I’ve not yet had to actually scrap one, close but not quite, closest ever was our old Clio I bought for my GF as her first runabout after she passed her test.
Over the next few years it developed many minor weirdnesses (it was French after all), my favourite was an Oil Gauge that would only work when turning hard right, but turning hard left would cause ALL the dashboard lights to come ON but the speedo and rev counter to drop to zero.
Then one dark and stormy night we got caught in a flash flood on Dartmoor in it, drowned the poor little thing properly, resulting in what would have been a mildy amusing call to the AA had it not been past midnight and freezing:
AA: where are you?
Us: On Dartmoor, on the road between between X and Y, about 1/2 way
AA: hmmm, having trouble finding you on my map, did you pass any road signs?
Us: No, we’re in the middle of the moor, no signs here
AA: OK, can you see any landmarks?
Us: Er, No
AA: are you sure?
Us: yep, pretty sure
AA: Not even any shops or big buildings?
Us: No, its gone midnight, and we are in the middle of Dartmoor, I can see the edge of the road, and a rock about 10 feet away with my torch!
AA: Ah, so no shops or signposts?
Us: @*!£$$%!
Anyway, after a very long wait and being towed home I left the poor thing in the road, bought another car and then about 6 weeks later finally got around to thinking about towing it to the scrappy, but decided to try and start it on the off chance, liberal application of WD40 and after a few goes it started!
ended up selling it for £300 to a lad who was doing an apprenticeship and wanted it as a project!
Despite it’s crapness we still miss it!
EDIT – it’s still going and taxed, I just checked on the DVLA site!