How to Make Money on Your Old Junk Car

This is worth cash.

Even though Cash for Clunkers is over, you can still make money on that junk car of yours even if it's not running. Instead of dumping your old car or letting it rust in the driveway, get rid of it in any of these four ways and make some cash.

Instructions

1. SELL IT FOR SCRAP. Scrap metal prices have doubled in the past two years. Selling to the junkyard is an easy way to get rid of your old car because they will take it "as is." Even if the car won't start, many of the junk yards will come take it away and pay you cash to do so. The price that you will get for your junker depends on the condition of the car and how many parts they can resell. The more usable parts, the more money you'll get. To find a scrap yard in your area, search the internet for buyers of old cars like JunkACar.com or check your local phone book under "Auto Salvage Yards." Be sure to include your state if you're searching on the internet. Call the salvage yard and ask them to give you an estimate on how much your junker is worth. They'll want to know the year, make, model and condition.

2. SELL IT TO A DEMOLITION DERBY DRIVER. Cash for Clunkers did not make demolition drivers happy. That's because the cars that they usually buy to destroy at their derby events were taken out of commission by the government buy-out. But even now that the program is over, it is hard for them to find cars because of the high price of scrap metal. Therefore demolition derby drivers are more willing to pay a higher price for the right car. But what if your car doesn't have all of its parts? Broken windows? No problem. They take them out anyway. Missing doorhandles, knobs, tires, air conditioning? Doesn't matter. All of it gets striped in a derby car. If you want to sell your car for a demolition derby, check out the online demolition derby classifieds (www.derbygear.com/)

3. SELL THE PARTS. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole. Ever hear that in school? Well, in this case it's true. The parts of your junker are worth more than your whole car put together and if you have the time and tools to take your car apart and list each piece for sale, you can make a lot more money than if you sold your car whole. Go online to Ebay.com, craigslist.com or look for the classified sections of websites that exclusively buy and sell autos and auto parts like www.automotix.net/autopartsclassifieds.html and start making some cash.

4. DONATE IT. If none of those options appeal to you, you can always donate your old car to charity. Just keep in mind, that you can take a write off on your taxes, but it's not immediate cash in hand. If you say the car is worth $4000, then on average you will be getting approximately $1000 taken off the taxes you owe. If you're getting a tax refund, you will have to wait until April to get it. Weight the value of the car going to scrap versus donating it and see which will make you more money.

Resources

• Sell auto parts
• Sell to a Demolition Derby
• Sell junk cars