Has anyone ever sold a car, piece by piece? (vehicle, salvage, fuel)
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I have an 03 Explorer that is dying. Cost of repair looks to exceed value. Dealer will only give me $ 500 for it. I know I can get that much for a few parts I can break off and sell online let alone the rest of the car.
Has anyone ever sold a car piece by piece? What happens when you get down to the bare bones? How do you dispose of it properly? Is it more hassle than it is worth? I am wondering if there is some sort of guide to price it out.
Yeah, it's called "parting out" and if you have a place to store the truck while you do this, it usually will give you more money than selling the entire truck.
Your truck may or may not make more sense to sell as a "mechanic's special", sell it to someone who can DIY fix what it needs.
If you do part it out, be sure you have placed it where you can leave it before you sell tires/wheels.
Once you have sold the parts that will sell, you can typically sell the remaining hulk for scrap, or at worst have a yard haul it away for free.
So if I sell the tires, rims, exterior and interior parts, there is still value in the frame, body to the point where it makes sense for a salvage yard to get it for free?
Engine need some minor work, but the transmission is going hard. Aside that the rest of the Explorer is in really nice condition. Hate to see it go.
You might consider getting an ex-boneyard transmission installed. Or a rebuilt trans. Boneyard will cost you about half of a rebuilt, and odds are it will last about half as long. If you know a good yard, they may be willing to pick out a "creampuff" trans that came from a truck they figured was well cared for.
That said at least IMHO the Exploder is not that desirable a vehicle - rather thirsty without having a good reason for that, not a really fun to drive vehicle. All sorts of more fun and more economical cars and even trucks out there for you to choose from.
What part of Cali are you in? If you are fairly close to Mexico, some of the Mexican run shops do first rate work for less. Some of them. I would call around and ask what kind of prices you would be looking at for a transmission replacement.
I had the trans go in my 87 Camry, had a good transmission shop who worked with a junkyard I know, yard delivered a trans to the shop, they did the R&R, and all this was more than 50K miles ago. The yard did pick me out a better than average transmission. I might have just junked the car, but had just put essentially a rebuilt head on the engine, and knew/know the engine is in good shape, ready to go another 100K or more.
If you do part it out, what generally sells are the engine if it's good, engine accessories like alternator, and wheels/tires. Or that has been my limited experience.
Final thought - this is a classic "mechanic's special" - it still runs and drives, so a guy who is up to doing the transola R&R himself could buy it and come out ahead of the game.
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If youy had a '66 Mustang or '70 El Camino you could make a lot of money that way. For a 2003 Explorer I'd be surprised if you make much, and what you sell will take a long time, because you have a limited client base. It's only 9 years old, most of them are still in good shape and don't need the parts. Once it's not drivable, it will cost you to take the remainder to the wrecker, and with the choice parts gone they may charge you to take it since there won't be much "meat left on the bone" for them to make money.
A couple years ago I bought a car with a bad motor for $250. Had it towed for $130. So I was into it for $380. Got the transmission off of it (needed it), a brand new radiator (OEM worth $250 online price), alternator, fuel pump, a/c compressor, fuel injectors, MAF, cam sensor, crank sensor, switches/relays etc off of it and sold the car to a scraper for $100.
I agree with the above, since it is running sell it as a mechanics special, an 03 should be able to get way more than $500 on CL. I would bet you could get $1500-$2000 depending on condition sold in a couple days. Especially if it still runs.
Also I replaced the trans myself. It was a FWD car, those aren't known to be easy. If you are into parting it out I would bet you could replace it yourself.
Don't sell the tires, how will you roll it onto a trailer?
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running gear (including tires and wheels)is the LAST thing I sell when parting out. (so I can move it around). Doors, window controllers, glass, instruments... It is ALL worth something to SOMEONE, but connecting with that SOMEONE is a challenge + taking parts off and SHIPPING. It takes a LONG time to part out a car. (months) Empty shell is worth $100- $200 at scrap metal (IF you have a title, which you MUST)
Go for selling the Mechanics Special, ~ 1/2 price of average / poor used condition. ONE transaction (one hour) and Poof, it is gone. hassle factor is 2, parting out is hassle factor 20 (scale 1 - 10). But... You can make GOOD return with the right contacts. (I bought a 4x4 dump truck ($500), used it for 10 yrs building 4 houses, and hauling my Dozer around + Zillions of loads of firewood, and parted it out for $1700, but it took most of a summer to get rid of everything. (Not a good use of summer weather for a measly $1200 = 2 weeks OT pay).
Parting out works well if you have something desirable and LOTS of time (R unemployed / retired). AND you don't get frustrated dealing with KIDS that are looking for parts to fix their old man's Exploder. (that the KID crashed).
SR nailed it. It's retirement or "have non else to do" thing. Sell it on craigslist, DIY folk will grab it, if it's not a beater. No big deal to swap trannie, 2 days leisure labor and $800 rebuilt one.
Or, give to Goodwill and tax off it.
My experience with this is - the more you trying to pursue money, the worse nightmare it turns into.
I did this with a 1996 Acura RL that I owned. It got to 250k and the engine went. Too many other problems to fix it. There were a few things about the car that made this work: it was the first year of the model (1996-2004); there were not many made; and the parts were expensive. I put it in my garage and spent a few weekend days taking everything off that I could. Sold parts on ebay, craigslist, the acura sites (ex. www.acuraworld.com;Acura-Legend.com :: Acura Legend Forum :: Acura RL Forum...). Net profit of about $2400. I used an online site to get the price of new parts and sold at about 20% of new. Shipped parts all over the US, Canada, and even Croatia!
Yeah if you're desperate for cash part it out or repair it. But the only way I see this car being of any real value to someone is if they totalled another one and it had a good tranny/engine. Huge hassle factor as said above. If you work a full time job (unless its at a junkyard lol), I'd say put it on CL first for a few weeks, then toss it.
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