Scrap Car Value Calculator

Scrap Car Value Calculator pricing a junk car by curb weight at your state scrap rate, with the converter, aluminum and engine a buyer pays for, minus any towing and no-title cost.

Scrap Car Value Calculator by Weight and Parts

The Scrap Car Value Calculator works out what a junk car is worth from its curb weight and your local scrap rate, then adds what the converter, aluminum, copper and engine are worth to a full-value buyer. It shows the lowest fair offer, a likely offer and the top of the range. It also takes off towing and missing-title charges, so you can compare quotes on the money you actually receive.

Pick your state to fill in a surveyed per-ton rate, or type the rate a yard quoted you. Add the curb weight from the door-jamb sticker and what is still on the car, and the second panel sets the converter type, wheels, wiring, title and any towing charge. Weights are in pounds and rates in dollars per short ton of 2,000 lb.

The Scrap Floor Comes From Weight

A yard buying a car for metal pays on weight. Clunqr notes that yards take roughly 500 lb off the curb weight for tires and fluids, which they pay to dispose of, before applying the per-ton rate. The calculator does the same.

$$\text{Scrap floor} = \frac{\text{Curb weight} – 500}{2000} \times \text{Rate per ton}$$

A 3,400 lb midsize sedan is paid on 2,900 lb. At $175 a ton that comes to about $254, which is the least a fair buyer should offer for the complete car. Yards that quote per hundredweight use the same rate divided by 20, so $175 a ton is $8.75 per 100 lb.

Why the Per-Ton Averages Disagree

Every rate you find online comes from a buyer’s own survey or purchase records, and the national averages do not match. The table runs the same 2,900 lb of paid weight through three figures published by car buyers in the past year. None of them is an independent index, so read them as a range rather than a price.

That is a $58 spread on the same car before any parts are counted. Location widens it further. Clunqr puts Michigan, Illinois and California at the top because they sit near steel mills, shredders and export terminals, and Hawaii at the bottom, roughly $50 a ton lower.

The calculator’s state table, from its June 2026 survey, runs from $195 a ton in California down to $145 in Alaska and Hawaii. Treat any average as a check on a quote, since a yard’s rate on the phone reflects this week’s steel price.

What the Parts Add Above the Floor

A plain scrap yard pays for weight. A full-value buyer also pays for the catalytic converter, the aluminum wheels, the copper in the wiring and the engine as a resellable core. U-Pull-It describes every yard’s payout the same way, as scrap metal value plus the resale value of the parts that are still intact.

The converter is the biggest single item. Reap My Ride values a factory converter on a truck or SUV at $100 to $250, and the calculator uses a wider range for hybrids. With a car converter, alloy wheels and wiring in place, the default sedan carries $372 to $1,015 of parts and metal, and the likely offer lands near $479 with a top-end offer of $654.

Running condition is outside the model, and it matters. Reap My Ride says a running vehicle is worth two to five times a non-running one, so a car that still drives should be priced as a used car first.

Title, Towing and Pulled Parts

Paperwork and pickup come straight off the offer. Reap My Ride puts the deduction for selling without a title at about $160 on average, while a replacement title costs $15 to $50 at the DMV. Tapdump reports that the major online buyers include free towing, while local yards may charge for it.

Pulling parts before you sell usually costs more than it earns. Reap My Ride estimates a missing engine takes $200 to $500 off a junk car’s value. In the default case that drops the gross value by $201, and a stripped shell is worth $313 less than the complete car.

If the car was just totaled by an insurer, its salvage value is the same kind of number. The Total Loss Calculator shows how that salvage figure changes the payout if you keep the car instead.

Scrap Car Questions

How much will a junkyard pay for my car?

For most complete cars in 2026, U-Pull-It puts junkyard payouts at $200 to $500 for compacts, $300 to $700 for midsize sedans and $500 to $1,500 for full-size trucks and SUVs. The low end is the scrap floor, and the gap above it is the parts.

Run your own car’s weight and rate through the calculator to see where it falls. The default 3,400 lb sedan lands at a $254 floor and a $479 likely offer, inside U-Pull-It’s midsize range.

Can I scrap a car without a title?

Often you can, but it costs you. Reap My Ride puts the average deduction at about $160. Since a duplicate title costs $15 to $50, getting one first usually pays for itself several times over.

Set the title option to No Title and the calculator takes the $160 off every figure, so you can see exactly what the missing paperwork is worth to you. On the default sedan, that turns a $479 likely offer into $319.

Is it better to scrap the car or sell the parts?

Selling parts yourself can pay more if you have the time. Tapdump says parting a car out through marketplace listings can double or triple the return, and you then scrap the shell at the per-ton rate.

Selling the car complete is simpler and keeps the converter and engine value with the car. The calculator’s last card shows how much a complete car is worth over a stripped shell, which is the most a part-out has to beat.