Guide · 4 minute read · updated October 2026

Scrap or salvage? How to tell which your car is, and why it's often a £1,000 difference.

Short answer: if your car is roughly 2015 or newer, or older but with a sound engine, gearbox or body, it is probably salvage, and salvage pays by the parts, not the weight. Scrap is what is left when nothing on the car is worth reusing. Most people assume scrap and undersell.

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The word “scrap” gets used for any car that has reached the end of the road with you. But a yard sees two very different things: a tonne of steel, or a stock of parts other drivers will pay for. The second is worth far more, and it is the question nobody asks you when you type “scrap my car” into Google.

The difference, side by side

	Scrap	Salvage
How it's priced	By weight. Steel price × tonnes, minus collection.	By the parts that can be resold, plus the shell as scrap.
Typical price	£150–£400	£800–£4,000+
What happens to it	Depolluted, crushed, recycled. Certificate of Destruction issued.	Dismantled for parts, or repaired and put back on the road.
Who buys it	Any licensed scrap yard (ATF).	Dismantlers, breakers, repairers. Fewer buyers, which is why comparison sites phone you back.
Paperwork	DVLA told it is scrapped; you get a CoD.	Sold as a vehicle; DVLA told it is sold (we do this too).

A 30-second self-check

Tick any of these and your car is probably salvage, whatever a weighbridge says:

It is 2015 or newer, or a desirable model of any age (German saloons, 4x4s, vans, hybrids).
One big thing is wrong (engine, gearbox, accident damage) but the rest is sound.
It is a Cat N or Cat S write-off, or the insurer has offered to let you keep it.
It failed its MOT on something expensive but drives.
Under 120,000 miles with a full history.

Genuinely scrap: 15+ years old, high mileage, rusty, or two or more major faults. Still worth a quote, because we price the catalytic converter and alloys too.

Real example

2017 Ford Focus 1.0, 68,000 miles, engine failure. Local yard offered £280 as scrap. Comparison site quote £650 after a call-back. We paid £1,150 because the gearbox, body panels, lights and seats all went on to other Focuses through the winning yard’s sellers on Partpro.

Why our number is instant when others ring you back

Other comparison sites have to wait for their buyers to reply. Our buyers recycle the car and extract the best parts, and they price those parts live, so each bid is a calculation, not a negotiation, and the top one is on screen in seconds.

Common questions

Can a scrap car become salvage?

Yes, if the buyer values parts. That is the whole point of asking us rather than a weighbridge.

Is salvage legal to sell privately?

Yes, but write-off categories must be declared and Cat A/B can only go to an ATF for destruction.

Does a write-off marker kill the value?

Cat N and S reduce it versus a clean car, not versus scrap. They are still parts.

What if it's borderline?

We show both numbers and explain the difference. You choose.

Stop guessing. Enter the reg and find out.

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