Catalytic converter stolen? You can still scrap the car

We still buy it. The number is lower.

You start the car and it sounds like a race car. Under it, where the exhaust used to be one piece, there is a gap. Someone has cut the catalytic converter off. It has happened to a lot of cars in Durham and Northumberland over the last few years.

Why they take it

The converter is the part of the exhaust that cleans it, and what is inside it is worth money to thieves. Trucks and SUVs that sit high off the ground get hit most, because there is room to slide under with a saw.

If you are keeping the car

Report it to the police and call your insurer. A replacement converter is not cheap, and whether the car is worth it is your call.

If you are done with the car

Tell us the converter is gone when you call. We still buy the car. The number will be lower than for the same car with the converter on it, because the converter is a big share of what a scrap car is worth. We would rather hear it on the phone than have the driver find it under the car on pickup day.

Don’t replace it just to sell it to us

A new converter costs more than it would add to a scrap offer. Leave it off.

The rest is the same

The car doesn’t need to run. Towing is included. You need the ownership, your plates come off, and the driver takes it from where it sits.

Written at the yard.