What do I do with a beat up but drivable jetta?

Does your car have a manual transmission? If so, retain the transmission but remove all of the other ICE (internal combustion engine) equipment such as the engine, radiator, exhaust, and fuel tank. Then clean off all of the grease and other crud from the engine compartment, repair the body damage, and fix the back seat. Finally, convert the car to an Electric Vehicle (EV).

Basically you will need an electric motor for propulsion, a battery pack, and a controller. For details, go to

Stop fast, and hope you get hit in the rear. Collect insurance money and party.

Eric, you can also try

It really boils down to: Can a car like this be sold and should it be?

What do salvage yards pay for working vehicles? Maybe the thing to do an ad on Craigs List and a price of salvage + some delta. I'm not looking for significant revenue from this transaction.

In my location you can call one of the companies that do this and they will pay you about $50 to tow it away - or you can donate it to Goodwill,

find someone locally that needs a car and sell it? give it to a school for teaching?

Whoa, I had no idea that electric energy is produced by looking at a wall outlet and wishing really hard.

"With an EV, your contribution to the contamination of our atmosphere will be significantly reduced because your EV will use no gasoline."

So all the pollution billowing from that coal-fired electrical power plant isn't harmful to the environment? Cool!

Seriously, though. If you aren't vain about your ride, fix the mechanicals when they break and drive your Jetta forever. Or sell it on VWVortex if your friends start making too much fun of you. ;)

To be REALLY serious, just look it up. The fact is, fossil-fueled vehicles produce hundreds of times more contamination to our atmosphere than all of the coal-fired power plants combined. It is not a trivial situation.

Become informed. Look up the facts instead of taking on the popular, but erroneous, attitude.

Exactly. My '88 Cabbie has 270,000 miles on it and still runs great.

In other words, discard most of what still works well and keep the parts that are bad?

Interesting solution for a car with a good body, good interior, and bad engine. A bit silly for this one.

I'm not most people. I do many local errands on foot, on bicycle, and on skates. The rest I combine with longer trips.

Electric cars mostly allow people to reduce the local impact of car trips that are better not done.

Hey Buddy - don't be a jerk - you asked for comments - now you are knocking the comments you asked for. plonk !!

What's erroneous about it? Are you seriously suggesting that EVs produce no pollution? Especially here in America where a lot of electricity is produced by coal-fired plants that release more radiation into the environment than nuclear plants?

-- Mike Smith

But the more EVs appear on the road, the more power plants we'll need to build.

-- Mike Smith

I'm sure he's *heartbroken*.

-- Mike Smith