Chevy Cavalier Catalytic Converter Scrap Price and Ways to Sell It

Chevrolet Cavalier is a very important project of General Motors that formed the company's lineup and is still popular, but not in the US. The Cavalier model is now being sold in China and Mexico. But in the United States, they stopped selling this vehicle in 2005. Anyway, it was a very popular vehicle that brings a lot of warm memories for people who owned this car.

Some Americans still own Cavaliers and some of these cars are still in a good condition. But due to their age, the vehicles have problems with catalytic converters very often. In our today's video, we'll tell you how you can sell the catalytic converter from your Chevrolet Cavalier. It's one of the main tasks if you want to spend less money on a new cat converter.

Here's what we'll be talking about:

1. Chevrolet Cavalier catalytic converter - location and other details.
2. How much is a Cavalier cat converter scrap?
3. Why should you sell a cat converter and get some money?
4. Who can buy a Chevy Cavalier catalytic converter?

Let's get started!

What's the cat converter in your Chevy Cavalier?

These vehicles had L4 and V6 gasoline engines. The latest generation that was made between 1995 and 2005 had only 4-cylinder engines starting with 2.2 liters and up to 2.4 liters. These were just simple engines with no special technologies. They are now quite old. By the way, not all vehicles of the first and the second generations of the Cavalier had cat converters at all.

But in the last generation, all Cavaliers were equipped with one single catalytic converter. This was just an average GM cat converter that was placed under the vehicle closer to the muffler. The catalytic converter is not big and heavy, so it doesn't cost a lot of money, unfortunately, but you can still sell it.

Here are some facts you should know:

• your Chevy Cavalier has a mid-sized General Motors catalytic converter that is not expensive, but still costs some money;
• the original catalytic converter shouldn't be light and shabby, usually, it has a serial number on it and also the Chevy logo;
• if your cat converter is welded into the exhaust system, chances are you have an aftermarket converter;
• you can only sell the original catalytic converter and get a good price for your cat, this is a very important thing to remember;
• the cat converters are made of thick metal, so they are heavy, these cats have a ceramic honeycomb inside;
• also, these catalytic converters have about 5 grams of platinum, 4-5 grams of palladium, and about 1 gram of rhodium.

You can see that the cats have quite a lot of precious metals compared to some different catalytic converters. And that's why recycling companies will be glad to buy them for getting revenue after selling these metals to industrial companies and other buyers. But before that, they will need to recycle the cats which is not a simple and cheap thing to do.

So, unfortunately, the price will not be as huge as you may want it to be. If you count up all the metals and all the prices, you can see that in the end, the recycling company may get over $1000 for all the metals that it can get out of your Chevy Cavalier catalytic converter. But there are a lot of risks. And the company will also need to spend some money on the process of recycling.

How much will they pay for a cat converter?

The price for your old catalytic converter from a Chevy Cavalier can be anywhere between $10 and $180. We would say, selling your catalytic converter at a higher price would be a miracle. But we will try to explain to you how you can get the maximum out of the cat.

Unfortunately, a lot of Cavalier owners will just go to a scrapyard and sell their old cat for $10-20 which is a ridiculously low price. You should try and find a better way to sell an old catalytic converter.

The eventual price for the Cavalier cat will depend on such factors:

• the average price for scrap cats on the market (you can't control this);
• the prices for precious metals on the market (again, no control on your side);
• the condition of your cat converter (you can only partially control this);
• the person or company you are selling the cat to (full control on your side).

So, the first two factors you just can't control and that's why we won't talk a lot about them. Regarding the condition of your cat, you may clean it and take good pictures to present the catalytic converter in a better way.

But your full control over the cat converter price is obvious in the way you sell your catalytic converter. You may choose different companies or private buyers for this. And here, we should talk a little more about the way to sell the cat.

Where should you sell your catalytic converter?

Now, we'll tell you why we've given so huge difference when we were talking about estimated prices for a cat converter from your Chevrolet Cavalier. You can choose to sell it to a scrapyard or to your car mechanic and get $10 to $30 for the old converter. Or you may choose to sell it privately through eBay or some other website and spend months on this.

But we recommend another way - recycling companies. These are the licensed companies that recycle scrap metals and mainly cat converters. Some of them are only specialized in catalytic converters.

Here are some of the most important advantages you will get with recycling companies:

• the prices for Chevy Cavalier cat converters go up to $180, and this is the best price you can get at all;
• there are numerous companies and you can choose a certain company that makes a better price offer;
• nearly all companies have special forms on their website that you can use to get a quote in one minute;
• the cat converters will then go to a recycling plant that actually recycles it, it doesn't resell your cat to another company;
• these businesses are licensed and they need to work according to certain law frames, they don't harm nature.

So, your catalytic converter gets to a company that recycles it and doesn't throw away the leftovers. Also, you get the best price offer and can have more money for your old cat. A lot of companies will even offer free shipping, so you will just get the proposed amount of money without any problems.

This is the best and probably the easiest way to sell your catalytic converter at a good price. Of course, you can try eBay and even get $10 more. But we can't even predict how much time you will spend on this. Unfortunately, this option is not convenient and it will make you spend hours, days, or even weeks advertising your cat converter for sale.

How is the Chevy Cavalier cat converter recycled?

Understanding the recycling process will help you see why a recycling company can't pay you $500 or more for a scrap cat.

First, of all, this is a very specialized recycling process and it needs special equipment. It means that the recycling company that deals with catalytic converters actually needs to organize a separate manufacturing unit for just working with converters. The initial investments are huge.

Then, for operating this unit, they need a lot of energy. Because one of the main parts of the recycling process is heating the cat converter (the honeycomb) and melting the precious metals inside it. It needs a lot of heat which can be taken from fossil fuels and their prices are getting higher.

Also, these companies are official. They need to pay taxes, pay salaries to their workers, pay for the license to the US government, etc. Also, they pay for shipping, in most cases.

In the end, they don't sell the precious metals that they've got from the catalytic converters at the market price. Very often, the price falls sharply and they need to sell them at a cheaper price losing their revenue.

So, this explains why recycling companies can't pay you at least half of what they earn in the end. Because it's hard and very expensive to recycle catalytic converter from a Chevy Cavalier or from any other vehicle.

Final words

We know for sure that some people are now reading this article and thinking of how they can steal a cat converter from a Chevrolet Cavalier that rests in the backyard of their neighbor. Please, don't do that. You can only sell a stolen catalytic converter to a scrapyard for $10 or something. If you can't prove this is your converter, you can't sell it at a full price.

We recommend always checking prices in different places to get the best offers. It's not a very hard task - you just need to quote.