Piston Slap: Karma, Cash And Choosing a Final Resting Place

by Sajeev Mehta

Updated: May 16th, 2014 Published: April 25th, 2011

piston slap karma cash and choosing a final resting place

Jayson writes:

Sajeev,

I have a couple of Q45’s that are ready for retirement. They have been great highway rides, but I just don’t have the time or desire to keep them running anymore. Since I no longer have time to wrench on them, parting them out is a no-go and neither is going to leave the driveway under their own power. My question is what is the best way to dispose of a dead car or two?

Should I just call a local wrecking yard or just sell them for scrap?

Call the “We need your used car” charities for a donation?

Sajeev answers:

Much like the beginning of one’s automotive journey at new car dealerships, shopping around for the best deal (or most karmic benefit) in your ride’s final resting place is very, very wise.

Case in point: a friend once donated a 1992-ish Pontiac Grand Am to a local Battered Woman’s shelter. I had wrenched on said vehicle, and while the oxblood interior and maroon paint was bleached out by Texas summers, it was a strong runner with cold A/C. I was proud of my friend for doing the right thing, hoping someone who needs a second chance puts this Pontiac to good use. And he got a decent tax donation for it.

As this (biased?) chart from Cars 4 Causes shows, there’s a benefit to donating your car outside of the moral goodness of your heart. But let’s get serious: we’re talking about Infiniti Q45s, not durable Rangers or desirable Civics.

They are not gonna find a new home that’ll love and cherish them. I’d post them as parts cars on craigslist: someone might need a Q45 parts car! Then consider donating to a charity, or scrapping outright. Question is: will you get more if you go straight to the junkyard and eliminate the middlemen?

Or, considering the car, does that even matter if the right charity tugs at your heartstrings? Off to you, Best and Brightest.

Send your queries to mehta@ttac.com. Spare no details and ask for a speedy resolution if you’re in a hurry.

Sajeev Mehta

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2 of 14 comments

Jberger on Apr 25, 2011

As luck would have it, these were picked up by a local pull-a-part last week. They gave me $500 for both with no charge for pickup, avg selling prices in the classified was $850-1000 ea. I called around to the local salvage yards and junk car buyers with very little interest, plus the towing costs would have eaten up most of the scrap value. The only outright offer was from a junkyard offering $100 for both. I'm guessing the pull-a-part dealer has a ready market for the parts, thus the higher offer. After reading up on the tax code changes, I skipped the charity for cars idea. Nicoclub.com is the internet spot for Infiniti owners, I was active there and it's predecessor site for years but I'm just too busy to do my own wrenching anymore. My local moonlighting nissan tech was just not motivated enough to tackle the underhood hoses on either unit and they were leaking to the point of being one hot manifold away from a Car-B-Q.

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Ajla on Apr 25, 2011

I would have gone with making a V8 coffee table, headlight/taillight light fixtures, engine block wine rack, leather upholstered office furniture, and piston rod door handles.

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