A car that won’t start is the hardest thing to sell privately and the easiest thing to sell to us. Private buyers in Johannesburg want something they can drive away today. We look at the same non-runner and see a gearbox, panels, glass, wheels, and a loom full of working electronics. We tow it ourselves, free, anywhere in Gauteng, so a car being stuck where it stands is our problem, not yours. Whether it has been sitting behind the house for months or died on the way home last week, it is exactly what we buy.
When you are ready to move it on, you can sell your damaged car to us and we tow it free, anywhere in Gauteng.
Why a private sale falls apart
List a non-runner on the usual marketplaces and you will see the pattern fast. The serious buyers knock the price down the moment they realise they have to arrange transport. Nobody wants to pay for a tow truck, a roadworthy, and a repair bill on a car they have not even driven, so the listing sits there for weeks while the tyres go flat and the battery dies properly. Selling it to a yard that pays and collects for free skips all of that. No haggling over who pays for the tow, because we cover it. No roadworthy to arrange, because we are not putting it back on the road in your name. You get one offer, one collection, one payment.
Why a non-runner is still worth real money
This is where most sellers undersell themselves. A scrap yard weighs the car and pays you for metal. We are a used-parts supplier, so we are paying for the parts that still work, which is most of the car. A Polo with a seized engine still has a good gearbox, doors, dash, and lights. A Hilux that will not start is worth a lot in its diff, suspension, and panels alone. Front-end parts move fastest for us, because most damaged cars have front damage, so headlights, bumpers, bonnets, radiators, and fenders rarely sit long. That is why a parts buyer almost always beats a scrap price.
Toyota parts sell fastest, because there are more Toyotas on the road here than anything else, with the Hilux, Fortuner, and Corolla leading. VW comes next, mostly the Polo and Polo Vivo. That demand is why we can pay properly for a non-running one. For the longer version on crash damage, the guide to selling your accident-damaged car in South Africa covers it, and the page on selling a non-running vehicle spells out the non-runner side.
Do not strip it first
It is tempting to pull the good bits off yourself and sell them one by one. In practice it usually leaves you worse off. Once the money parts are gone, what is left sells slowly, and the offer on the shell drops accordingly. Bring us the whole car and we value all of it in one number. You save the effort and you end up ahead.
The common reasons a car stops
It usually comes down to one of a handful of things, and none of them change the fact that we will buy the car as it stands.
Engine failure
Seized, knocking, overheated, or just tired after high mileage. A replacement engine often costs more than an older car is worth, so people park it and leave it. The rest of the car is still full of sellable parts, and the engine itself remains our most valuable single part even when it needs work. More on this in the breakdown of what to do with a car that has a bad engine.
Gearbox trouble
Slipping autos, crunching manuals, a clutch that is finished. Gearbox repairs climb fast, and on a car with a few hundred thousand kays it rarely makes sense to spend the money. To us a clean gearbox is one of the most valuable single parts in the car, so you are not getting paid scrap rates for it.
Electrical faults
This is the one that frustrates owners most. The car cranks but will not fire, or it dies randomly, or the immobiliser locks it out and three workshops cannot agree on the cause. Chasing an intermittent electrical gremlin can cost more than the fault is worth. We buy them either way, because the loom, modules, and everything around the fault still have value.
Standing for months or years
A car parked behind the house since lockdown, on a deceased estate, or left when someone emigrated. Seals dry out, the fuel goes off, rodents get into the wiring. It might run again with money thrown at it, but most people would rather it was just gone. We take those daily.
You do not move it, we do
This is the part that makes it easy. We collect non-runners ourselves, free, anywhere in Gauteng: Johannesburg, Pretoria and the rest of Tshwane, the East Rand, the West Rand, and down into the Vaal. No tow bill, no trailer hire, no pushing it into the street to make it reachable. Collection is usually same day within Johannesburg depending on the time, and next day for Pretoria and the outlying areas. It can be sitting flat in a locked garage and we will still come and fetch it. We have loaded a bakkie from a back yard with no keys, wheels stolen, and a boundary beam blocking the truck, by bringing spare wheels and working it into position, so a boom-gated complex or a tight spot does not stop us. If you are in the capital, the page for selling a damaged car in Pretoria has the local detail.
The paperwork is handled
We complete the NATIS Notification of Change of Ownership in-house, so the vehicle comes off your name properly and cannot come back to haunt you. One seller sold a car privately instead of to us, the buyer never transferred it, and traffic fines and e-toll bills kept arriving for months. Doing the deregistration ourselves is how we stop that happening. If the car is still on finance, that is fine too. WesBank and MFC are quick with settlement letters, so a financed non-runner is no trouble to sort out.
How it works
- Tell us what is wrong and send a few photos on WhatsApp, or just phone and describe it.
- We give you a cash offer, usually within hours.
- We come to you, confirm the offer in person, and pay same day by cash or instant EFT.
- We load the car and tow it away at no cost, and we handle the paperwork.
What you will need to have ready
Keep this simple. You will want your SA ID or passport, the vehicle registration certificate (the RC1 or NATIS document), proof of residence under three months old, and your banking details for the EFT. If the car is still financed, bring a bank settlement letter so we can sort out the balance. We complete the Notification of Change of Ownership so the vehicle comes off your name properly.
Frequently asked questions
Will you really buy a car that does not run at all?
Yes. A non-runner is a normal part of what we do. The engine not starting does not lower the value of the gearbox, panels, glass, or electronics, and those are what we are paying for.
Do I pay anything for the tow?
No. Collection is free across Gauteng. The price we quote is the price you get, with nothing taken off for transport.
What if it is a write-off or still financed?
We buy Code 2, Code 3, and Code 4 vehicles, and we deal with financed cars all the time. Bring the bank settlement letter and we will work the balance into the deal.
Get an offer today
Lou Appel’s Auto Spares has been buying cars at our yard on Booysens Road in Selby since 1939, three generations of the same family. Because we supply used parts, we pay more than a scrap yard counting metal, and we collect non-runners across Gauteng for free. Send us photos on WhatsApp, drive to 233 Booysens Road, Selby, or call 011 493 8260 and we will tell you what your car is worth today.
