Rhodium is a platinum group metal used in car catalytic converters. It’s one of the rarest and expensive elements on the planet.
For a salvage lot, it might as well be gold. Actually, at about $10,000 per ounce, it’s five times more valuable!
It’s only one element out of a dozen valuable materials stuck in your car, waiting to be extracted and recycled. So how can you make money off of your car?
Keep reading to see how to sell a junk car today!
Cash For Junk Cars: Why and How?
Getting cash for junk cars is quite easy, especially if the car is already totaled and sitting in your driveway. If your car is damaged or even breaking down through natural wear, it’s possible to walk away as a winner.
First of all, you are under no obligation to repair a totaled vehicle or even buy another one. Instead, you can keep the insurance money and sell your wreck for its worth in undamaged parts and raw materials.
Depending on the age of the car, spare parts could be quite valuable. Older cars, though, don’t usually have a market for their spare parts. The copper in alternators and other parts, though, does have value.
So do the rhodium and platinum in catalytic converters and other metals.
You don’t need to drive or deliver your car to a salvage yard to benefit either. Even if you could drive it to the salvage yard, many cash-for-cars buyers send a tow truck and carry it away instead.
Determining Your Car’s Value to the Salvage Lot
Every salvage yard will have its own way of determining the value of your car for them.
Knowing the worth of your car’s make and model and whether or not parts are in demand is a good start. Having an idea for this can help you to negotiate the price with your salvage lot of choice.
Newer vehicles generally get higher sale prices due to the demand for their parts. Older ones, not so much.
Many cars, if the damage isn’t bad, get fixed up by the salvage yard and auctioned off. This is one reason why a “totaled” car might end up having a second life. Salvage yards have a lot of parts on hand from other cars.
If not, they often will price a car by weight. They’ll know the composition of your car better than you do, most of the time.
Does it have aluminum or steel panels, or is it plastic instead? Is it an EV with batteries that need to be disposed of or recycled carefully and expensively? Will the electric motors offset the price of disposing of the batteries?
Many times, the salvage yard or dealership you’re talking with will send out an appraiser. They will also check to see you have all the required paperwork and get it signed over correctly.
If everything is on the up-and-up, you’ll get your cash pronto!
Getting Cash For Your Junk Cars
Asking a salvage lot or insurance company to buy your car for cash can be an effective way to maximize the amount of money from your totaled car.
Hopefully, this guide has helped you to consider the most important things about junk car removal.
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