EOL-Salvage-Best way to get rid of?

First, a little tribute; My 1992 grey Honda Accord lasted 453,000 miles before it finally died. It took me to work every day for years, and on 15 trips to visit family in Missouri, one road trip from San Jose to Washington DC, 2 trips to Death Valley, to The Grand Canyon, Yosemite, the Giant Redwoods, Mesa Verde, and many other places. I bought it used in 1997, with 100,000 miles on it. Maybe one reason it lasted so long is because I drove it "gently," because I was trying to save gas and money. Isn't that funny, how we get so attached to our cars?

Then, the head gasket went out, it was still drivable, and 2 months later, the timing belt broke. The body has a couple of dents and the interior is worn, so I'm thinking it's reached the end of of it's usable/reasonable life and is not worth fixing.

I'd like to ask the list 2 questions:

  1. What's the best way to get rid of an older car? What can I do with it to get the most value/money? I can sell it to a salvage yard for around 5. I'm considering parting it out, but I live in the suburbs, where the neighbors would probably complain if the car looked bad for very long. What parts could I part out, fairly easily, not take too long, not look bad? Power steering and distributor? What else? I don't see how I could sell or keep the tires, because then how could I sell it? How would they get it on the flatbed? (I could put on the spare and keep one tire)

I don't think I'm interested in donating it to a non-profit, they'll just sell it to a salvage yard, I'm more interested in doing it myself and getting more value from it, if possible. What would you suggest as the best way to get rid of a non-working car, to get a little money from it?

  1. What should I have done with DMV paperwork? I live in California. It's been about 9 months now, sitting in my driveway. I should have filed non-op, but I wasn't planning to keep it. I didn't renew or do non-op. Now they sent me a collections letter for 0. Should I sell it soon to a salvage yard and tell DMV I already sold it as junk? I can't find any instructions on DMV web site for selling an old car to salvage yard.

Thank you, Bill

Reply to
Bill
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Just call the wreckers and they will take it away for free and take care of the paperwork. The vehicle is basically worthless. I just went thru this myself.

Reply to
Clete

Agreed, I would feel VERY good about the experiences you have had with this Honda, and then dump it.

If you do decide to part it out, about the only parts potentially worth anything are body panels, bumpers, non-wear items like that, and maybe anything that was replaced very recently.

But really, considering the value of this car even if it had 300,000 less miles and was running, it's time to send it away now that it has finally given in.

Congrats, BTW!

Pat

Reply to
pws

Bill wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@v13g2000prn.googlegroups.com:

The problem with that is that you do end up with a really ugly-looking shell that you'll /still/ need the wreckers to tow away. And by that point, they're not likely to pay you much becuase all there's nothing left but scrap metal value in it.

The time you waste, and the possible zoning/neighbor-complaints may be more than they're worth.

Donating it might just be a better idea:

If you still don't like that, try advertising it on eBay. If the car lived in a very dry area, rust will be minimal, which usually makes such a car quite attractive to North-easterners.

A salvage yard or donation house can help you with the paperwork. Try calling one.

Reply to
Tegger

why not? you can replace bent valves easily enough, if they are bent - not always the case. and you need to take the head off to replace the gasket anyway. if you do this work yourself, it'll cost you labor, but parts will probably be less than $200.

or just get a whole new [used jdm] engine for a couple of hundred bucks more. quicker and easier. and you'll be paying more than that /each month/ for a new car.

Reply to
jim beam

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