When the time comes to get rid of a car for any reasons, it’s natural to immediately think about the available avenues for selling the thing. Realistically speaking, no car owner likes the idea of seeing their investment ending up on a scrap heap or being cut to shreds in order to be recycled. Whether it comes down to financial reasons or those of pure sentimentality, it’s something of a no-brainer for most that selling is really the only option on the cards.
However, when you actually break both options down to their fundamentals, it turns out that the seemingly unthinkable could in many instances be the more agreeable of the two. 
Consider for example:
Selling Costs
So right off the bat comes the fact that selling a car is never free and very rarely cheap either. Sellers have to pay not only to list their cars, but also to keep their vehicles running until a buyer is found. As such, the longer it takes to sell any given car, the more it ends up costing and the lower the eventual return.
By contrast, with scrapping it’s a much simpler case of agreeing on a price instantly with the company interested in your car, who can then pay the seller immediately with zero costs incurred. If the car has seen better days, this could be the better option by far.
Potential for Failure
And then of course there’s the small matter of whether or not the car will in fact sell at all. You could leave it on the market for a week, a month or a year, but if there’s no call for it or it’s not in the best condition, it’s a bit like banging your head against a brick wall…and an expensive one at that.
Recycling centres on the other hand will take any car in an instant and pay the best possible price for it – the whole transaction can be completed the very same day.
On-going Hassle
When you sell a car that’s far from showroom-quality, there’s always a rather worrying chance that it will clap out on the new owner and they will take their frustration out on you. It’s common to be hassled by the buyers of used cars who seem to have expected an unreasonably brilliant piece of kit for the £50 they invested in the thing – an additional headache nobody would ask for.
The alternative is to recycle the car and never hear another word on the subject – end of story!
Uncertain Future
And finally, you might want to sell your cute little rust bucket for the sake of not sending it to its grave, but it’s not like you can stop the new owner from doing exactly that. Delaying the inevitable makes no sense at all when you’re looking at a car that’s old, rather haggard and perhaps even a bit unsafe – certainly of no real benefit to the environment.
So really, it could be better to do the right thing off your own bat and recycle the thing in the most responsible manner possible, which is a considerably easier job to tackle.
