Need Advice - what to do with a damaged car.

Enchantrix

Hi everyone,

I need to ask some advice. At the back of our house we have a damaged Renaut Megane (1995). It was accidently driven into a concrete post in a multi story car park and the passenger side is bent so the door on that side wont open. It was driven back to the house after the smash but we think is a write off because the chassis on one side is bent. Since the accident the battery has also been taken out of it so its not going anywhere right now. But everything else on the car engine etc. is fine. Its on English registration plates and was about to go through NCT to become registered in Ireland. I even spent €180 on 4 new tyres for it the week before the accident.

The reason I need to ask for advice is recently a man came to the door and asked if we wanted to get rid of the car, he said he'd take it for free. Not knowing much about what to do with it I said I would consider his offer. Now he's been back again with his friend asking again if we want to get rid of the car for free. I'm feeling a bit pressured.

We do want to get rid of the car but this man's enthusiasm and persistance to take it from us is starting to make me think it might actually be worth something to someone somewhere.

Is this man being a good samaritan and just wanting to help us out by taking it?

Or is this man just an opportunist knowing that he can make money from our ignorance.

Need advice as to whether I should take this guy up on his offer or if this is a bad idea. Also need to know if there is anyway to get a little bit of money for it.

Thanks for reading.

MagicMarker

I'd tell him he can take it for €200, otherwise he can fúck off.

Redisle

MagicMarker wrote: »

I'd tell him he can take it for €200, otherwise he can fúck off.

+1

It's at least worth scrap value. We had two old 89 pieces of crap removed recently for free, but we didn't mind because we just wanted rid of them. Scrapyard had informed us they were worth 70euro/tonne scrap value anyway.

Chances are your car is at least worth around 70 + any bits that could be sold off seperately.

You could try putting it up on adverts, may well get 200 quid for it!

grudgebringer

Hi,

Depends on how much hastle you want to go through, i.e. you could probably make easily a few hundred quid off selling the engine/body components through various means like ebay/adverts.ie/gumtree etc but that would leave you with the inevitable 'carcass' of the car remaining whihc would have to be disposed of also, for this you're probably looking at close to 100 quid if not even more for a scrapyard to take it and dispose of it. So - it really boils down to a few choices IMO

1. Sell it 'As is' on any number of websites for a nominal fee (I dunno, maybe like €400?
2. Sell the engine and body parts individually and dispose of the remains via a scrapyard. (Maybe netting around 500 quid also?)
3. Let this guy take it away, no haslte (BUT, make sure that the ownership of the car changes hands or it is identified as written off or similar to your local authority in case he fixes it up and sells it on to someone whio then has an accident in a car still registered to you :cool:)

My tuppence worth, gook luck :rolleyes:

Thoie

Enchantrix wrote: »

Is this man being a good samaritan and just wanting to help us out by taking it?

No.

Enchantrix wrote: »

Or is this man just an opportunist knowing that he can make money from our ignorance.

Yes.


To elaborate...
There are no men who wander around cleaning up people's eyesores for the good of their health - if that was the case some nice men would have landscaped outside my window

It might be possible to get some money for the car somewhere, but unless you know what you're doing, it will probably require more effort than I'd take. If you were willing to strip the car, you might find takers for the tyres, window regulators, other bits and bobs, but you have to ask yourself are you willing to go to the effort, and what you'd plan on doing with the carcass.

If it was me, I'd do as MagicMarker says, and say he can have it for €200 (maybe start at €250), but, it still being me, I'd probably let him have it for free if he argued.

This next bit might get me a smack, but one thing I would say is that the kind of people who turn up and offer to take cars off your hand might be the kind of people who'd take other things off your hands as well, whether that was the plan or not. I wouldn't be encouraging them to keep coming back, and as far as possible I'd try to have people around the place, coming and going, and I'd be making sure that doors and windows were locked around the house. It's possible that I'm wronging the good samaritan, and his motives are purely benevolent.

I'm not paranoid, they're just all out to get me.

slimjimmc

Cover your ar$€ just in case the car is put back on the road and you start getting penalty notices, it's identity re-used or the shell is found rusting in a disused quarry somewhere:
a) make sure you formally transfer registered ownership to him , fill in the form, co-sign with him and post to Shannon yourself.
b) get a receipt as proof you sold it even if only for €1, the receipt should also state the buyer acknowleges the car is sold as seen and is not safe.
c) Don't accept any promise or paperwork saying it will be scrapped, only certain licensed recycling centres can issue the necessary certificate of destruction.
d) remove the tax, NCT and insurance discs.

colm_mcm

how does anyone think this thing is worth money? even if it was on Irish plates it wouldn't be worth 400 quid.

Thoie

colm_mcm wrote: »

how does anyone think this thing is worth money? even if it was on Irish plates it wouldn't be worth 400 quid.

Would no-one buy 4 tyres that were a week old (presuming they're still in good nick)?