How we calculate your offer

Our car scrap value calculator builds the estimate in two layers: a physical floor (what a recycler pays for the metal and converter), and a small premium on top for cars that are worth more than their metal. Showing both is the point - you can see exactly where your number comes from.

Layer 1: the scrap floor

Recyclers pay for the recoverable metal in your car. A junk car is roughly 70% recyclable steel by weight, so we start from your car's typical curb weight and apply the current scrap-steel estimate of about $165 per ton of recoverable metal (as of 2026-08). We deliberately use a maintained weight table by year, make, and model rather than a vehicle database that often reports the wrong weight.

Then we add two things to the floor:

• A regional adjustment. Industrial metros pay more for scrap; remote areas net less after the cost of a tow.
• The catalytic converter - if it is still on the car. It is often the single most valuable part, and we add roughly $90 on a four-cylinder up to $200 on a V8. That is what it contributes to a whole-car offer; sold on its own the part itself ranges wider (see catalytic converter value). If it has already been removed, that value is zero.

Layer 2: the parts-and-demand premium

A car that starts, or has parts worth pulling, is worth more than its scrap weight because it can be resold whole or parted out. We add a premium on top of the floor and keep it deliberately small, so the estimate stays at or below what buyers actually offer (see below). The premium depends on:

• Whether it starts. A car that starts, whether or not it drives, gets about 30% on top of the floor; one that will not start is valued at the floor.
• Title status. A clean title keeps the premium intact; salvage or no title narrows the pool of buyers and lowers it.
• Damage. Clean, minor, or major body damage scales the premium down.
• Flood or fire history, which sharply reduces resale-parts value.

Only the premium shrinks with condition - the scrap floor itself does not. The low end of the range sits up to 20% under the floor to allow for towing and a car in worse shape than described.

We keep the estimate on the low side

We would rather you get an offer above our number than below it. So we checked the calculator against every real Peddle offer on a car sent to Peddle from our site (June-September 2026): of 16 offers, 13 came in at or above the top of our range. Where our records did not show whether the car started, we assumed it did not, which gives our lowest estimate. The 3 below were a pickup Peddle offered $80 for, under a third of its metal value, an older sedan offered $215, and a very small car our weight table does not list. On 3 more cars Peddle made no offer at all. Treat our range as a preliminary estimate and check the buyer's own offer for the exact price.

Why it is a range, not a promise

The final number depends on the car's real condition and current local demand for that vehicle and its parts - things only an in-person buyer can confirm. So we publish a range: the low end is close to pure scrap, the high end is the most we expect a junk-car buyer to pay for a car in the condition you described. It is an estimate, not a final offer. For the step-by-step path from estimate to cash, see how it works.

Frequently asked questions