A damaged car parked in a Pretoria driveway doesn’t get cheaper to keep. It just sits there losing value while the licence renewal date creeps closer. Lou Appels Auto Spares buys those cars, and we’ve been doing it since 1939. Our yard is in Selby, Johannesburg, but distance has never stopped us. Pretoria and Tshwane are part of our normal run. We drive up to inspect and fetch vehicles across the metro, and the collection costs you nothing.
If it is sitting in a Pretoria driveway, you can sell your damaged car in Pretoria to us and we will drive out to collect it.
Whether your car came off worst on the N1 near the Brakfontein interchange, packed up on the N4 out toward Bronkhorstspruit, or has simply refused to start for months, we’ll look at it, make a fair cash offer, and tow it away ourselves. You don’t drive anywhere. You don’t pay for transport. The figure we agree on is the figure that lands in your account.
We are the metro Pretoria sellers drive to, so we come to you instead
The one worry we hear most from Tshwane owners is the gap between them and our Selby gate. Forget it. You never make that trip. We fetch from Pretoria the same way we fetch from a street two blocks from the yard, and the tow is on us either way. The only difference distance makes is timing, and even that is small.
Collection inside Johannesburg can happen the same day, depending on what time you call. For Pretoria and the outlying parts of Gauteng we usually collect the next day. We set a slot, arrive when we say we will, and load the car. Being an hour up the highway costs you nothing and rarely costs you more than a day.
Free collection right across Tshwane
We don’t ask Pretoria sellers to meet us halfway. We come to you, wherever “you” happens to be in the metro. Over the years we’ve collected from quiet suburban streets, office parks, panel beaters, and industrial yards all over the city.
Central and east: Pretoria CBD, Hatfield, Brooklyn, Menlo Park, Lynnwood, Garsfontein, Faerie Glen, Silverton, and Silver Lakes.
North: Montana, Sinoville, Wonderboom, Pretoria North, Annlin, and Dorandia.
South and Centurion: Centurion, Irene, Midstream, Highveld, Rooihuiskraal, Eldoraigne, and Lyttelton.
West and industrial: Akasia, Rosslyn, Pretoria West, Laudium, Atteridgeville, and Ga-Rankuwa.
The N1, N4, and R21 carry a lot of Pretoria’s traffic, and they carry a lot of its accidents too. We know those routes well because we drive them. Rosslyn’s motor plants and the panel shops and workshops around Silverton and Pretoria West keep a steady flow of damaged stock moving, and we buy from that trade as readily as we buy from private owners. If your suburb isn’t named above, don’t read anything into it. Phone us and we’ll arrange a time. We buy throughout the rest of the province as well, so if you’re sitting on the boundary, our Gauteng-wide damaged car buying service covers you either way.
The cars, bakkies, and bakkie-loads of trouble we buy
Bakkies, SUVs, and light commercials
Pretoria runs on bakkies, and we’re always after them. Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger, Isuzu KB and D-Max, Nissan NP200 and NP300, plus the Fortuner and the other SUVs and 4x4s that share their parts. Toyota parts move fastest of anything we stock, because there are more Toyotas on South African roads than anything else, so a Hilux or a Fortuner usually earns the seller a stronger number. Light commercials and panel vans are welcome too.
Accident-damaged vehicles
Front-end collisions, rear-enders, rollovers, side impacts: we’ve bought the lot. Most accident cars come in with front damage, which is exactly where the fast-moving parts live, headlights, bumpers, bonnets, radiators, and fenders. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Polo with a crumpled bonnet or a Ranger folded up beyond repair. We price on what’s salvageable, and there’s almost always more value left in a wreck than owners expect. If your insurer has already declared it a total loss, we can frequently beat the salvage offer they put on the table.
Non-runners and mechanical failures
A car that won’t start is dead money. Blown engine, seized gearbox, dropped clutch, electrical gremlins nobody can pin down: we buy non-runners in every state. When the repair quote climbs past what the car is realistically worth, fixing it stops making sense. Take the cash and move on. We inspect on site, so the condition is no surprise to anyone.
Write-offs, flood, fire, and hail
Storm season in Gauteng leaves hail damage on a lot of bonnets and roofs. We buy hail-damaged cars, flood and fire victims, and write-offs across the board. The short version of the coding system: a Code 2 is an ordinary used vehicle, a Code 3 is a write-off that can be rebuilt and re-registered after passing roadworthy testing, and a Code 4 is permanently demolished and good only for parts or scrap. We buy all three. If you want the full explanation of the codes and how they affect a sale, our guide to selling an accident-damaged car in South Africa walks through it.
One tip before you list it: don’t strip it first
It’s tempting to pull the good parts and sell them separately. In practice it usually leaves you worse off. Once the money parts are gone, what’s left sells slowly, and the offer on the shell drops to match. Because we’re a parts supplier, we’d rather buy the car whole and pay you for the value we can see in it, engine, gearbox, doors, lights, and all. Let us price the complete car.
How selling works for a Pretoria owner
- Send the details. Call us or WhatsApp a few photos with the make, model, year, and a quick note on what’s wrong. Clear pictures of the damage help us price accurately.
- Get an initial offer. We come back with a preliminary figure, usually within a few hours during business time.
- We drive to you. We set a time, inspect the car at your place in Centurion, Montana, or wherever it’s standing, and confirm the offer. For Pretoria that’s normally the next day.
- Paperwork and payment. Accept and we sort the documents on the spot, then pay you by cash or instant EFT.
- We load and go. Collection is free, and a non-runner is no obstacle. We bring what we need to move it.
Our buying office runs Monday to Friday, 9am to 3pm. Outside those hours, send your photos by WhatsApp or email and we’ll reply. If you want every stage laid out before you call, the step by step walkthrough for selling a damaged car or a non-runner covers it in detail.
What documents you’ll need
Keep this short list ready and the handover takes minutes:
- Your SA ID or passport
- The vehicle registration certificate (the RC1, also called the NATIS document)
- Proof of residence less than three months old
- Your banking details for the EFT
- A bank settlement letter if the car is still financed
We complete the Notification of Change of Ownership with you and handle the NATIS deregistration in-house, so the vehicle is properly transferred out of your name. That part matters. We once had a seller who sold a BMW privately, the buyer never transferred it, and the traffic fines and e-toll bills kept arriving in the seller’s name for months. Doing the deregistration ourselves is how we make sure that can’t happen to you.
If the car is still on finance, that’s no obstacle either. WesBank and MFC are quick to issue settlement letters, so a financed car rarely holds anything up. We get the figure from your bank, handle the payout, and any equity left over is yours.
Why a real Gauteng yard beats an anonymous online buyer
Plenty of websites will quote you a number, then chip away at it once a driver arrives, or vanish when you ask who actually owns the business. We’re not that. Lou Appels has traded from the same kind of yard since 1939, now in the third generation of the same family, and we’re also a used-parts supplier. That last point is the reason we tend to pay more than scrap yards. A scrap operation weighs your car as metal. We see the panels, the lights, the gearbox, and the engine that someone else needs, and we pay for that value.
No hidden towing deductions, no last-minute price drops, no runaround. Everything from classic collectors to the latest hybrids comes through our gate, and the philosophy hasn’t changed in three generations: fair prices, honest advice, and professional service.
Frequently Asked Questions
You’re in Joburg. Do you actually come to Pretoria?
Yes, regularly. Tshwane is part of our normal collection route. We’ll inspect and fetch from anywhere in the metro, and the drive is on us.
Is collection genuinely free?
It is. We never deduct towing or transport from your payout. The price quoted in Centurion is the same price you’d get if the car were standing outside our gate in Selby.
How fast does it happen?
Same-day collection is a Johannesburg thing, and it depends on the time you call. For Pretoria and the outlying areas we usually collect the next day, so most sales wrap up within a day or two of your first call.
Can you buy my car if it’s still financed?
Yes. We get the settlement figure from your bank and handle the payout. WesBank and MFC are quick with settlement letters, and if there’s equity left over, that difference is yours. We explain the whole thing before you sign anything.
Do you take written-off cars?
We buy Code 2, Code 3, and Code 4 vehicles. If your insurer has written yours off, call us before you accept their salvage figure, because we can often do better.
Ready to turn that Pretoria wreck into cash? We buy damaged cars across Tshwane and the rest of the province, and you can see exactly what we take on our we buy damaged cars page or read about our wider Johannesburg buying service. Call 011 493 8260, send us a WhatsApp with photos, or drive to 233 Booysens Road, Selby, and we’ll come back to you with a fair offer and free collection.
