I have a 1995 VW Jetta, 5spd, manual trans car. Unfortunately the body integrity of this car is non-existent. I got a lemon, and it’s rusting apart, so much so that yesterday my radiator almost fell out of the front of my car, and is now being held up by bungie cords. I could take it to a repair place, but I know they’re going to tell me there’s not much they can do because there’s nothing sturdy enough on the underside of the car to attach anything to. The car has 114,000 miles on it, but the engine easily has another 100,000 miles use. Sadly, the body of the car will make it another 20 miles if I’m lucky. If you pop the hood, everything under it looks brand new. I’m thinking I may be forced to sell my car for scraps and find something else to drive. Not being well versed in the world of buying and selling car parts I’m looking for advice or suggestions on what a decent asking price would be, or if there’s an entirely different avenue I should explore.
Donate it to your favorite local charity and take the deduction.
I don’t know if this is feasible for you, but my brother once owned a 1971 or 1972 Datsun (Nissan) pick up truck. A frame rail rusted through and the truck sort of folded on one side between the cab and the bed. He jacked the frame sides straight and using two C-clamps, spiced in a 4 by 4 and got it home. He then searched and located another Datsun truck of about the same age with a blown engine and swapped the engine from his truck into the other truck.
It might be worth investigating to see if you can find another Jetta with a bad engine but a good body and swap your engine into it. Or, you might advertise your Jetta for sale for parts only (but you must remvove the whole car) Maybe someone could use the engine and running gear.
We once owned a somewhat rare car, not to imply that your VW is rare, but we, young and poor at the time, wanted to go on vacation from the midwest to the New England states with an old car having over 100k miles. The parts supply system would most likely fail us if we had a breakdown. I found a few critical spare parts from a guy who was parting out his same year/model car from his garage at home. You should be able to get more money for your car that way and not be in known violation of local zoning laws for at least one time. Buyers of parts can remove them from the car, saving you the work.
Thank your local winter salt crews for the rust. Your car can rust out or crash out!