Selling vs Scrapping Your Vehicle

Deciding whether to sell or scrap your car depends on a few key factors: condition, mileage, demand, and how quickly you need to get rid of it. While scrapping offers a fast, guaranteed way to dispose of an end-of-life vehicle, selling can sometimes bring a higher return — but only if the car is roadworthy and in demand.

In this section, we help you evaluate the pros and cons of each option. We explain what makes a car suitable for sale versus scrap, and how things like failed MOTs, bodywork damage, or engine faults impact the real-world value. We also walk you through how salvage works — which is the middle ground between scrapping and resale, typically for cars with minor damage or high-value parts.

If your car has minimal faults, low mileage, or recent servicing, you might be better off selling. But if youre tired of no-shows, haggling, and paperwork, scrapping is often the smarter choice. We provide a full comparison so you can decide what’s right — based on facts, not guesswork.