The usual trigger is an MOT failure where the quoted repair is worth more than the car. At that point the vehicle cannot legally be driven and paying to fix it makes no sense. Age and mileage bring most cars to the same point eventually, often when a single expensive component fails. Accident damage is another common route, particularly where an insurer has declared the vehicle a total loss. Then there are the cars that have simply stopped being used: sitting on a driveway for years, tax and insurance long lapsed, tyres flat, and slowly becoming somebody's problem. Inherited vehicles fall into this category too, as do cars left behind when someone moves abroad or gives up driving. In all of these, scrapping is not just about clearing space. While the vehicle is still registered to you, so is the liability, which is why the paperwork side matters as much as the collection.