For years you have serviced it, washed it and topped up the fluids, and now even you have to admit it is done. Every car reaches that point eventually. The question for an Edinburgh owner is what happens next: how much will you get, who collects it, and what paperwork do you need so that it is properly off your hands?
If you already know you want a price, go straight to our scrap car collection in Edinburgh page.
Why scrap a car in Edinburgh?
It has failed its MOT
The classic trigger. If the failure sheet runs to welding, suspension arms and a catalytic converter, you have to weigh the bill against what the car is worth and how long it will keep going afterwards. Scrapping is often the sensible answer, and it puts something towards the next car.
An MOT is not needed to scrap a car, but the car does need somewhere legal to wait. Unless it is taxed, insured and has a current MOT, it has to come off the street in Leith or Gorgie and onto a driveway or into a garage, with a SORN declared. Our step-by-step guide to scrapping sets out the rule.
It does not meet the Low Emission Zone standard
The city's Low Emission Zone covers the centre, and enforcement began on 1 June 2024. The standard is Euro 4 for petrol cars and Euro 6 for diesels, so a petrol car below Euro 4 or a diesel below Euro 6 is not compliant and faces a penalty charge when it is driven into the zone. As a rough guide, petrol cars registered from 2006 and diesels registered from September 2015 usually meet it, but the registration date is not proof: the Scottish Government's Low Emission Zones guidance links to the official vehicle checker. For someone who lives or works in the centre, a car that was perfectly usable has become an expensive one to keep, and scrapping it is one way out.
You need rid of it
A move abroad, a change of job, a new car arriving with nowhere to park the old one, or simply a car that has not moved for months. Listing a tired car online means viewings, time-wasters and haggling. Scrapping it means one price, one collection and one bank transfer.
Step one: get a quote
Have the registration number and your postcode ready, and be honest about the car: does it start, does it drive, what is damaged, do you have the V5C? That gives you a quotation, which is not the same as an online valuation of what the car might fetch in a private sale. A quotation is the price a buyer will pay to collect the car as it stands and deal with everything that follows.
What sets the price?
Weight is the starting point, because the metal is what a scrapped car becomes. Make, model and condition can add to it, because a car with a good engine, gearbox or panels is worth more for its parts than for its metal alone. Distance, access and the metal market that week play their part too. There is no fixed scrap price per car, so ask for a quote rather than guessing from a table online.
What if the car is not an old banger?
If your car is newer, has a known fault or has been written off with mainly cosmetic damage, do not accept a price based on weight alone. Tell us what is good about it when you ask. A non-runner that is otherwise sound is covered on our page on selling a broken car in Edinburgh, and our salvage value guide explains the write-off categories.
Check for hidden fees
Any charge for collection, admin or paperwork should be declared before you agree to sell. We charge none: collection is free and there are no admin fees. The price you agree should be the price that reaches your bank account, provided the car matches the description you gave.
Step two: arrange collection
You do not need to get the car anywhere. We collect free of charge across the city, from Leith and Portobello to Morningside, Corstorphine and Newington. Further out, send the registration and your postcode and we will tell you on WhatsApp whether we can reach you. We also cover Livingston in West Lothian.
Motor Salvage Group's premises are in Fort William, around 145 miles away, and there is no yard in the city for you to drive the car to. Collections from the capital are planned into scheduled routes, so once you accept the price we agree a collection day with you and confirm it by phone or WhatsApp. There is no extra charge if the car has to be winched on rather than driven onto the truck: access is one of the things the price we quote already allows for, so mention it when you ask.
Step three: the paperwork and the payment
By law, a car can only be scrapped at an Authorised Treatment Facility (ATF). In Scotland these are authorised by SEPA, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. When your car is scrapped, the ATF issues a Certificate of Destruction and tells the DVLA, and that certificate is what shows the car is no longer your responsibility. The cars we buy for scrapping go to licensed ATF partners.
Hand the driver the V5C, but not its yellow V5C/3 section for selling to the motor trade. You are expected to tell the DVLA yourself as well, and GOV.UK warns that you can be fined if you do not: use its online service with the V5C's 11-digit reference and keep the yellow slip with your records, or fill in the slip and post it. You can still sell the car without a V5C: we ask for photo ID and proof it is yours, such as a purchase receipt, and you write to the DVLA instead, giving your name and address, the registration, make and model, the exact date you sold it, and the name and address of the buyer. Once the DVLA has been told, it cancels the vehicle tax, refunds any full months left and stops any Direct Debit.
Payment is by bank transfer to an account in your name. In Scotland the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 has stopped metal dealers paying cash since 2016, just as the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 did in England and Wales, so no legitimate business will hand you notes for a scrap car. If someone offers to, walk away.
Two more loose ends. A private number you want to keep has to be taken off through the DVLA, with the V778 retention document and the new V5C in hand, before the car is collected. The DVLA only agrees to that if the car can move under its own power, and it may ask to inspect the car, so a non-runner may not qualify: our checklist for the days before scrapping explains the plate rules. The other loose end is insurance, which should be cancelled only once the car has gone.
What happens to a scrapped car?
At the treatment facility the hazardous fluids and parts come out first, anything reusable is recovered, and the rest goes for recycling as metal. Our guide to car salvage walks through each stage.
Before you book
Choose a buyer who pays by bank transfer, charges nothing for collection and uses a licensed ATF, so that a Certificate of Destruction is issued when the car is scrapped. We collect across the city without a collection charge, pay into an account in your name and send the cars we buy for scrapping to licensed ATF partners. Send the registration and your postcode through our online quote form, or read the local collection page first.