Cash for clunkers Kiwi style as auction firm tackles wrecks

Photo / Northern Advocate

Backyard mechanics rejoice - an auction company is offering to sell your rusting car wreck for free.

From tomorrow, Turners Auctions will offer free auctions to people wanting to offload old, polluting, unfixable cars, with profits going to the owner. As part of the deal, the car has to be deregistered.

A spokesman said the company wanted to help deal with some of the roughly 100,000 vehicles that became too unsafe, broken down or expensive to drive each year - so they did not end up rusting in a paddock.

The cars will be sold at no reserve and for no auction fee through a specialist auction division, Turners Damaged Vehicle Auctions.

Turners would take the proceeds of the sale if they were required to tow the vehicle.

Spokesman Todd Hunter said people would be surprised what an old car could fetch. "Even the saddest old wreck can fetch $200-plus as scrap."

He said the company was concerned about the environmental issues associated with used vehicles. "Vehicles that have been retired to a paddock or the backyard are exposed to the elements, leading to corrosion and engine and brake fluids leaking into the soil and waterways."

The offer runs until December 1 and follows a similar trial in 2007, when 238 drivable vehicles and 73 non-drivable vehicles were sold in three months.

For more information, see www.turners.co.nz.