Cambridge · East of England
Cambridge is a city that prefers bicycles, and plenty of its cars spend more time parked than driven. Once one is no longer needed, an online valuation is the first step towards recycling it.
Prefer to talk? Call 0800 058 8087, free from UK landlines and mobiles.
Start with the registration and the postcode where the car is.
Plenty of Cambridge households own a car they hardly use. Narrow streets in Romsey and Petersfield, permit parking around the centre, and five park and ride sites on the main roads in all push people towards bikes and buses. A car that sits outside the house for months can quietly go flat, rust at the brakes and drop out of its MOT.
That makes Cambridge collections slightly unusual: many of the cars are not broken so much as unwanted. Old or idle, they are all treated the same way. A licensed buyer covering CB postcodes considers the details and calls with an offer, which you can accept or turn down at no cost. The car does not need a current MOT or tax.
On the terraced streets off Mill Road, space is tight and parking is controlled, so tell the collector if the car is in a permit bay. In the newer districts such as Eddington, Trumpington Meadows and the developments east of the centre, cars are often in shared courtyards or underground parking with height limits; mention those when you are called.
Collections reach outwards too, along the A14 to Histon and Milton, and down the M11 towards Great Shelford and Sawston. Cambourne, off the A428, and Ely, up the A10, are covered too, as are the villages in between.
With the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin both in the city, cars are sometimes abandoned when students or visiting researchers leave. If a car that is not yours appears to be dumped, Cambridge City Council investigates abandoned vehicles inside the city boundary, and South Cambridgeshire District Council handles those outside it. If the car is yours, arrange a collection before you go, so it does not end up on the council’s list.
Cambridge at a glance
Neighbourhoods
How it works
Four stages take an unwanted car from your drive to a new life as recycled material. Here’s what happens at each one.
Enter the registration and the postcode where the car is parked. The details go to a licensed buyer who covers that area, and they come back with an offer.
Agree the offer and pick a day. The car is collected free of charge from a drive, a street, a car park or a garage, wherever it happens to be.
The car goes to an Authorised Treatment Facility, where fluids, the battery and hazardous parts are removed safely and the paperwork is completed.
Reusable parts are recovered, and the shell is shredded so the steel, aluminium and other materials can be made into something new.
Questions
Straight answers to what people ask before scrapping a car.
Can’t see your question? Read every answer or call 0800 058 8087.
Yes. Non-runners are collected routinely. Say so when the buyer calls so the right vehicle is sent.
Yes. Cambourne, Histon, Ely and other places around Cambridge are covered.
No. Collection is free wherever the car is in the UK, there are no admin or hidden fees, and turning down an offer costs nothing.
No. Since the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, scrap metal dealers in England and Wales can't pay cash for scrap vehicles. Payment is made by bank transfer or another traceable method.
Get an offer from a licensed local buyer in minutes, with free collection whenever suits you.