Yosemite has it! Also with higher scrap metal prices yards are crushing cars much faster. The toll of regulation and insurance can’t be ignored.
I use to have 3 good U PICK yards in my area. Now… only one and they crush most common cars pretty quickly. If it is a high end car like a BMW they may let it hang out longer.
WheresRick A tire on rim for $10. Late 60s and early 70s they were $2. I used to buy them to convert into smoke on my hot rods!
$1 in 1997 has inflated to $1.47 today. That’s the average, and some things inflated more and others less.
I used to work for a large RV dealer as a parts manager/RV salesman and somewhere around 2008…things went topsy-turvy. It used to be that RV sales accounted for the largest profits but no more. RV parts and RV rentals now bring in the largest coin. Customers simply kept their older RV’s and fixed them and a lot of people discovered that renting an RV was much cheaper than owning one. People are also keeping their cars and trucks longer so the price of parts is keeping up with this trend. When GM discontinued several makes of their vehicles…those orphan parts are probably worth their weight in gold…so to speak.
There’s at least one salvage yard in NH that I know of that over the years didn’t comply with the EPA…and now there are dozen of residential wells around the salvage yard that are contaminated with petroleum products. The home owners had to spend thousands of dollars installing filtering equipment like bubblers and RO systems.
There's at least one salvage yard in NH that I know of that over the years didn't comply with the EPA...and now there are dozen of residential wells around the salvage yard that are contaminated with petroleum products. The home owners had to spend thousands of dollars installing filtering equipment like bubblers and RO systems.
@MikeInNH
That really grinds my gears, It really does, and Its not acceptable. If the higher prices are genuinely due to environmental protection, I have no issues with that what so ever. Im not one of these " I hate the EPA and earthday rednecks" that live around here.
Around here its not the junkyard I worry so much about its the local yokels. Many people around here do not dispose of any waste properly, they dump their oil, burn their trash including Styrofoam and plastic even though you can bring it to town and recycle it for free. Living in the country around here does not give a guy clean air and clean water, it seems like 25% of the time I go outside someone is burning something. The local health dept. says its not their issue, and IDEM doesnt care or doesn’t have the resources to deal with it. The local sheriff wont do anything about it because many of them do the same things and they would never enforce the law when the person breaking it is a fellow drunk driving beer drinking bar buddy.
Some people around here are so lazy and ignorant the only thing they do recycle is their beer cans because they can get a few bucks from them. Of course you would think they would bring their recycling in the same time they sell their cans since they are going to the same facility, but no…
This one idiot I know of talks about his crushed empty beer can collection like its a flipping retirement fund. Im serious, its a huge source of pride for him. He stockpiling empty’s till scrap aluminum goes up.
The local schools have recycling dumpsters and get a certain amount of money for each load the recyclers pick up but most local yokels cant take 5 min extra on their way to the bar to drop off their plastic and Styrofoam at the recycling containers.
I have not found the prices of my local (northeast pennsylvania/poconos) to have gone up much in the last few years. I sometimes go with my mechanic friend on a Sunday afternoon to just walk around and look at stuff, check stuff out, and the prices seem reasonable. This is a pick your own place, where you remove your own parts. I learn how stuff comes apart doing it this way and I would rather it. Maybe we should start a parts trading service between us here at Car Talk, I’m sure we all have access to a lot more collectively than individually. Rocketman
The supply of cars is less due cash for clunkers but also the auto recession that occurred.
The internet is another reason for pricing! Really. Smart auto recyclers can see the going rates for prices significantly easier then before. You go can instantly look prices of new parts online and very easily and price accordingly. Also you can potentially compare prices of used against ebay and likely other recylcers(never tried myself)
The local pick ur part has very good prices on parts. Not what I would call inflated at all.
I can buy little trim items and electrical parts no longer available or very expensive for my Saab. The yard seems to turn quite a few Saabs because they are getting totaled if even in a small wreck due to declining values. Good for me, then.
The cars turn very quickly, though. 1 month and most the previous Saabs I’ve seen are replaced by others.
But the auto recyclers are also kind of stupid, in my opinion
If they price their stuff too close to new . . . which they often do, lately . . . it’s not worth all the hassle, and you’re better off just buying new
What grates on me about the pull a part yards is how some aspiring Cro-Magnon breed of DIYer will go in and there and butcher a car for a 5 dollar part.
A couple of years ago someone at the yard near me apparently used a large screwdriver and hammer to whale apart a dash on a Lincoln Mark. It looked like the only thing they were after was a few illumination bulbs for the EATC climate control unit.
Of course, like the dash they pried the EATC into pieces to get a few bulbs.
Or the clown who pulled a valve cover, the camshaft, and then threw parts all over the place just to fish out a couple of valve lash adjusters.
The thought of wandering around in 100 degree heat (this place is in a hole in the ground so it’s an oven at all times with zero wind even on a gusty day) after paying an admission fee just to snag a few parts that could be had cheap and brand new by walking into any parts store is beyond me.
This place also gets 75 bucks for a windshield. If you break it you bought it. Why go through the hassle of wrestling glass out and running the risk. Just spend 225ish dollars at the glass shop and have it done without the aggravation.
It’s been a while for me, not sinced I moved out east. But all the local yards then were already preventing you from going into the yard for the same reason OK4450 mentioned. People butchering good parts to get at a $10 door lock actuator for example. The funniest part was I went looking for just that part for my Dad’s Grand Marquis. The owner sent his parts jockey out to extract it and he was gone for an eternity. I finally got fed up waiting and asked what was going on.
We both went out in the yard and found him. The door panel looked like it had been attacked by angry bears. It was destroyed but not yet removed. He had sawed through the outer skin to gain access. The entire door was destroyed. It didn’t help when I calmly stated that wouldn’t have happened if they let me get the actuator…
When I moved again last year, I had a lot of scrap metal I decided to give away. It was out by the street for less than 1/2 hour before the vultures descended on it. Not one scrap left. Even scrap steel is worth money now. Any decent yard should be pulling the good bits off and selling the hulk for cash. No sense storing a whole car anymore…
^Well, I suppose that depends on what land goes for where you live.
I have a u-pull-it near where I live; those are the guys that “buy any car, $200 and up.” As I understand the business model, they should at least break even buying cars and selling them to the scrap yard. The extra revenue they realize from the parts is the whipped cream on the sundae!
Part of the advantage of just storing cars (and having customers dismantle) is that now, the customer is the one responsible for seeing that the coolant gets recovered, for instance. (Not that it does, but there’s the liability dodge.) I think the obvious danger to the customer is dealt with by being “judgment-proof”: a cash business, any large claim against them will surely find empty pockets, a book full of red ink, and a business ready to declare bankruptcy (to be subsequqntly bought at low, low prices, by a “friend of the family.”)
And, careful with the “vulture” digs, @TwinTurbo. I resemble that remark! HARD work for so-so pay, but better than being on welfare…
last time i paid for a windshield, it was on a honda crx si. $700 was a good deal due to cash payment. 225 sounds awesome, considering inflation (my purchase was over15 years ago.
I can’t control how you react to a word. Look inward. In my mind, a vulture is not a derogatory word. It describes a creature that is opportunistic. Besides, the people going around doing the scrapping are not all down and out, hard on their luck. Plenty of people just being smart and taking advantage of free money set out by the curb. Think about it, I was the one with all the spare metal to begin with. Where do you think I got a lot of it from? Just turning around and sharing the wealth…
Back to the original point since it was apparently lost- metal is very valuable now and in demand so less of it just being pushed out into the back 40 to rust away…
The U-Pull_It yard that I go is well organized and run. They drain all fluids from the car and remove the gas tanks before they put the cars out in the yard. All the cars are lined up by make if possible, and I see new ones everytime I’m there. The prices for parts are up on a large board in the office, and you know before you go in what you’ll be paying. I happen to think their prices are actually pretty reasonable too.
The pick a part that I sometimes go to is very mixed, about what it does and doesn’t do
For example . . .
They cut out the catalytic converters before dropping the car in the yard, because it is forbidden to sell used cats
They drain the fuel from the tanks . . . I didn’t bother to look if they siphon it out or punch a hole in the tank. I haven’t bothered to look, because I haven’t need a fuel tank for any of my vehicles yet
They do not drain any other fluids or gases
Every time somebody needs an oil pan, it’s a huge mess. I once needed a pan. Knowing that the crankcase was probably full, I set a cloth seat under the pan, before I removed the drain plug. It did a fair job soaking up the mess
Every time somebody gets an ac compressor, condenser, etc., there is a huge hiss as the refrigerant escapes into the atmosphere
Several years ago, they covered the entire grounds in concrete. I suspect it was legally required. I highly doubt they don’t do anything major like that, unless they must