Sell my broken car in Livingston

If your car will not start, has a warning light the garage wants a fortune to fix, or has just failed its MOT, you can sell it to us exactly as it is. Send the registration and a plain description of the fault, and we reply with a firm price. There is nothing to repair first and no charge for collection.

The car is collected from Livingston on a recovery vehicle, so it never needs to move under its own power. Payment is by bank transfer to an account in your name. As a rule, the cars we buy go to a licensed Authorised Treatment Facility, which issues the Certificate of Destruction and notifies the DVLA when a car is scrapped.

Livingston is roughly 130 miles from our Fort William base and shares scheduled runs with Edinburgh and the rest of West Lothian. The date is agreed when you accept the price. Tell us if the car is in a garage court, a shared car park or on a narrow street, so we send the right truck. Industrial units are fine. Postcodes, districts and how collection runs in Livingston are on our local page.

Getting a firm price for a car with a fault

The price for a broken car depends on what is wrong, so the description matters more than it does for a plain scrap car. Start with the basics: does the engine turn over, does it start and cut out, or is it completely dead? List the warning lights on the dashboard. If a garage has looked at it, pass on what they found, whether that is fault codes, an MOT failure sheet or a repair estimate. Tell us whether the car rolls, steers and brakes, because that affects loading. Mention anything already replaced or removed. With that information we can give you one firm figure, and it is the figure you are paid if the car matches your description.

Weighing a repair bill against a sale

A repair can make sense when the fault is cheap to fix and the rest of the car is sound. It makes less sense when the estimate is a large share of the car's value, when parts are hard to find, or when the MOT has also turned up corrosion or suspension work. Private buyers will knock money off for any known fault, so a repair does not always come back in full when you sell. Before deciding, ask a garage for a written estimate and send it to us with the reg. You can then compare a firm offer for the car as it stands with the true cost of fixing it, and choose with the numbers in front of you.

Collection day for a broken car

A car that will not run is loaded onto a recovery vehicle, so the engine does not matter, but access does. The driver needs to reach the car, so tell us in advance if the wheels will not turn, the handbrake has seized, a tyre is flat or the steering lock is on without a key. Clear a path if the car is in a garage or tucked behind another vehicle. Until collection day, a car kept on a street in Livingston must be taxed, insured and have a valid MOT. Remove your belongings. After collection, tell the DVLA online or with the yellow V5C/3 slip that you sold the car to the motor trade. On the day the driver checks the car against your description and your photo ID, then loads it. We pay by bank transfer to an account in your name once those checks are done.

Read our full guide to selling a broken car, see how we price and collect, or ask for a firm price.