Different buyers will price your salvage vehicle differently. Depending on several factors, the price you sell your salvage car for can vary significantly. These factors include:
Year/Make/Model
Location
Regional Demand
Overall Condition
Asides from these, some buyers will price the parts of your vehicle differently depending on the local demand. Other buyers are more interested in taking select parts (such as the catalytic converter) and have not as much interest in the actual car itself.
Others are purely interested in scrap metal. As such, you might hear different price evaluations for your vehicle. Here at CarBrain.com, we offer you the best of all words: by getting an offer from us, your car will be exposed to bids from local buyers in your area.
You can then pick and choose who gives you the better deal. And that’s it. All of our offers come follow a simple, three step process:
Get your free quote! Simply enter some basic information about your car on our website and you’ll receive a free and guaranteed quote within 90 seconds.
Towing is complementary, so you’ll never have to worry about hidden or additional fees taking away from the profits you take home.
Schedule your pickup within 24-48 hours! If you’re happy with your quote, you’ll be able to schedule your vehicle retrieval with one of our partners within your area. They’re trusted to come to you at a time that works best for you.
Complete your sale! After a quick inspection and transferring of your title, you’ll receive the amount you were quoted, no haggling or fuss. Your vehicle is taken off your hands and money is put in them!
That’s it. It’s really super simple.
There’s plenty of companies that buy salvage cars. But there’s something that makes CarBrain.com unique. We tailor our offers specifically to your vehicle by incorporating several factors into the evaluation:
Vehicle Location
Vehicle Condition
Vehicle Year/Make/Model
Vehicle Mileage
Vehicle Size
If you go to a dealership with a car that’s been in an accident, they will typically offer you about 30-60 percent less than what they would have offered for a no-accident car. Once an accident is in your vehicle’s history, the dealership or car buyer will offer less even if the car has no long term damage. It’s almost like a mind game.
So how much can you get for your salvage vehicle? The best way to get an answer would be by using our pricing engine. We will inquire about the degree of damage (and the location of that damage), as well as any conditions related to the motor, or drivability of the vehicle.
Once you’re done with the process, which generally takes about 90 seconds, you’ll receive a highly accurate offer for your vehicle. If you’re happy with it, you can take the leap and sell your vehicle with CarBrain!
The most common places to get a quote for your salvage car and get a cash offer are junkyards and private buyers. Each of these options are interested in buying a car with mechanical damage and have their pros and cons depending upon how quickly you’re trying to sell your car, how much money you’re trying to make, and how much hassle you’re willing to put up with.
Junkyards — When looking for places that buy junk cars near you, local junkyards are the common choice.They will pay to ‘scrap’ your non running car which just means they will pay you for the value of the weight of the metal. They purchase them quickly, but they make their profit by buying low and reselling the usable parts.
Private Buyers — Private buyers aren’t restricted by pricing or any condition constraints. If your model is popular and in demand, someone will want it. Finding that person, however, can be a massive hassle; vetting serious candidates and haggling being chief amongst the most annoying portions of the process.
Choosing an option that accepts vehicles with any type of damage quickly with as little headache and as much profit for you as possible is critical. It’s in your best interest to know you’re selling your vehicle with a reputable and highly rated salvage car buyers.
Typically, a salvage car refers to a car with a salvage title. These are vehicles that have been declared total losses by an insurance company and given a salvage branding on their title.
Salvage brandings are typically permanent, which means once it is placed on a title, it can’t be removed. In some states, you can rebuild a salvage title car and get a rebuilt branding as well, but all future buyers will still know that the car was declared a total loss at one point.
Sometimes salvage title cars are junked, torn apart and recycled for their parts. Some, however, can be repaired and resold to someone who is willing to take on the risk (and the insurance bump) on a salvage title car.
Sometimes the term salvage car is used colloquially for a car that is at the end of its life, or has experienced damage but hasn’t received the salvage branding yet. It can also be applied to cars with major mechanical damage.
To best figure out a scrap car’s value, a calculator with 2022 scrap metal prices will help you out immensely.
The actual math for determining salvage car prices is pretty straightforward.
For all vehicles, depreciation will proceed at a predictable rate for the lifetime of the car.
After One Minute a brand new car will lose an average of 10% of its value the moment it is driven off of the dealership lot. That means a $30,000 vehicle is immediately worth $3,000 less once those wheels hit a public road.
After One Year a new car has suffered its biggest drop in value. Those first 12 months of ownership will result in a car being worth 20% less than what it was purchased for. That $30,000 car is now only worth $24,000.
After Five Years the car will have lost around 60% of its total value. The steep dip of the first year is replaced by a 15-25% depreciation each following year until the five year mark. That $30,000 is now worth $12,000.
For salvage vehicles, however, you also have to factor in additional wear and tear. A car’s salvage value is typically much lower than its used car value, especially if it’s no longer running.
Common Issues With Salvage Cars:
Broken Transmission
Dead Battery
Check Engine Light
Bad or Broken Brakes
Faulty Electrical Systems
Body Damage
Fuel System Issues
If a car has not been repaired after a major accident, it will only be worth 10%-50% of an equivalent used car’s value. Even if repaired, you’re still only likely to receive about 70% of its undamaged value.
I’m sure you’ve seen smashed cars somewhere, whether in person, on TV, or online. You can always call these salvage yards directly. While that might appear convenient, the downside is that typically, local scrapyards will not be interested in not more than the scrap value of your vehicle.
On the other side, there are self-service yards that will be interested in the individual parts of the vehicle. They might offer you a bit more, but it’s still right around the value of your car in scrap metal.
Salvage value is generally referred to as what insurance companies can sell the car for at public auctions. So — if a car is crashed, for example, the insurance company might decide that the repairs resulting from the accident exceed the market value of the car. This means that this particular car would be declared “totaled”.
If a car is totaled, typically the insurance company will retain the vehicle, and then head to an auction to try to sell it. This selling price is generally considered the “salvage value”.
On the other hand, scrap value is generally referred to as the weight of the car in scrap metal times the price per ton of scrap metal.
This might not be ideal if you have a car that is still in somewhat good condition, so it’s helpful to know what options are available for you in the marketplace.
CarBrain analyzes many facets of your car before making an offer for your vehicle. For example, where the car is, the wholesale worth of your car before the accident, the amount of damage or mechanical and electrical problems, the current market demand for your vehicle and its parts, its make, model, mileage and how old it is all play a vital role in deciding the value.
For example, there are cars, like an 18-year-old sedan that doesn’t start or run, won’t get the same offer as others, like a low-mileage two-year-old sports car with collision damage. Some vehicles fall in-between, like a high-mileage nine-year-old SUV with electrical problems.
There are no “book” values for damaged or salvage cars, but at CarBrain, we have over 30 years of experience in buying less-than-perfect vehicles. Our goal is to provide a well-rounded offer to every customer.
CarBrain is a free service. There are no charges for evaluations and offers. If you sell a car with CarBrain, we cover the costs for pick up and towing. We don’t like the practice of having hidden fees, so we don’t have any. When you sell your car to CarBrain, we pay you, not the other way around.
You are responsible for any repair expenses or storage fees incurred before selling the vehicle to CarBrain.
The insurer is required to prepare a thorough estimate of the damages and will be responsible for paying the vehicle’s owner this amount of money. Whether you repair the vehicle is honestly up to you. Once the insurance company determines how much they owe, CarBrain will then pay you the residual value of your damaged car prior to repairs.
The vehicle owner can receive two payments, one from the insurance company for the damage settlement and a second from CarBrain for the total salvage value of the vehicle. These amounts can then be combined to purchase a brand new vehicle. Repairing the banged up car isn’t always the best option.
We would be ecstatic to give you a solid offer for your junked or salvage car. We buy metal on wheels as long as they are less-than-perfect. Repairing your vehicle after an untimely accident can be an expensive, stressful, long and complicated process.
And, even after your car receives a solid job on the repair, it still will likely take a massive hit regarding value, to the tune of up to 32 percent. When it’s time to sell a car, up to 56 percent of people will not buy a previously damaged car. Selling your car to CarBrain may be a great option as opposed to repairing the vehicle. Submit your online request for an offer now.
To salvage a car, you need to do a few things. First, empty out the vehicle of your belongings. Then, start researching and contacting car salvage companies in your area for quotes. Many will be able to offer you a price over the phone. Once you have an offer you like, you should arrange to bring or tow the car to the company and get paid.
Some companies will leave the cost of towing to you. Others will make it difficult to get a guaranteed offer before you bring the vehicle in. CarBrain can provide you a guaranteed online offer for your salvage car, and even if your car is salvage, pickup with all our offers so you know you won’t have to pay a penny to sell your salvage car.
Yes! Whether you have a rebuilt Ford or a salvage Toyota, you can get an offer for it. The best place to do so is with CarBrain — we specialize in cars with problems, including salvage cars. It takes just 90 seconds to get an offer, and 24-48 hours to wait for the tow truck driver to arrive and get paid.
You can sell it to a junkyard, get a low trade-in value from a dealership, try to find an interested buyer in your area — or sell your salvage car online with CarBrain. All we need is information about your car to make an offer in 90 seconds. Pictures and the VIN can help us provide the best guaranteed offer, and our quotes are guaranteed for seven days.
Our fast and easy process is what makes us the best site for salvage cars and salvage car sellers. Find out what your car is worth today and sell it in 24-48 hours!
Typically, a car is declared a salvage when the insurer decides that the vehicle is a total loss. A vehicle is declared a total loss when the insurance company determines that the cost of repairing the vehicle is close to or exceeds the value of the vehicle before it was damaged.
For instance, if a car is worth $10,000 before it was involved in an accident, but requires close to $10,000 in repairs after an accident to return to running condition, an insurer may declare the vehicle a total loss and assign it a salvage title.
You can get anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars for a salvage car, depending on its year, make, model, mileage, current condition and more.
Is it repairable? Are there still usable parts that can be recycled? What size is it? All of this and more can affect what you get for your car. The easiest way to find out what it’s worth based on current market rates is to get an offer from CarBrain — it takes just 90 seconds to generate a quote.
You cannot drive a vehicle that has been issued a salvage title on public roads. It has been declared a total loss and is, therefore, unfit to share the road safely. In order to drive that vehicle, you would have to get the salvage title cleared.
If your totaled car has you in the market for a new car, you may be looking to find a dealership to complete the trade..
The amount you receive on a car you’ve traded in is influenced by if your car can quickly go onto the dealership’s used lot for sale. If not, they’ll be selling it for parts and giving you a fraction of what it’s worth. You may also have to pay to have your car towed to the dealership!
Dealerships specialize in roadworthy vehicles, which your salvage car is not. Expect a salvage title car’s value to be a lot lower than a clean title car.