Grandpa's Clunkers, Moving Inoperative Vehicles

My grandfather worked as an auto mechanic until a bad back had him shifting into car sales as his day job. However, he still kept his mechanic skills and started to use them more after he retired from the sales job.

One of his money-makers in retirement was to go to the car auctions and get a, say, $500 clunker, put $300 of parts into it and sell it for $2000. My first two cars were such refurbished clunkers given to me by Grandpa, so I didn’t have to make a car payment until I was well into my 30s after he passed on.

Moving such clunkers around can present a challenge. If a car is partly mobile, it can be rolled on and off a trailer, but cars that are immobile create a different challenge. Forklifts might be needed to move the car to and from the trailer rather than be rolled or winched onto a trailer; that’s going to have a tendency to damage the car. Such loading and unloading damage is at the risk of the car owner.

Momentum has an active inoperative vehicle transport, which can come in handy for folks like junk yards and used parts sellers, who will buy inoperative cars for their parts; other folks might buy one or more non-functioning cars at an auction, and like my Grandpa, nurse them back to health with the right repairs. What’s left of the Cash for Clunkers cars after the engines are trashed (by law, they have to be) are candidates for such a service as well.

However, not just everyone with a tow truck can move inoperative vehicle. Make sure to get a good shipper.