Junkyards are places where wrecked, total, or decommissioned vehicles are taken, primarily for cars and trucks. They purchase vehicles from owners, insurance companies, or cities and salvage usable parts to sell. Auto repair services are also customers. Some offer ancillary services, but most only sell parts. Many have computerized inventories available online or through phone calls.
A junkyard, also known as an auto wrecking yard, salvage yard, or wrecking yard, is any place where wrecked, total, or decommissioned vehicles are taken. While there are junkyards for motorcycles, boats, and small planes, most junkyards are for cars and trucks. Junkyards tend to operate on a local basis and are the destination for vehicles that are either towed away from accident sites or are no longer in working order.
A junkyard can purchase wrecked vehicles from owners, insurance companies, or from cities forced to tow away abandoned vehicles. Most junkyards have their own wreckers or tow trucks, but many also contract with local tow companies. As vehicles enter, operators make up the make, year and model of the vehicle and note the general condition of the body and mechanical parts.
Landfill operators disassemble the vehicles they purchase and salvage all usable parts that can be sold for use in similar make and model vehicles in operating condition. Unusable metal parts are scrapped and sold to metal recycling companies. Typically, junkyards salvage high-demand, easily removable parts such as doors, windshields, light housings, alternators, mufflers, wing mirrors, etc., but occasionally a junkyard may remove an entire engine or transmission to sell to a customer.
In addition to people looking for heavily discounted car parts to fix or rebuild their own working vehicle, auto repair services are also junkyard customers. At some landfills or junkyards, parts can be removed, inventoried and stored in a warehouse, but others require the customer to come on site and remove the parts themselves. A junkyard may also offer ancillary services, such as installing used parts, but most only sell those.
Many landfills have computerized inventories, allowing you to create a searchable database. Several salvage yards have made their inventory available through online searches, while others can quickly initiate a search of their inventory with a phone call. In telephone directories, junkyards may be listed under car wrecking yards or salvage yards.
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