America’s Finest City has what most refer to as perfect year-round weather and is one of the gems of southern California. However, you might ask if it’s an easy place to sell a junk car? With a population of roughly 1.3 million people with most adults owning two vehicles, it would seem that it could be easy to sell a used car here, but there are challenges to selling less-than-desirable clunkers.
If you’re looking to sell your junk car for cash in San Diego, you do have some options. Which method you choose will depend on what your priorities are. In this article, we’ll discuss how to find the right junk car buyer for you.
What Is a Junk Car?
Before getting into finding the right junk car buyer, it’s important to know if you actually have one. Generally speaking, a junk car is one that is difficult to sell due to its condition. They don’t necessarily need to be old and beat up, although most that fit this category are. Junk cars usually have at least one of the following characteristics:
- Excessive mileage, usually over 200,000 miles
- Vehicles over 10 years old
- Cars involved in accidents that have been deemed totaled
- Cars where the cost of repairs is equal to or over their resale value
Vehicles with excessive body damage, even if they are running and have no known mechanical issues, are typically difficult to sell and are also worthy of the title of junk car.
How To Find the Right Junk Car Buyer
Determining which method for selling your junk car is best for you will be based on what your priorities are. Even with junk cars, some sellers are mostly concerned with getting the most amount of money they can for it regardless of how long it takes. Other sellers are looking for a quick sale and are happy to sacrifice profit. Some are solely looking for convenience, the easiest way to unload their clunker.
Private Sale
Sellers whose number one priority is getting the top-end value, or even perhaps a bit more, for their junk car might be able to attain this goal by selling their junk car via a private sale. The seller is in complete control of how much they’ll accept for the car, but they’re also fully responsible for finding the right buyer. Selling a junk car isn’t easy, but if time isn’t an issue, you certainly have the choice to wait until the right buyer finds your clunker.
Scrap or Junk Yard
If you’re looking to quickly unload your junker and don’t care too much about how much you get for it, a great way to do so is to offer it to a scrap or junk yard. These types of businesses don’t care about condition or vehicle looks. Their only interest is in how much scrap metal they can harvest from your vehicle. You won’t get the best price, and you may have to haul it there on your own, but they will buy any and all junk cars.
Specialized Dealer
Junk car sellers can get the best of all worlds by selling theirs to a San Diego dealer that specializes in purchasing junk cars. They don’t care what it looks like or if it even runs, and they’re looking at more than just its worth in metal. Most will come to you and tow it away while leaving a check in your hand. Specialized dealers will offer you more for your less-than-desirable ride than a scrap or junk yard, and some will come and haul it away within 24 hours.
The Best of All Worlds: Sell Your Junk Car to a Specialized Dealer
How you sell your junk car depends on what your priority is. Some sellers want the most amount of money they can squeeze out of their wreck while others want to unload it as quickly as possible. Others are more concerned about convenience and just want the car out of their lives in the easiest way.
Junk car sellers can get all three of these by selling their difficult-to-sell vehicles to a specialized dealer that happily buys junk cars. They buy them regardless of looks or condition, they’ll come to you and tow them away for free while paying you top dollar. Selling to a specialized dealer is a win-win situation.