Falling Metal Prices Lead To 14% Drop In The Number Of Cars Scrapped

Car Scrappage, DVLA, Metal Prices, Motoring Research, Scrap Car, Scrap Car Collection, Scrap Car Prices, Scrap Car Value, Scrap My Car

Motoring Research – a UK media agency, obtained data from the DVLA which showed that 70,445 cars were issued with a certificate of destruction in January 2016 vs 82,265 during the same period in 2015. This marks a 14% drop in volume.

Why are people not scrapping their car?

As one of the UK’s leading vehicle recycling companies we process in excess of 30,000 vehicle annually and pay the best prices for scrap, unwanted or MOT failure vehicles.  Our experiences in recent months have been that people have become somewhat less inclined to part ways with their scrap car. Belief that a better price is on the near horizon has led to many holding onto vehicles. However, after revisiting our site numerous times to obtain a quote and seeing little upturn in the price presented inevitably led to them scrapping their car with us.

With scrap metal prices at a low UK wide we’ve seen a number of areas that we collect in present increased competitive quotes for people looking to scrap their car. For a number of sellers they are benefiting from the effect of local competition as these companies clamour to collect their vehicle. However, these isolated examples of local competition don’t stretch UK wide and there are little signs of recovery in the near future with prices continuing to decline across the UK as a whole.

What problems does not scrapping a car create?

Scrapping a car is required to free up room on your driveway and provide funds to contribute towards purchasing a better new or used model. However, if more people are choosing to keep their cars what impact does this have?

Opting to keep a car instead of scrapping it has many repercussions. Firstly, this increases the number of older vehicles on the road. Whilst this may help with cultivating future classics, helping the environment and driving down the cost of low end used cars it can also lead to potentially unroadworthy vehicles remaining on UK roads which compromises safety. The primary reason that cars aren’t being scrapped is that the owner is unhappy with the price quoted. Combine this with the hope that prices will recover soon – which isn’t looking promising – many cars will be maintained on a limited budget covering the required miles until the price of scrap recovers.

A second issue arises from people choosing to break their car for parts as opposed to scrapping it. We have first-hand experience of people overstating the value of certain parts on their car and notifying us that they will instead choose to break it from home. Apart from this being illegal without appropriate licenses it will also create a headache later on down the line when you need to get a shell without wheels to your local vehicle recycling centre. Many recycling centres (including us) will not pay you to collect a shell and after forking out for transport and the time to get it there you may well have been better off financially scrapping it in the first place. The fallout of this is an increase in abandonments, neglect and cluttered driveways.

Verdict

Whilst this data provided by the DVLA has proven insightful it must be understood that the number of certificates of destruction issued doesn’t present the entire picture of the state of car scrapping in the UK.

A certificate of destruction is only issued when a car has been crushed and recycled. Many cars sold to recycling centres that are unwanted or ‘old’ still have many more miles on the clock before heading up to car heaven. In these cases a vehicle recycling centre may opt to sell the car on via the salvage market, delaying the scrapping of a car and subsequent issue of a certificate of destruction.

On the whole we have found customers are still happy to scrap their car as we pay competitively and offer a service that is more financially viable than any other option available. We can’t control the price of scrap metal but we can promise to pay you the best price around for your unwanted, scrap or MOT failure vehicle. Click here to get an instant quote now.