Cars get old and worn down after years of abuse even when owners take extra precaution to care for them. Cars also depreciate faster than just about any other expensive item available to buy. That’s why when they start to fall apart they can be difficult to get rid of.
Knowing when to junk your car or not can also be a difficult process. It’s familiar, mostly reliable, and there’s no car payment. But what if your car is costing you money or worse, it’s illegal or unsafe to drive? You may need to start considering your options about how to unload it.
If you can’t even find someone to buy your old car, it’s probably time to junk your car. If there are one or more parts held together with Bondo or Duct Tape… Need we say more?
Keep reading for a few more reasons why you need to junk your car.
Repairs and Maintenance
You may be rolling along each week without a car payment on Ole Blue but have you thought about the repairs and maintenance that you’re paying for each month?
Engines and transmissions start to wear out around 150,000 miles. Automatic windows and even old-school roller windows can become slow and squeaky or fail to work at all. Repairs on even minor problems with your car can add up fast when it comes to finding the available parts, not to mention the labor.
You can also think about other mechanisms that will start to malfunction like door locks and seats that will no longer adjust. If you have a gas tank door or trunk lock or automatic locking keys that don’t work when you need them most, it’s probably time to junk your car.
Safety Rating
Older cars were not held to the same standards the newer vehicles are today when it comes to safety ratings and installed safety equipment. There were cars made even as late as the turn of the century and later that are driving around without airbags.
New technology and more airbags in vehicles made today are proven to keep you safe in the event of a serious accident. Driving a car without airbags is highly dangerous.
New cars are also manufactured with other functional safety mechanisms like Bluetooth technology that allows you to talk on your mobile device hands-free, or through your car stereo system. You can set GPS to take you where you need to go instead of getting lost on the wrong side of town.
If you’re trying to plug into old Audio ports and you’re sick of wires growing from the dashboard, it could be time to junk your car.
Growing Family
Maybe your old car isn’t even falling apart but you’ve settled down after college or you’re starting a new family and the 2-seater just won’t pull its weight anymore. You could keep the car in the garage but then it’s just sitting there taking up dust and probably costing money in the long run.
If you don’t need it for a trade in or maybe you don’t think the trade in value would be sufficient, you could junk your car.
Not all junk cars are broken and beat up and it’s just a smarter move to junk it than deal with the hassle of trying to sell it.
Resale or Trade Value
Once your car reaches 150,000 miles it’s going to be hard to sell and the trade-in value will drop significantly if you’re able to get anything for it at all.
No matter how well you’ve taken care of your vehicle, things are bound to start going wrong with high mileage and people (and dealers) know this will be expensive.
Junk your car and get cash for it and be done with it once and for all instead of hassling with a dealer or begging people to take it off your hands.
Social Status
Perhaps you’ve simply outgrown your old car.
If you’ve just started a new corporate job and you’re trying to ‘dress’ the part, it could be time to to get rid of that old car and step into something new and updated. Think about all the people you’re trying to impress and what they see when you pull up to the office in your old college sedan.
Rust
A little rust isn’t so bad. Maybe you bought the car to commute for a couple of years and you didn’t care about the small rust spots when you bought it. But now they’ve become an issue.
If there is rust taking over the undercarriage of your car, especially, it could be a sign of more troubling times to come. This is the support of your vehicle. You might also think about the fact that if the frame is rusting, there might be other functioning parts that are starting to rust or have rusted, too.
Get rid of your car before it becomes a junker. If it’s already rusted out, it really is a junker and you should be ready to let go.
Missing Title
There may be some reason you’ve obtained or inherited a vehicle with a missing title. The process by which to obtain a title for an old car can be lengthy and tedious, sometimes even costly. There comes a point when you have to decide if the vehicle is worth the time and effort.
It’s also illegal to sell a vehicle without a title so if you’re out of options, you could just junk your car.
Junk Your Car
There may be other various reasons you’re thinking about getting rid of your old car. Whatever the reason may be, you want to be confident that you’re disposing of it within the guidelines of the law. It would even be nice to make a couple of bucks on the deal.
It can be difficult to let go of an old vehicle. You two have been through so much together. But as time moves forward and you know it’s time to let go, make sure you do it right.
When you’re ready to junk your car, give us a call or email us! We’ll help you get rid of your car for cash.