Breakers yard in East Kilbride: sell your car for breaking

The usual picture of a breakers yard is a drive to an industrial estate, a look round the car at the gate and a price agreed there and then. Selling to us skips the visit but keeps the idea: a breaker's price, based on what the car still has, agreed before anything moves. If your car is in East Kilbride, we buy it where it stands, and licensed partners do the breaking.

The details that fix a breaking price are the ones a breaker would look at on the forecourt: does it run, what is broken, what is missing and what state the bodywork is in. Send those with the registration and a few photos and we can price the car without seeing it. If anything changes before collection, such as a part coming off, tell us and we will look at the figure again.

East Kilbride is about 115 miles from our Fort William base, and we have no depot in South Lanarkshire. Collections here share scheduled runs with Glasgow and the rest of Lanarkshire, and the date is agreed when you accept the price. Until then the car can stay where it is, whether that is at home or at work. Postcodes, districts and how collection runs in East Kilbride are on our East Kilbride collection page.

Why there is no yard trip to make

Turn up at a breakers yard and the questions come in person. Is the car yours, and can you prove it? Does it start? What is wrong with it? What has been taken off? Someone walks round it, looks under the bonnet and makes an offer, and if you do not like it, you still have to get the car home again. We ask the same questions, only earlier and in writing. You send the registration, a description and a few photos, and we reply on WhatsApp with a firm figure. Your photo ID, and the V5C if you have it or other documents that link you to the car, are checked when the driver arrives. How the parts on the car shape that figure is covered in our guide to selling a car for its parts.

What to expect when you sell a car for breaking

Collection itself is short. The driver checks the registration, looks the car over against your description, sees your photo ID and records the sale. Loading takes most of the time, so a little notice helps. Missing keys can leave the steering locked; a seized handbrake or flat tyres can stop the car rolling; a garage, a gate or a steep drive needs a clear line for the truck. Mention any of that when you send the reg. Leave the fluids and battery alone: removing them is the treatment facility's job. If you have the V5C, note its reference number and keep back the yellow slip when the driver takes the logbook. Then tell the DVLA the car has gone to the motor trade, online with that number or by posting the slip. The DVLA stops the tax, repays any full months left and ends a Direct Debit.

Parts buyers: what we can and cannot do

Plenty of people who search for a breakers yard want to buy a part, not sell a car. We do not sell parts, and we would rather say so plainly. We buy cars, pass them to licensed partners for breaking, and those partners decide what happens to the components. We cannot check stock, reserve a part or post one out. If you need a used part, look for a breaker that sells to the public and ask three things: has the part been tested, can it be returned if it does not fit, and does it come from a car with the same engine code or model year. If the repair no longer makes sense, though, we may be able to buy the whole car from you in East Kilbride.

Read our full guide to selling a car to a breakers yard, see the three steps from reg to payment, or ask for a firm price.