Selling Direct to the Yard
A significant share of “cash for cars” operators in Canberra do not own a yard. They have a truck and a phone number, they buy your car, and they sell it on to a licensed facility for more than they paid you. There is nothing improper about it, but there is a margin in the middle, and it comes out of your price.
We process vehicles at our own facility in Hume. When you sell to us there is no intermediate sale, which is the whole reason direct-to-yard pricing is worth seeking out.
What happens to a car once it reaches Hume
The sequence is the same for every vehicle. It is booked in against the record of purchase, then depolluted — fuel, engine oil, transmission and brake fluid, coolant and refrigerant all drained and captured, and the battery removed. Only then does dismantling begin.
Salvageable components are removed, tested and inventoried for resale. The catalytic converter is taken for separate processing. What remains is a stripped shell, which goes for metal recycling by weight.
You can drive it in, or we can come to you
If the car still runs and you would rather deal with it in one trip, you are welcome to bring it to the yard. Some people prefer this — it is quick, and you see where the vehicle ends up.
It makes no difference to what you are paid. There is no premium for delivering it yourself and no deduction for us collecting it, because the free tow is already built into how we price. Choose whichever is less trouble for you.
How the assessment works at the yard
Nothing about the process is meant to be opaque. The vehicle is assessed on the same factors we would have discussed on the phone: whether the driveline is intact and turning, what parts are recoverable, whether the catalytic converter is present, and what the shell weighs.
If any of that differs from what was described, the driver or yard staff will tell you exactly what changed and why before anything is signed. You can decline and take the car home. We would rather lose a purchase than have someone feel they were worked over at the last minute.
A licensed facility, and why it matters to you
Our yard operates under the ACT’s environmental and motor vehicle requirements, which means captured fluids, proper battery and tyre disposal, and records kept of every vehicle bought and processed.
For you the practical benefit is documentary. You get a receipt of sale establishing that the vehicle left your ownership on a specific date — which matters if anything involving that car ever surfaces later.
Where we are
The yard is in Hume, in the ACT’s south-east industrial area just off the Monaro Highway. It is a short run from Fyshwick, Symonston and the Tuggeranong Valley, and comfortably reachable from anywhere in Canberra or Queanbeyan. We do not run a retail shopfront or sell parts over the counter to the public — call first and we will arrange a time.
