Wrecking cars.

-Cpt. J.-

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How expensive is it in the UK to get your car to the junkyard and have them properly crush the car? What I hate about 5th gear is the "Wreck My Car" segment... thats not nice to watch. These people don't like cars or atleast they have no respect for them whatsoever. Pathetic.
 
It was mention on Top Gear that it is 100 pound to have your car recycled. If it your car is less then 100 pound then theres no point in recycling it at your loss. But is it kinda sad when the vehicle is fully working.
 
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As far as i know, car recycling is free in the EU. You pay a tariff when you buy the car that goes to recycling it (the same as you do when buying electronic equipment, you pay for the deposition of the machine up front, to make sure people do recycle their stuff instead of just dropping it because they're too cheap to pay the recycling tariff). In .nl you can get pretty nice deals for your car, because most car-recycling companies sell the usable parts, so it's not uncommon to get 50-100 euros for your wreck.
 
shouldn't take it to a wreckyard, but to an iron collector/marchand (whatever they're called). they give you money for it, caus iron is expensive these days

most of the time you have to take out the engine and interior though
 
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5th Gear wrecks about 1car per episode... because the owner is bored of the car.
Atleast I didn't notice anything wrong with the cars they wrecked... then I saw a video on YouTube where Vicki destroys a completely good Mercedes. It hardly had any rust on it... it was such a shame. :(
 
Stop your belly-aching. They're CARS not people. They are mostly just souless boxes. It's not like they are destroying anything rare or special.
How many countless perfectley good vehicles have they destroyed on Top Gear and on Clarkson dvd's?
 
Yes thats true but for example when they destroyed the Maserati they introduced a new maserati.
 
5th Gear wrecks about 1car per episode... because the owner is bored of the car.
Atleast I didn't notice anything wrong with the cars they wrecked... then I saw a video on YouTube where Vicki destroys a completely good Mercedes. It hardly had any rust on it... it was such a shame. :(

I just had a view of this and it was clearly similar to Top Gear testing the Hilux to destruction ;)
 
Personally, when they do destroy the cars for a reason like the Hilux & Mercedes, I don't have such a problem with it. When they do things like when Top Gear fired those cars off of the cliff with the big catapult thing, I'd like to think that those cars were MOT failure, hence not roadworthy. Simply because they'd be the cheapest to buy and bound for the scrappy.

The 'Wreck my ride' cars on the other hand; they are cars that are still running, and to me that's a waste. I know plenty of people that could do with a car but can't find one that doesn't need any work for less than 1000 pounds. And I reckon these guys would probably be happy with the cars that have been wrecked.
The wrecking of the cars in Fifth Gear is IMO, a waste and a bit sickening. I work hard to keep my (older) cars on the road by looking after them and it's frustrating to see this happening to cars the same age in better condition. Give them to someone if you really don't want them!

What's more, getting parts is getting more difficult for cars from the early 90s (so far the predominant age of the destroyed cars). I could've really done with a couple of bits from that Pug they broke into pieces a few weeks back but had to pay a scrap yard 50 quid for them. Even if these cars aren't used on the road, they'd make good donor cars!

You can probably tell I have an issue with this. It's a huge waste to me and I really really do not see the point. At least when TG does it, it's a good laugh and it's not all the time. This was yet another reason why I've decided I can't be bothered to go downstairs and turn on Fifth Gear anymore...

And to answer an earlier question, the cost of scrapping a car is dependant on where you are in England, and what car you have. E.g., I could get money for my MR2 if I scrapped it (no chance of that as it's in mint condition and I adore it) and it wouldn't cost me anything to scrap my Pug as there's almost no 309s or 205s in the scrap yards in my local area (one of my course mates is at this point where he's having to scrap his 309 - why couldn't he tell me a week ago when I needed the parts!!!).
But when we scrapped our old Volvo estate a few years back it cost us ?100 in South London. The most I've heard of someone paying to scrap their car is ?125. This is partly how Top Gear did that cars cheaper than ?100 challenge (and possibly how I bought my Pug for ?100, though it was in great condition so that would've been a real waste anyway). There are instances where it can cost more than ?100 to scrap a car, so in these cases I'm sure most people are happy to just give them away - they are still ?100 better off!

Most of the cost is because older cars cannot be recycled that easily. And with current regulations, things like tyres cannot be sold on and have to be disposed of correctly. Chemicals have to be carefully dealt with. And the cost of labour to break parts off a car is high. If you have drained all the fluids from a car prior to scrapping you can sometimes negotiate a small sum of money.
Personally, if I ever have to scrap a car, I'm stripping and eBaying all the bits I can to offset the cost of getting the remaining shell crushed. Hopefully it's not something I'll have to worry about though...


(so much for quick reply!)
 
I agree, Top Gear do their destruction with much more purpose and character than Fifth Gear could ever hope to achieve. Don't forget too though that in every Clarkson release there has been the destruction of a car in just about every release, except that these are usually, with the exception of perhaps the 911 and Corvette, awful, dire cars that would not be missed. Fifth Gear on the other hand seem to destroy perfectly good, running cars as mentioned previously...
 
When the idiot government bought in new regs about car dismantling the charge was about ?40 at most breakers. The net effect was due to the new regs you need special equipment for fluid disposal and the various H&S crap this drove most small breakers out of buisness and allowed the larger breakers to then charge what ever they want (this happened about 4years ago).
The current climate is you get about ?40 for a car at the breakers, about ?80-?100 for a scrapmetal dealer, but to get round regulations you should take the wheels off first ;)

Or like me scrap it yourself, far more fun.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak-XeEg-L-k[/YOUTUBE]

or

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_0oIjahH_M[/YOUTUBE]
 
the less wreckers the better, in America we have people crushing perfectly good, rare, or even beutiful cars that atleast have rust free chassis, my friend was telling me that the last time he went to the wreckers the gimps had apparently set up the line to the crusher with all the newest RX-7s as top priority, meaning he saw a line of about 7 or so perfectly good FD RX-7s going into the crusher, i know with cars such as the mki MR2 and the Corolla GT-S(ae86) it is becoming a problem, which is odd because the demand for those cars is pretty high nowadays
 
i think most people just park a car they don't want on double yellow lines and let it get taken away. that's what i would do. or you find them in ditches...

plenty of car wreckers around in my area, great places to go for spares. i got my seat to use with my PS2 wheel from one. came out of an Escort i think...

BTW :thumbup: on the Rangey Ruuman
 
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