We Buy Junk Cars

Don't you have junk yards ?

Greg

One of my customers runs a plant which disassembles them, sending out rail cars full of steel chunks (big as a fist, looks like black stones) and of glass, copper, aluminum etc.

No one cares what year or model, just the gross weight.

it makes the people that do it very rich. plug right into government [taxpayer] "environmental" subsidies, get paid to take old cars off the road, and get raw materials for [what are typically] their own [or part owned] metal smelting operations. that's ignoring the money they get from selling used car parts. it's an absolutely awesome cash cow.

Even after I stripped anything usable by pickers at a boneyard - except tires- and told the hauler that, he came out and towed my '97 Lumina away. And paid me 100 bucks. I didn't squeeze him for more. Just wanted the car gone from my driveway. This one had a set of year-old tires I paid $500 for, so they could probably be sold for at least $100. I used to buy used tires. But I had no need for 15" tires and didn't want the hassle of selling them. There was probably about a ton of steel and aluminum scrap in it. Don't know the scrap prices.

Usually the automobile recycling business is attacked by government. At least it is around by me. NIMBY thing mostly. I don't recall any environmental subsidies going to this 100+ year old industry besides the ones like cash for clunkers were it gets it by collateral damage.

Thus most such businesses are in old neighborhoods that are currently quite poor. Where any business is a good business and it's been a junkyard for decades. Even when big corporate operations want to expand they go looking for who they can buy up rather than try to build a fresh location. Thus some retail yards end up being bought up to become insurance yards. (where 'totaled' cars go to be auctioned off to people with the required state licenses)

I think there is another type around here for cars that might have a problem, and don't want to fix it, and don't want to list it.

I went looking for a 95 computer at a junkyard towards the country. I said what I wanted, and waited. Finally guy said come with me. They expect you have tools. Get in bad looking jeep, driving me around yard looking for that year. Going through foot deep mud puddles, sliding around, dodging others driving in mud. Looked over hillside in one section, could not find it. While driving out close to the exit, there it was. Newly added. I got out and took computer out. $35 . It did work ok.

Greg

Google,,, Get R Towed (Jackson Towing Services) Get R Towed is what they call it. Sure, there are plenty of auto junk yards and scrap iron yards around here.

indeed, there's plenty of local nimbyism, but the states have come to love junk dealers because they're "green". and "recycling saves the planet"...

that's local, not state. i'm watching that with a local independent junkyard close to me right now - residential developments are slowly moving in the junkyard's direction, and the local government has correspondingly changed from being pro the local employer to anti the negative influence on house prices [i.e. tax base].

they'll have to move at some point, and their market share will be absorbed by the competing 800lb gorilla, also locally based, who is much better politically connected [at the state and federal level] and situated between the dock and railyard - an unassailable location.

There was a big problem here several years ago with permits. Nobody had one...so the broken-on-the-roadside cars kept getting tagged with the bright orange ABANDONED stickers by the police, but no one could come tow them away....becasue there was no "away" (reminded me of my side of the "put your toys away" argument I had as a five year old kid).

Eventually someone swooped in with some kind of federal grant loan to get things going again.

GW

That happened on maui a while back... no junk yards. Cars would be left at the side of roads.

Then there was what happened to garbage collection in Cairo, Egypt.