Anyone sold a car to a junk yard recently?

[homer]

I have a 95 Jeep Wrangler with a blown engine. It still runs but only on two cylinders so it tops out at about 30mph. It's got about 90,000 miles on it. The repair shop said it would be between $1500 and $2500 to fix it - basically they said it needs a new engine. A guy at the shop offered to buy it from me and I'm just curious if junking it would give me more money or not ( asked the guy what he wanted to pay and he said "A couple hundred bucks. 200, 300, 400, 500" really, that's what he said). Anyone sold a car to a junk yard recently? How much do they normally pay? I will call around before responding to this guy but I wanted to see what experiences others had with this.

[mothershipconnection]

After searching craigslist for similar cars, it seems you'd come out way ahead by fixing and selling it.

[Teatoe993]

The price of scrap metal is up these days but the price fluctuates frequently. I'd say a salvage yard would give you $200 minimum if you brought it there. You might be able to get another hundred or two possibly, but I doubt it considering a Jeep is pretty light and doesn't have as much metal as a normal SUV would. I manage an auto shop myself and we often will purchase vehicles that owners don't want to put money into. Usually we'll give a hundred or two more than what a salvage yard would pay out. We're able to fix that vehicle cheaper that what the customer would have to pay. Then we can turn around and sell it for profit or keep it or whatever. If it were me who was offering to purcahse the Jeep, I'd probably offer you around $400. You could pay to have it fixed and then try to sell it afterwards but some people don't want to go through the hassle. It's up to you. Hope this info helps you out.

[homer]

I think I'm going to get a second opinion on the repairs. I checked Yelp and there's a place not far from me that comes very highly rated and apparently the guys are Jeep junkies.

 

Thanks for the info guys. And Teatoe - I think that's what this guy wants to do - make the repairs himself and then re-sell the car. Can't fault him for that.

[Gobias Industries]

I'm guessing you could sell it for $2000 on craigslist even with the blown motor as long as you state BLOWN MOTOR clearly in the ad.

 

Wrangler's have a huge following, and that's very low miles.

 

Junk price was up to $600 a month back, but when I junked one last week I only got $400. As teatoe said, it fluctuates.

[Houlie24x]

I sold a Wrangler 2 years ago that was around the same year for 1800. It was rolled over and didn't run. I got a ton of calls on it too. I would suggest putting it on craigslist. You will be surprised at how many calls you get and how much people are willing to pay for it especially if its really clean.

[homer]

I think I'm going to get a second opinion on the repairs. I checked Yelp and there's a place not far from me that comes very highly rated and apparently the guys are Jeep junkies.

So I finally got around to taking my Jeep to this place. Good guys. He's convinced it doesn't need a new engine but it's still going to cost me a grand to get it fixed. So I'm saving $500 - $1500, get to keep my car, and can sell it and make my money back in a year. All in all, I'm not too upset.

[RockCoCougars]

You made a wise decision. Never take a 'blown engine' diagnosis as the gospel, especially on a Jeep- those engines usually run forever. I'd always be suspicious if someone gave me such a dire diagnosis for my vehicle, and then wanted to buy it from me. You were wise to drag that thing somewhere else.