How to get cash for your junk car the easy way

junk car removal / cash for cars

Is your car beyond the point of repair? If so, you might be thinking of getting rid of it. There are several ways you can get rid of your junk car and get some fast cash simultaneously, but today I want to emphasize the easiest way to go about it.

The first and more difficult options are taking your car to the local scrap yard yourself where you might be able to get some cash for the scrap metal and auto parts. You can also list your car for sale on local marketplaces like Kijiji Autos. But these ways aren’t as easy as the following method.

You may not be aware of this but most towing companies offer a cash for car service also known as junk car removal or scrap car pick up. In my years working in the automotive industry I’ve seen thousands of cars come and go this way. A good car will last you up to 30 years, but after that it may become a headache to maintain. That’s why there’s no shame in looking up something like junk car removal Victoria BC, for example, to find a cash for cars company near you. You can expect anywhere from $80 to $1,200 for you junk car depending on the condition.

In a previous post I talked about when you should repair or sell your car, and I highly suggest reading that post if you’re still unsure whether or not you want to sell your car for scraps or attempt to repair it. Essentially, if the cost of repair is more than the value of the vehicle, then it makes more sense to sell it than repair it, but I got into way more detail.

In my experience I’ve scrapped four cars in my life. Once as a teenager where I got a measly $200 for my Buick. Again in college when I got $130 for a Toyota truck, and then twice more later in life when I thought it was easier to order junk car removal than attempt to repair a vehicle or sell it myself.

So, to conclude, the easy way to get cash for your junk car is to search for a junk car removal/cash for cars company near you. Every city should have at least several companies that provide this service. Another term for this service is auto wrecker, and some companies only offer auto wrecker service and don’t even offer towing. And another thing I love about doing this is not only can you get your car off you hands and get some easy cash at the same time, you can relax knowing your car will be properly recycled by professionals. It’s the best, easiest way to go about it, and now you know!

All the best.

Posted in Cars, Tow Trucks | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

My hope for solar powered cars in the future

A while back I wrote a post about why I’d never drive electric cars, but since then my opinion has changed. Here’s what I have to say about that:

Assuming there will still be bright sunny skies in the future, because I’m a positive-thinker, I’d hope that electric cars can be powered by solar energy one day. Even tow trucks, public transportation buses and fancy limousines, all vehicles of the world, wherever possible, could be charged from solar panels on the roof of the vehicles. The paint of the cars could look great so that people of today would never guess they were solar panels.

solar
The Sun

Even after a car is driving around in the sun all day and arrives home with a dead battery, solar panels on the home can have a store of electricity in a battery in the garage so that you can charge your electric vehicle with solar power at all hours of the day.

This combined with futuristic water-cooled motors that require way less energy than our modern ones, and streamlined vehicles that make traveling comfortable and affordable, my hope for the future of solar powered cars is very bright.

So I’ll keep my hopes up! Check out similar posts.

Posted in Cars, Driving, Thoughts and Feelings | Tagged , | Leave a comment

When to know if your old car is worth fixing or selling

If you’re a young adult or have an old car, without much car knowledge or experience, it may be a mistake to get continual engine repair if for the same cost you can get a reliable used car. Today, I’ll go over my experience in this regard and my hope will be that this blog post can help you decide if you should get costly car repairs or sell your car for scraps and get a new one.

The first thing you want to do, even if you have a feeling that selling your car is the way you’ll be going, is to get a simple diagnosis, which can cost anywhere from $50 to $120, depending on the mechanic, so that you’ll know exactly what’s wrong with your car and how much it’ll cost to repair.

Then, if you find a car for sale that only costs $700 but your repairs will come to $1,200, then what would be the logical decision to make? Sentimental value and how much you can afford might play a role in your decision. Also, you should be sure on how reliable that $700 car will be because a month after you buy it it might need further repairs. That’s usually the way for old cars.

Cars from the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s will always need to be maintained, often with unexpected issues that arise as a consequence of regular use. So you have to ask yourself if, just to save a few hundred dollars in the short term, is it worth selling the car you love for another used one that you’re not as fond of.

In my case, when I was in my mid-twenties deciding what to do with my old car from 1982, I loved my car so much, had developed so many memories with it, that I didn’t hesitate to pay over $2,000 in various repairs even though I could’ve probably find a used car for much less than that. This ended up being a huge mistake, however, because the repairs kept adding up and just a year later, when a new engine repair bill would cost a further $1,300 on a car I had only paid $700 for, I decided to give up and I sold my beloved 1982 car for scraps for a measly $250 and bought another used $700 car.

As you’ll guess, even this newer but used car ended up needing costly repairs just a year later. I decided to learn from my mistake and instead of paying another $1,200 to fix it, I sold it for scraps and got another used car. I ended up doing this every few years until I could finally afford to buy a brand new car. Brand new cars, by the way, don’t require expensive repairs liked used ones will, because, well, they’re new and typically come with good warranties.

So just remember that if your goal is to save money that you’re probably going to end up having to repair any used vehicle down the road. So you can either keep repairing a car that you love or buy and sell used cars every few years until you can afford a brand new one. If you can afford a brand new one, the upfront cost might be scary but if you can make it last you over 10 years then you’ll find that you saved a lot of money in the long run depending on the price of the car. I hope this information helped.

Good luck!

Posted in Cars, Mechanics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

My favorite song to drive to

Whenever I’m feeling low and just need a place to go, I go into my car and play my favorite song to drive to. I know many other guys like me who have a similar ritual. Honestly, if it weren’t for my love of cars and this song I think there have been enough tragedies in my life to make me think I might be in jail if I didn’t have something to help me calm down and cope with loss.

This ritual of mine, of playing the same song on repeat for several hours while just driving around my city for the heck of it, has saved my life, has kept me sober when I wanted nothing more than to escape from reality.

I owe my luck and fortune to “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” by McFadden & Whitehead. If you know this song then you’ll know why it’s so nice to listen to while driving. After all, no one can stop you when you’re in a one ton truck going 60 miles per hour.

So here I will share my favorite song to drive to and hope that young men l0oking for a mechanism to cope with hardship these days can find this gem and avoid doing anything they’d regret.

Posted in Driving, Thoughts and Feelings | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Noticing the beauty of where you live

On my blog all about cars and trucks I want to change things up today. Instead of talking about the joys of driving or the malpractice of mechanics, I want to talk about something simple yet very human and universal.

For many people, 2020 and much of 2021 have been years of more alone time than usual. I won’t get into why, but we all know it. Many people have had time to self reflect more than they would’ve otherwise. Most people I know came out of this self-reflection opportunity to realize they need to travel more. They suddenly have a drive to travel whereas before they didn’t care to.

These same people suddenly have a new outlook on where they currently live. It might be because they’re mad at the government for the lockdown restrictions or it could be because they really think this way, but they no longer see home as beautiful. They think home is something they need to escape from, and I can understand this after being locked up in your home for so long. But it’s wrongful thinking, in my opinion. And here’s why.

grateful for beauty

It’s not healthy to never notice the beauty of where you live because then you’ll never see the paradise in your own back yard. You’ll now longer be as nice to your neighbors and your attitude wont be doing anything to help the return of tourism in your area. Maybe a vacation will make these people appreciate the beauty of where they live more, but I’m worried it’s too late for others.

A dear friend of mine who lives in a gorgeous stone house overlooking hilly ranges just outside of Ottawa, Ontario has one of the nicest back yards you’ll ever visit. He has a terraced landscape with water fountains and an outdoor fireplace on his concrete patio, all of which he paid good money to a stone masonry Ottawa contractor to construct for him last year, yet he fails to see the beauty in it himself. He’s so ungrateful for the beauty in his own back yard that it drives me crazy to think about. People around the world would die to lounge on his patio and stare out over the view but he just complains about Ottawa and talks about how he can’t wait to leave this place.

If you know anyone like this then you can probably see my point quite clearly now. Failing to see the beauty in where you live increases the chances of becoming cynical and ungrateful for what you already have. This is like always seeing the grass as greener on the other side. But we all use that maxim to mean maybe its time to look at your own grass in a different way. Maybe the grass really is greener where you are, but you’re just not thinking about it properly.

Anyway, I don’t want this rant to deter anyone from traveling once your local lockdown restrictions are lifted. I just want to remind you to look around and appreciate your local environment. If you live there in the first place, then surely there must be something you like about it.

Thank you.

Posted in Thoughts and Feelings | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The joys of driving

Everyone who loves driving could write their own book on why they love it so much, so here’s mine. Though it may not be a book because I want to make this brief today, you may find substance in what I’ll say.

Here are my top 5 joys I get from driving:

joy ride
  1. The breeze in my hair when the windows are rolled down.
  2. The fun in steering around corners and bends when the car has tough handling and involves a lot of focus, which is typically found in older cars.
  3. An excuse to blast loud music so long as I’m not bothering anyone in quiet residential areas.
  4. Winking at pretty ladies as I drive by (I only do this when they smile at me first).
  5. Feeling the power of the engine when I hit the gas at a green light.

I could add hundreds of more joys to this list but I think you get the point. Some of these may be on your list, because no matter how unique every driver is, driving itself is a universal activity and it doesn’t change much from one continent to the next.

So on that note, I’ll be out for a joy ride on this beautiful day. Bye for now.

Posted in Cars, Driving | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Doing what’s right for your customer

After working in the automotive industry my whole life, I learned many times over that most people in this industry are here because they sincerely love trucks and cars and stuff, but another portion of people are just here to make money. Sadly, those who deal with cars and trucks who only do it for the money find ways to make more money than they deserve and this usually comes at the cost of the oblivious and oftentimes too trusting customer.

This is what I want to talk about today, so that people who practice these cheating ways can learn a lesson and others like me who have lived a life of serving customers right can understand why others don’t do that so much.

My example will deal with mechanics. This may not surprise you. Mechanics who are mechanics just to make money and don’t really have a passion for cars are known to tinker with your engine negatively hoping that you’ll come back in the future. They purposely will do things like give you an oil leak so that after a few months you’ll come back to their shop and give them more money. This is really wrong and I get mad every time I hear of this happening even though over my life I’ve heard of it happening hundreds of times with different mechanics across Canada and the United States.

mechanics

The best way to avoid these dirty mechanics is to pay a bit more at a larger commercial mechanic shop like Canadian Tire. If you’re new to an area because you’re passing through or just moved there, then you might want to get the best deal and go to a small mechanic. Sadly, these small mechanics are more like to to screw you over, so another way to avoid cheating mechanics is to go on places like Reddit and Facebook groups to get testimonials on local mechanics and find one that is highly recommend by locals who live in the area.

To illustrate this, I did the same thing to find a good towing company when my car broke down not long ago passing through Ontario. I did some research to find a good towing Scarborough company and ended up finding a really good one that I can trust again for quality service in the future.

It’s also sad but true that these cheating mechanics who are trying to make more money end up doing themselves a disservice. It’s much more lucrative to please your customers so that they come back naturally rather than by design. Especially in small local areas, it’s wise for anyone in the automotive industry to strive for a reputation of being fair and honest. If you’re even suspected of being anything other than honest then rumors will spread and you’ll lose out on money.

So to understand why people don’t treat their customers right, the easiest way to explain it is because they’re misinformed about why it’s important to be an honest service provider. This goes for any industry, not just the automotive one in my opinion.

I hope I was able to clear this up for some people and teach a lesson to those who still perform malpractice.

Cheers,

Mr. Rentacar3000

Posted in Cars, Mechanics, Tow Trucks | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Why I’ll never drive an electric car

From the title you may hate me already. But hear me out. It’s not what you think!

I’ll never drive an electric car not because I don’t care about the environment (I support green energy), but rather because I expect the value of old gasoline cars to skyrocket in 50 years after they’re no longer being made. If I can keep my gasoline powered cars in good condition by using them and tuning them up every year, I believe they could be worth millions of Doge Coins or whatever we’re using as currency by then.

electric

If I drove an electric car it’d be harder to keep my gasoline cars in good condition, because driving them regularly keeps the engine in good shape. Trust me, you don’t want to let a car sit for six months let alone 50 years.

For example, if I had held onto my first car, it would be worth nearly 20x what I paid for it.

That’s all!

Posted in Cars | Tagged , | Leave a comment

How to know which tow truck companies to trust

The first thing I do when I want to know what tow truck company to choose is look at their website. Why do I do this? I do this because lately I’ve been putting a lot more faith in newer towing companies with youthful crews than the old ones. Sure, old towing companies that have been around for ages serving local communities might seem like the best choice, but many of them only stuck around because of necessity and the newer companies that are passing them in revenue are doing so because they have better prices, friendlier staff and most importantly they have better equipment which saves us all time.

how to choose the best towing company

A lot of the newer companies in where I live in Ontario are extended branches of companies that had to grind their way to the top in Toronto. They deserved growth and prosperity because the provided the best service and word of mouth made sure their efforts weren’t squandered.

Now what does looking at a companies website have to do with all this?

Nearly every time, I can tell right away if a towing company is up to date with the local times by how modern their website looks. Is it responsive to mobile? Does the company owner even care if his website is tailored and easy to use?

A lot of old school towing companies that have fallen behind think of a website as nothing but a virtual business card. But this is 2021 and a website can do so many things like online booking, instant quotes via email, FAQ bots, cryptocurrency payments and much more.

This is all just what I got by when choosing my tow truck services, so take it with a grain of salt but I know it works. If you want to know why my opinion has some authority in these matters, feel free to read up on my history.

Cheers.

Posted in Tow Trucks | Tagged , | Leave a comment

My first car

Don’t laugh, but my first car back when I was in high school many, many years ago was a red Beatle. My friends still haven’t stopped making fun of me for it, but the truth is my rich girlfriend gave it to me. She was amazing, but she moved away without telling me. Sad day, but I drove that red Beatle all summer and managed to pick up another lassie in it. Ah, those were the days.

I remember blasting real hard rock and roll. Not that crap they call “hard rock” today, I mean the real rock and roll with a bit of toughness to it. I would turn the volume up, hit the downtown streets and whistle at girls with my buddies all day. Then we’d drive to the lake, crunch beers and smokes and we were on top of the world!

That car was a piece of crap, but I’d give almost anything to go back to those days…

Posted in Cars | Tagged | Leave a comment