspection, payment arrives a fortnight later, or the buyer is unlicensed and no Certificate of Destruction is coming.
Quoting high to win the booking and then dropping the price at the roadside is a known tactic, and it works because the car is already on the truck and starting again is a nuisance. Get the quote in writing, confirm it is guaranteed rather than an estimate, and do not hand over the V5C until the agreed amount is confirmed. No legitimate buyer will object to any of that.
When salvage beats scrap
Condition finally matters here. If a car can be economically repaired, or has parts with genuine resale demand, a salvage buyer will pay more than a scrap yard will. That usually means vehicles under ten years old without structural damage, plus classics and rare models at any age.
Everything else is worth more as metal. Our quote prices both routes and returns the higher of the two, so the judgement is not yours to make.
Common questions about scrap prices
Can I keep my private number plate?
Yes, but you must retain it before the car is collected. Apply to the DVLA to transfer the registration onto a retention certificate, which takes a few days. Once a vehicle has been scrapped and a Certificate of Destruction issued, the plate is gone permanently and cannot be recovered.
Does mileage affect the scrap value?
No. Mileage changes what a car is worth to a buyer who wants to drive it, not what the shell weighs. A vehicle with 30,000 miles and one with 180,000 miles fetch the same scrap price if they are the same model, because the recoverable metal is identical.
Are alloy wheels worth removing and selling separately?
Rarely. Alloys add a modest amount to the quote, and removing them means the car arrives on steel wheels or none at all, which reduces the offer. Unless you have a genuine buyer lined up at a good price, leaving them on is usually the better outcome.
Why is my quote lower than a friend got for the same car?
Most often timing. Scrap steel is a traded commodity and the rate moves week to week, so identical cars sold months apart fetch different figures. Missing components, particularly the catalytic converter, also account for a large share of the difference between two apparently similar vehicles.