The hidden treasures of America's self-service junkyards

Broadly speaking, only a small percentage of cars end up in the hands of collectors.

The average age of a car registered in the United States is about 12 years. Past that point, the more tired ones that no longer pass inspections or aren’t worth keeping on the road usually end up in a junkyard where they spend weeks waiting for mechanics, enthusiasts or thrifty commuters to pull what they need.

When there’s nothing left, they’re fed to a crusher that flattens them like a pancake. Most mass-produced cars are later mass-destroyed; the new car market would collapse otherwise. We recently visited a few yards in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City and brought a camera along to highlight the weird, the nearly extinct, the usual suspects and the hidden surprises.

How does it work?

Most of the self-service junkyards in the United States are run the same way. Motorists looking for a part need to bring their own tools and pay a $1 entry fee before wandering into the lot. American cars are normally classified by make, like the Cadillacs shown here, while imported cars are often split into European and Japanese groups, though some of the bigger businesses have the space needed to separate them by manufacturer like their domestic counterparts.

Once you find what you’re looking for, whether it’s a lightbulb or an entire engine, you need to remove it and pay for it on your way out. There’s usually a set price per part so it doesn’t matter whether you bring Porsche or Mitsubishi components to the register. It’s a quick, stress-free way to source a part.

Beyond the practical aspect, going to a junkyard is also a fascinating way to learn how your car is put together because anyone with a buck to spare can spend an afternoon tinkering. And, if you’re as obsessively interested in cars as we are, a junkyard turns into an amusement park because you never know what you’ll find behind the fence.

AMC Eagle

This 1985 AMC Eagle with 88,000 miles on the odometer was unusually clean until it was involved in an accident.

AMC’s build quality wasn’t stellar during the 1980s, the company didn’t fail merely by selecting the wrong numbers at the automaker lottery, and Eagle owners had a tendency to drive them into the ground so many of the examples left are shockingly rough. This one must have been used as a second car and kept in a garage. As a tall, four-wheel drive wagon, the Eagle is the crossover’s predecessor.

AMC Javelin

Would you pay $1599 (£1200) for this AMC Javelin? It apparently wasn’t worth that much because it went straight from the car lot trying to find a home for it to the Chrysler section at a Salt Lake City junkyard. We think it was towed there as a complete car and lost its grille and drivetrain after it was put on the lot.

BMW 2002

The person who sent this 1970 BMW 2002 to a junkyard in Salt Lake City should have spent a few minutes looking at what it’s worth in decent condition. It needs a lot of work, it has rust in all of the common spots (including the rear strut towers) and some of it has been questionably repaired, but 2002s are skyrocketing in value and even the roughest examples are receiving a new lease on life.

Even a 2002 in fair condition (so one that needs work) commands nearly $10,000 (£7700), according to Hagerty.

Buick Riviera

The Riviera represented Buick in the booming personal luxury coupé segment and the third-generation model released for the 1971 model year stood proud as one of America’s most gorgeous cars. Its sharp, elegant design penned by Bill Mitchell’s team was characterised by a boat-like tail and a wrap-around rear window almost reminiscent of the Chevrolet Corvette.

It was considered an outdated, undesirable statement of class until values began rising sharply in 2017; so junked examples like this 1973 model are rare. Plan on spending about $16,000 (£12,000) for a 1973 Riviera in good condition in America, and a fair bit more than that elsewhere, assuming you can find one.

Cadillac Catera

After learning a valuable lesson from the Cimarron fiasco, Cadillac went straight to the source to add a European-flavoured entry-level saloon to its range in the 1990s. The Catera introduced for the 1996 model year was an Americanised version of the Vauxhall Omega with a brand-specific design.

It drove well by most accounts but it was diametrically opposed to the rest of the Cadillac line-up so buyers shunned it and went straight for the German competition. It hasn’t shed this orphan status on the used car market and it largely remains as unknown as if it had never existed.

Cadillac CTS

Before it gained two letters and joined the Land Rover portfolio, the Evoq nameplate made headlines on a forward-thinking Cadillac concept car introduced at the 1999 Detroit auto show. It ultimately morphed into the XLR, but the design language it showcased first found its way to showrooms on the original CTS released for the 2003 model year as a dapper entry-level model.

It’s largely forgotten on the used car market, and rough examples are starting to flood junkyards, but it’s more historically significant than many realise because it spearheaded Cadillac’s gradual shift away from land yachts.

Cadillac Fleetwood 75

This stately Fleetwood 75 stood proud at the top of the Cadillac range when it was new in 1970. It was the kind of car destined to only carry executives, high-ranking politicians and other dignitaries. Limousines rarely hold their value and this nine-seater is no exception. It received a crude two-tone paint job at some point in its life and a fire that seemingly started near the rear seats sealed its fate.

While big-bodied Cadillacs are common in junkyards, the Fleetwood 75 flagship is a rare sight. It cost $11,178 in 1970, which represents $74,000 (£57,000) in 2020 money, and Cadillac made 1240 units that years.

Chevrolet Corvette

The Chevrolet Corvette’s fan club is loyal enough to keep even the most far-gone examples out of junkyards but this rattle-canned fourth-generation model couldn’t find its saviour. Some inevitably fall through the cracks; we’re just surprised its V8 hasn’t been pulled out and stuffed into an unsuspecting Jaguar XJ yet.

Chevrolet HHR

Chevrolet made nearly 527,000 examples of the HHR, its home-brewed answer to the Chrysler PT Cruiser, but they’re getting taken off the road so quickly that there won’t be many left by the time the model enters the world of collector cars. It doesn’t help that the HHR was in production between the 2006 and 2011 model years, so dangerously close to General Motors’ bankruptcy, and its build quality was mediocre at best.

SS models with 256bhp and panel vans seem to fare better than base, run-of-the-mill hatchbacks, like the partially-dismantled example shown here.

Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS

Call us crazy, but we’re betting the SS variant of the sixth-generation Chevrolet Monte Carlo made from the 2000 to 2007 model years will become sought-after in the coming years. It was the last of its breed, though Chevrolet gave it a final facelift for 2006 before retiring the nameplate, and the SS emblems on the body denoted a 3.8-litre V6 that delivered 237bhp when supercharged.

It’s not a jaw-droppingly rare car but most examples are ending up like this pre-facelift model so finding a good one is becoming difficult. See you at the Barrett-Jackson auctions in 2040 to find out if our prediction is accurate.

Chevrolet Vega

Restoring this 1970s Chevrolet Vega to its former glory was too ambitious. It was fully stripped with the exception of the running gear and it received several coats of primer, but its owner decided not to finish the project.

It’s slowly cooking under the warm winter sun instead of basking under the bright lights at the annual SEMA show. The Vega remains one of Chevrolet’s more obscure models so we’re not expecting anyone to pull it out of the junkyard and give it the new lease of life it’s waiting for.

Chrysler PT Cruiser

There’s never been a better time to be in the market for Chrysler PT Cruiser parts. Every junkyard we visited had over half a dozen examples in stock including early models, later facelifted examples (both shown here) and even the occasional convertible.

Automotive Darwinism is not being kind to this retro icon, and the grim reaper has around 1 million of them to get through in the US alone.

Ford LTD

This orange 1978 Ford LTD proudly wearing fake wood paneling on both sides is the quintessential American wagon from the late 1970s. It was the ideal family car in an era when SUVs were painfully truck-like to drive and the minivan as we know it hadn’t been invented yet.

Stickers on this worn but complete example reveal it was towed to the junkyard after being abandoned on a public road.

Ford Mustang

The Ford Mustang isn’t immune from depreciation. Values plummet as they hover around the 15-year mark and many examples end up modified, raced, and/or driven to death before they emerge as sought-after classics.

Las Vegas is a big Mustang market so we’re not surprised to see a dozen or more worn-out examples lined up in each of the city’s junkyards.

Ford Ranchero

The aerodynamic mirrors and the faded white stripes suggest this 1973 Ford Ranchero is a GT model. The rest of the GT-specific parts (like the instrument cluster and the black hubcaps) are long gone.

The GT was ostensibly sportier than the base and Squire variants, and it came standard with a 138bhp V8 engine, but it wasn’t the rarest. Ford made 25,634 units for the 1973 model year compared to 4,787 base models and 15,320 examples of the range-topping Squire.

Ford Taurus

Born from a major shift in Ford’s design philosophy, the Taurus almost singlehandedly turned the company’s fortunes around after its introduction for the 1986 model year. It was an honest effort at winning over customers who had traded in their Ford for a comparable Japanese car that drove better, returned better fuel economy and broke less often. The company later admitted it developed the Taurus by thinking like a Japanese automaker would and this unusual approach paid off during the 1980s.

With 278,562 saloons and 96,201 wagons built, the Taurus became Ford’s best-selling model during the 1987 model year. In 2019, the nameplate’s last year on the market, sales totaled 13,423 units because the Ford customer who was in the market for a Taurus in 1990 is looking for an Explorer in 2020.

Ford Thunderbird

Many 1980s cars are on the rise but collectors don’t consider the ninth-generation Ford Thunderbird worthy of their time and money yet.

With a few notable exceptions, like unusually clean low-mileage survivors and the later Turbo Coupe with 187bhp, Ford’s Reagan-era flagship remains a throwaway car that lives in the shadow cast by its more grandiose predecessors. Find one of the few good ones left and you’ll bag an appealing, daily-drivable classic that flies right under everyone’s radar.

Jaguar XJ-S

As the years take their toll, Jaguar models from the 1970s and the 1980s are prime candidates to receive an American V8. Chevrolet’s small block is a particularly popular swap option because it fits, it’s cheap and it’s widely available. We’re not sure what happened to the V12 in this XJ-S but we wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a V8 conversion that never got finished.

Jeep DJ

Jeep turned the four-wheel drive CJ into the original rear-wheel drive DJ in 1955 and later secured a lucrative contract to build the model for the United States Postal Service (USPS). DJs logged millions of miles carrying mail all over the United States. The model was immediately recognizable as a Jeep but it wore a specific front end with five slots instead of seven and USPS-spec models had sliding doors.

The USPS asked Jeep to make the DJ right-hand drive so its personnel could deliver mail without leaving the car. There was a single seat in the cabin, which isn’t original in this one, and a large tray right next to it for letters and parcels. Many DJs ended up in private hands and a large number fell victim to rust.

Land Rover LR4

The Land Rover LR4 hasn’t fared much better than the bigger, more expensive Range Rover but it’s a slightly simpler car that enjoys a small but loyal following in the off-roading world.

While ex-family haulers inevitably end up in junkyards after years of school runs and skip trips, they’re quickly stripped by enthusiasts stockpiling parts to keep theirs running.

Land Rover Range Rover

Merriam-Webster could use this image to illustrate the term depreciation. This Land Rover Range Rover cost approximately $71,000 when new in 2004, which represents about $96,000 (£74,000) in 2020, yet the person who sent it to the junkyard was lucky to receive $150 for the presumably broken off-roader.

The third-generation Range Rover is a notoriously problematic car when it’s not religiously maintained, and parts are expensive. It’s frighteningly easy to end up with an example that needs more spent on repairs than it’s worth. The same applies to other high-end European cars from the era.

Lincoln Continental

Several details allow us to identify this Lincoln Continental as a 1965 model. While its front end is long gone, it wears fender-mounted turn signals added as part of a visual update that year but not the longer front bumper that stretched towards the wheel arch and characterised later cars.

It would be worth $14,300 (£11,000) in good condition, according to Hagerty’s price guide, but a close inspection reveals it’s a car that has rusted, been repaired, rusted again and been repaired at least once more; it’s full of body filler. It was deemed too far gone to restore but at least its parts are keeping others on the road.

Lincoln Continental Mark VII

Lincoln developed the Continental Mark VII to give motorists in the market for a luxury coupe an American alternative to the Mercedes-Benz SEC. And yet, it stood out as the firm’s most European-influenced model by a long shot. It was available with an optional BMW turbodiesel and motorists could order a sporty trim called Luxury Sport Coupe (LSC) that gained a firmer suspension and bucket seats, among other specific equipment. The package turned the Mark VII into a credible performance car.

This 1985 example is a relatively basic V8-powered model. Even in this configuration, it stretched nearly 6in shorter and weighed almost 400lbs less than its direct predecessor.

Lincoln Town Car

In the 1980s, Lincoln advertised the Town Car as “what a luxury car should be.” Mercedes-Benz owners disagreed but officials didn’t care because they had arch rival Cadillac in mind when they coined the phrase.

Fast forward to 2020 and saloons made by both brands during the 1980s have struggled to gain traction on the collector car market unless they’re immaculately preserved. This dented, high-mileage example likely spent decades on the highway and it wasn’t deemed clean enough to save.

Lincoln Town Car limousine

Las Vegas unsurprisingly has America’s best selection of junked limousines. Most are stretched variants of the body-on-frame Lincoln Town Car, like the one shown here, but it’s not unusual to find Navigator- and Cadillac Escalade-based models.

Regardless, we’re not sure we’d buy used interior parts from a vehicle that has spent over a decade serving as a night club on wheels in America’s party capital.

Mazda MX-5 Miata

The Mazda MX-5 Miata is a relatively rare sight in self-service junkyards. Enthusiasts seek out even the roughest examples to salvage parts or to convert them into autocross cars.

An accident ended this 1990 model’s life prematurely though DIYers will certainly argue it could have been saved, fixed and raced.

Mazda RX-7

If cars could talk, this first-generation Mazda RX-7 would need many hours to tell its story from start to finish. At what point did it make the transition from a respectable, desirable used car to the automotive equivalent of a clown?

Its dubious green and pink livery isn’t original but at least it looked well done all things considered; we’ve seen far worse paint jobs. Issues with the RX-7’s Wankel engine weren’t unheard of but the massive dent right above the driver-side wheels is likely what totaled this one.

Mercedes-Benz 240D

Even in 2020, diesel-powered Mercedes-Benz W123s with mileage in the 200,000 to 300,000 range appear in junkyards on a shockingly regular basis. The four- or five-cylinder engine often outlived the odometer; so a W123 with 258,000 miles on the clock, like this 240D, may have travelled much further.

W123s are often on their last legs by the time they’re towed to the junkyard. Many are decimated by rust or destroyed by owners who use the model’s bullet-proof reputation as an excuse to skip regular maintenance. However, the MB Tex upholstery almost always looks like it’s a few years old at most.

Mercedes-Benz 300SEL

The Mercedes-Benz W126 hasn’t fully recovered from the years it spent as the go-to car for motorists seeking a cheap, comfortable and unbreakable long-distance beater.

The 2009 cash-for-clunkers program wiped out a big chunk of America’s W126 population but rough examples with intergalactic mileage, like this 300 SEL, continue to limp through the gate of self-service junkyards.

Mercury Capri

The third-generation Capri that launched in 1991 was an unusual car and not just because it took Mercury into a segment it had never competed in before. Wearing a familiar nameplate, this pocket-sized roadster had no equivalent in Ford’s American line-up. It was manufactured in Australia (where Ford did sell its own version of it) and shipped to the United States to compete against Mazda’s MX-5 Miata.

In an odd twist of irony, the Capri received a 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine sourced from the Mazda parts bin. It made 99bhp when naturally-aspirated and 130bhp when fitted with an optional turbocharger.

Mercury Capri

On paper, the Capri and the Miata were somewhat similar in the sense that they were both nimble convertibles sold at a budget-friendly price. In application, the Mercury was an image-less front-wheel drive car competing against a widely-celebrated rear-wheel drive model for the hearts and wallets of America’s driving enthusiasts. The fight was hardly fair.

The Capri retired without a successor after the 1994 model year while the Miata is well into its fourth generation as of 2020. The model shown here was made during the first year of production.

Mercury Grand Marquis

The Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models built on the Panther platform are dropping like flies. They’re comfy cruisers that effortlessly sail pass the 200,000-mile mark on a regular basis but demand for heavy, fuel-thirsty body-on-frame saloons with a lazy V8 under the hood has collapsed in recent years.

Our photo shows a row of ten nearly-identical Mercury Grand Marquis models made during the 2000s.

Ford Crown Victoria

The Mercury Grand Marquis and the Ford Crown Victoria were essentially the same car. While Mercury’s variant largely appealed to retirees, the Ford was prized for its toughness by law enforcement officials and taxi drivers across America.

This example is a former police interceptor that spent several years in the private sector before ending up in a Las Vegas self-service junkyard.

Mini Cooper

The second-generation Mini Cooper is still a little bit too new to end up in a junkyard but this yellow example retired early following an accident. Its 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine will live on to power another car and it’s been stripped of most salvageable interior parts, which suggests demand for Mini parts is high.

Mitsubishi Mirage

The Mitsubishi Mirage isn’t in the running for the title of America’s most loved car but this example had an unusually miserable life. Paperwork found in its glovebox indicates it was first registered to a Florida-based rental car company named Advantage Vehicles in 2018.

It was only registered twice before being involved in a violent argument with something significantly bigger and heavier and it was written off. Its 77bhp three-cylinder engine survived the impact and is sitting right in front of it, likely waiting for the person who removed it to come back.

Nissan 280Z

This Nissan 280Z from the late 1970s gave everything it could (including some of its sheet metal) to keep another coupe on the road.

There are some still usable parts left on it, like bits and pieces of the suspension, but they’re components most owners would buy new rather than source from a junkyard.

Nissan Cube

Every single car ending its days in a self-service junkyard will ultimately be crushed into a cube. This Nissan Cube is well ahead of the curve because it’s already shaped like a shoe box. There are no evident signs of accident damage so how it ended up here after only about a decade on the road is a mystery.

Pontiac Aztek

It’s entirely unreasonable to expect a strong resale value from a car with a face that looks like this. The Aztek was arguably ahead of its time, and its versatility is timeless, but there aren’t a lot of motorists who want to be seen in one.

And while enthusiast clubs are beginning to sprout up across America, they’re not big or influential enough to reverse the model’s downhill slide – not yet anyway.

Pontiac Fiero

What are the odds of finding two nearly identical Pontiac Fiero coupes next to each other in a junkyard? It’s not far-fetched to assume these forlorn-looking sports cars were given up by the same owner, possibly someone who hoped to make one out of the two.

Both are GT models which stood out from the regular Fiero with a fastback-like silhouette. Seeing them ending their lives side by side is unusual but what’s more surprising is that neither was used to make a Ferrari or a Lamborghini replica.

Porsche 944

This hovering Porsche 944 looks like it was in reasonably good shape until it suffered an engine fire.

The driver must have carried a fire extinguisher because the flames didn’t spread outside of the engine bay but the damage done was bad enough to total the car. While it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of the blaze, the 944’s fuel lines are prone to fiery failure and it’s not the first barbecued example we’ve seen.

Saab 99

This 56,000-mile Saab 99 commuted until the end. It never got the opportunity to enjoy a classic car show. It’s a four-door hatchback painted orange so it must have been relatively difficult to sell as a late-model used car and it probably wore all sorts of disagreeable nicknames related to its paint color.

In 2020, it’s exactly the kind of unique, unloved car that many Saab fans are dying to restore.

Saturn S Series

The often-forgotten Saturn brand shows the huge amount of effort General Motors put into reclaiming the market share it lost to its Japanese rivals. It created a new division and developed a unique platform from scratch to underpin a full range of economy-first models sold under the banner of no-haggle pricing. The first Saturn models released for the 1991 model year shared very little with any other car in the General Motors portfolio; they notably used plastic body panels that saved weight and didn’t rust.

The original S-Series range grew to include three models named SC (a coupe), SL (a saloon) and SW (a station wagon). Combined annual sales peaked at 314,992 in 1997, which was impressive but not enough to dethrone the Japanese. In 2020, a decade after General Motors shuttered Saturn, the early S Series models are vanishing from the American landscape as they rise on the list of unwanted cars. Oversized alloys wrapped by nearly bald tires suggest this 1993 saloon has led an unenviable life.

Subaru Brat

The number of Subaru Brat trucklets that ended their lives rotting away in America’s desert regions, where the word rust hasn’t entered the local jargon, is astounding. They were once cheap and fairly common so they were considered as disposable as a pair of work gloves.

This dusty, sun-dried first-generation model likely hasn’t spun a tire on a public road in many years.

Subaru SVX

The Giorgetto Giugiaro-designed Subaru SVX continues to turn heads as it sits on death row. This example had been on the lot at a Salt Lake City junkyard for only a couple of days when we spotted it and enthusiasts had already started stripping it.

Annual SVX sales in the United States peaked at 3859 units in 1993 so there aren’t enough to go around and spare parts are increasingly scarce.

Suzuki X-90

Suzuki transformed an SUV into a coupe before any of Germany’s luxury brands. Envisioned as a replacement for the Samurai, the X-90 was a more stylish evolution of the Vitara with a removable targa top and a two-seater cabin.

It wasn’t practical, it wasn’t sporty, and it wasn’t any better off-road than the model it was based on so sales remained low. Fewer than 8000 units were sold in the United States between 1996 and 1998. Its claim to fame is being selected by Red Bull as its promotional vehicle.

Volkswagen New Beetle

Volkswagen’s retro-fabulous New Beetle is getting squashed at an alarming rate. Most junked examples are pre-facelift models prized for the parts they share with the Golf but the later cars have already made their junkyard debut.

Turbo S models with 178bhp, a six-speed manual and a sportier suspension are particularly sought after by enthusiasts with an older Volkswagen to swap an engine into.

Volvo 164E

All it takes is one quick look in this 1972 Volvo 164E’s engine bay to tell it sat for years before its owner finally decided to get rid of it. The straight-six engine is dusty and it has turned into a shelter for a variety of animals, including rodents nesting on one of the engine mounts and spiders literally hanging out between the injectors.

We hope they vacate the premises before the car gets crushed.

Volvo 240

Even sturdy old Volvos sometimes call it quits. This 1983 240 is tired but mostly complete, almost rust-free and it doesn’t look like it’s ever been involved in an accident.

Someone grabbed its instrument cluster, so its mileage is a mystery, but the wear and tear on it suggests it was approaching the 250,000-mile mark when it was taken off the road. It might have been saved in the snowy parts of America, where road salt enthusiastically chews through cars, but a rust-free shell is par for the course in Nevada.