When the time comes to get rid of an old car you just cannot be doing with anymore, chances are there will only be two things on your mind – getting rid of it and getting the best price. It’s never nice to just chuck something that still has some value in it away and get nothing back for it, which is of course why at any one time the UK resale market is flooded with a million and one cars that are from a driver’s perspective neither use nor ornament.
But here’s the thing – every day there are thousands of successful sales where drivers pass on their old cars to new buyers and make at least something for their efforts. It may be a grand or it may be just a few quid, but they get rid of the car and find themselves with a bit of pocket money. Sadly though, what so few drivers seem to take into consideration when doing so is the kind of thing everyone should really be taking responsibility for – safety. 
Now, you might argue that it’s the responsibility of the car’s owner to have it checked out and make sure it’s safe to drive before taking it out on the roads, which in a technical sense is correct. However, this doesn’t mean that there’s really any excuse for selling on a car that you yourself know probably isn’t the safest set of wheels to say the least and failing to tell the new buyer of your concerns. It’s more than a little easy and in some cases tempting to hid a thousand sins from the car’s front to rear, but in doing so you really have no idea what kind of jeopardy you’re putting the health and safety of the new driver in.
There’s a simple way of looking at the situation – you just have to ask yourself whether or not you’d be happy to let your partner or your kids drive around in the car on a busy UK road. If the answer is no, then technically you should not even think about selling it on to someone else for the use of them and their family. Why is it fair to put their safety at risk if you’re not happy to do the same yourself? If and when you honestly deem a car not fit for road use anymore, the only realistic way of selling it is for spares or repair. Nobody bothers to repair knackered old cars these days as there’s not value in them. And when it comes to selling for spares, you’ll be lucky to get any more for the car than you spent on listing it.
When a car has reached the end of its life, the best thing to do for yourself and the rest of the UK as a whole is to send it off for recycling. There is such a massive need for scrap steel up and down the UK, which in turn means you’ll probably get a much better price for the car than you would have if you tried to sell it!
