Why do they crush cars?

[Carrot]

When a car is taken by the police or local council for an infringement, and then eventually crushed - why do they do this?

Surely it would make more sense to auction the vehicle off (assuming it is not a complete stbucket), thereby keeping a vehicle on the road, not having to pay / arrange for its disposal and also making the money back from the unpaid fine and storage fees.

Even if the owner decided to buy it back at auction, the council or authority still make money...

[Carrot]

Caruso said:

thinfourth2 said:

As most of them are complete st buckets

And crushing them typically means 1 less uninsured car on the road.

I agree, but there have been a few good ones which I have seen in the news, and one that I know of personally that was taken away which were very good cars, and crushed.

It just seems like a monumental waste. It would create jobs for the auction houses, and get some money back from those that have been driving illegally for so long.

Even a £500 car which is a good runner is still £500 that someone doesn't have to pay towards scrapping it?

[Carrot]

CampDavid said:

Unfortunately some councils are retarded enough to crush the wrong cars

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-2339211...

Spackers

Holy st!!!!

[Carrot]

madala said:

Caruso said:

thinfourth2 said:

As most of them are complete st buckets

And crushing them typically means 1 less uninsured car on the road.

....it ain't rocket science.....

Yes but this is my point - assuming it was a relatively good car (for arguments sake, £3,500 worth of reasonable spec eurobox), and someone purchased it from an auction house for £2,000 at auction, that is the same car, with profit made and insured on the road.

It only remains uninsured if it is not saleable, and in these times a lot of people are after a cheap reliable runabout, which some of these cars are.

IF it is a stheap, then it gets cubed anyway so no extra loss.

[Carrot]

redgriff500 said:

Why on earth are they all stored there ?

Either sell, break or crush them but what are the costs to transport and store them there ?

IMO

1) The Gov't have no idea and don't care what you think

2) They think the less used cars about will mean more new cars bought

3) They don't want peasants on the road

4) They think anyone who would drive sub £2k cars are likely to be uninsured

5) They don't give a st about common sense / green issues / recycling

Spot on.

There has definitely been a lack of decent sub £500 cars recently. I prefer cheaper cars (yes fully insured...) for daily runabouts so I don't have to care about vandalism in car parks and stuff.

As I never have intended to buy a new car, scrappage scheme did me more harm than good in the long run.

[Carrot]

sunbeam_alpine said:

It's not surprising that garages don't risk it any more.

I totally agree. But even privately, it is near on impossible to find something at £500 or less that isn't either

a) A complete, and I mean complete total rustbucket with no MoT

b) A non runner or "spares or repair"


Can traders sell cars under the Spares or Repairs label to avoid the SOGA? May be a good idea for the really low end bangernomics scale of things.