That was a good one.

I think they will have a lot of fun if you show up at the border with a running car and will for sure ask for deposit because they know what your reason is.....

Seriously:
Why should they declare a running car for spare parts.
They are no idiots....

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To clarify. We want to drive back to Europe with our car. We only wanna know about the option we have in case the car stopped working in Mongolia or it is foreseeable that the car is not gonna make it back to Europe.

Im still not sure what is our best option in case we need to get rid of the car.

Some persons I know also some friends of mine had to bring the bikes out from Mongolia ( and 2 from Russia ) for some reasons.
2 had bad luck and could not drive anymore, some bikes were not driveable.

You have the choice of bringing it out of Russia or Mongolia or just pay the tax.

If you have an accident and the car ist broken, you have the chance of show some papers, which proof that it is broken because of accident, you just need to find a Russian police office to help you with the customs ( to provide the paper )

In Russia it was always ok to fill in a low price for my bike on the temporary import.
But only last year at the border from Russia to Mongolia I got a female custom officer and she insistet on the price of 500.000 Rub on the temporary import of my bike.
This is about 7500 Euros, my bike is worth maybe 1000 Euros and the price she insisted on was more than what my old Transalp costed new in 1989.

So in case of a breakdown I would have had a lot of trouble getting through the custom stuff.

And the custom lady did not step back from this 500.000 Rub, I wanted to sit that out but no way. Either sign the paper or wait as long as I need to sign.....

In my case I would always need to bring it out, that is cheaper than to pay the tax.....

And If you drive with a car or bike to Russia or Mongolia, it can always happen that you have a breakdown for any reason, then you either need time or money.

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Having looked into this in the past, my understanding was you could leave a vehicle in Mongolia and travel to Russia by train. Apparently, that is not correct? I've read that you can sell a motorcycle in Russia, but you will pay about 40% in taxes. Of course, it would be difficult to negotiate that without local help. This is a huge problem for us international travelers. Please keep us updated.

Did you consider giving it as a gift to the border agent? Perhaps they would let you give it to a local church?

I was also told that it is possible to report your motorcycle stolen in Russia. Once in Saint Petersburg, I accidentally left my keys in the bike at night. The bike could have been stolen. Instead, there was a note on my bike. It said I must make an appearance at the police station. I thought I had an appointment with the FSB/KGB! At the police station, I learned that they found the key in my bike. When I showed them my papers, they returned my keys without problem. Therefore, if you need to get your bike stolen, don't park where there are police patrols.

That's a funny story, could have turned out much worse!

I should also pass on a story I overheard once when I was at the customs point in Moscow renewing my temporary import certificate: a man came to the customs guy and said that his temporarily-imported car and the temp import certificate had burned in a fire, and only the shell remained. When the man asked the customs guy how he could clear the temporary import cert, the customs guy said that he had to have the burnt shell transported back to the border! I'm sure there is a slightly easier way to do it, but it would also probably not that easy!