How I did it: In the course of driving around town, I kept seeing the little signs posted on the street corners and such for a person or company that bought cars, running or not.  Since mine was not running, it wasn't really easy for me to trade it in or get anyone to buy it, so I finally broke down and called the number.

I was working long hours for the following several days, so I asked if they could come by and pick it up on Saturday.  They said that would be fine, and after I described the vehicle, he said that about $200 would be the most he could pay me for it.  That sounded all right to me, since I hadn't been able to drive the thing for two years and figured there would be a ton of work that needed to be done on it.

On Saturday, I called the guy back and told him that I was going to be around the house.  He showed up a little bit later than he said he would ("a little bit" being something like three hours later).  When he got to the house, he told me that he had about a dozen cars like mine, and they pretty much all had locked up engines.  Apparently, that's something of a trait in 1995 Pontiac Grand Prix's.  So he told me that the car was pretty much going straight to the crusher, and the most he could give me for it was $140.  I was a bit disappointed, but I figured that was still better than nothing.  I signed over the title to him and got ready to help him push the car out into the street so he could hook it up to his tow truck.

He decided to try to start it to make things easier on us both.  He had one of those jump-start boxes, which he hooked up to the battery.  It cranked a couple of times, and then turned over.  I was astonished, because the last several times that I'd tried to start it, it wouldn't even crank.  Just a little click and a clunk and there it sat.  I guess I should have had him try to start it before I'd signed over the title, but I had already signed and taken the cash, so there was nothing really that I could do.

I went back inside as he hooked up Little Blue and towed him away.  I had meant to take a picture of the car as it was towed away, but I forgot until it was too late.  In any case, he's gone now, and I have a better parking spot than I did.  But there were certainly some lessons learned...

Lessons & tips: If your car quits running, make sure that it's really completely dead before you sell it for scrap.  Also, wait to see if it will start before you take the money and sign the title over.  Also, if your car does quit running and you're not going to get it fixed, sell it as soon after it dies as you can, so more parts are salvageable.

Apr 27, 2011, 08:03PM PDT | 0 comments | 6 cheers