Junk yard 'whole car' policies, WTH?

[SakoTGrimes]

My favorite junk yard will not sell whole cars. I have tried on multiple occasions to save Soobs from the crusher but the counter guy says once they come to the property, "They're gone." I don't see any reason why they wouldn't be able to sell it whole with a salvage title or something. I know some JYs will, so what's up? These dudes have wasted at least 2 G1 wagons, certainly more :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

[the sucker king]

for the most part cars are worth more to them in parts than a junkyard car would be worth whole to a consumer.

[daeron]

for the most part cars are worth more to them in parts than a junkyard car would be worth whole to a consumer.

 

I don't buy that for some of these cars... I mean, I haven't done ral research regarding number of vehicles registered, but I am an observant guy.. and some of these cars in my three local you-pull-it yards would HAVE to go for more whole than for parts... There just are NOT that many triumph, or fiat, or porsche guys who still FREQUENT the junkyards for their cars to make it worth their while, when they have a 2-4 week turnaround...

 

Is there ANY legal issue in any state, that ANYone is aware of?? I have sked myself the same question many times...

[mcbrat]

definitley legal issues. there are junkyards that sell cars too, but once it goes inside, notification to the state has already occurred most likely that the car is being destroyed. places that do sell cars, need to have a proper sales license and insurance

[SuBrat84]

You'll like Tucson. Money talks and BS walks. I rescued an 89 xt6 that the only thing wrong was the fuel pump and air suspension. Of course it cost me over $400.. but still not a bad deal for a good ER27 and FT4WD s/r w/ diff lock.

 

Is there ANY legal issue in any state, that ANYone is aware of?? I have sked myself the same question many times...

 

Sometimes they are having titling issues and they don't actually own the car yet. I don't know about everywhere else, but in Arizona you have to have a dealer license if you sell more than 5 cars a year. Regardless of what condition they are in. Some people just don't want to go out of their way to do something that is "not in their job description." And those people will make up whatever BS to get you to leave.

[75subie]

thats basically it, money talks.........

 

if you have cash on hand, they can usually be pursuaded, although the titles are usually long gone or stamped as junk titles....

[operose]

thats basically it, money talks.........

 

if you have cash on hand, they can usually be pursuaded, although the titles are usually long gone or stamped as junk titles....

 

exactly.

 

I got a complete xt6 delivered to my door for $200.

 

the guy sure didn't want to sell it but then when I told him I'd give him $200 in cash "right now" the tune of the song changed a bit :cool:

 

of course, as jon says, the title was long gone, but who cares?

 

I've never had anyone ask to see the vin plates on my car, anyway ..

[SakoTGrimes]

thats basically it, money talks.........

 

if you have cash on hand, they can usually be pursuaded, although the titles are usually long gone or stamped as junk titles....

 

True that, hehe. He also said "I'll sell you every part on that car for $100" as in I could take it apart and re-assemble but it probably wouldn't be titleable.

[WoodsWagon]

Which is why you buy a rustbucket with a clean title and, uh, "transfer" the title onto the good body from the junkyard. The vin plates that anyone looks at are rivited onto the body. It's rare that anyone looks at the one stamped into the firewall.

[operose]

Which is why you buy a rustbucket with a clean title and, uh, "transfer" the title onto the good body from the junkyard. The vin plates that anyone looks at are rivited onto the body. It's rare that anyone looks at the one stamped into the firewall.

 

that's what I'm saying... nobody has ever looked at a vin plate on any of my cars, or any of my family's cars ............... I'm sure you can take it from here, I hate to imply too much

[eagleeye]

I thought I was the only one daring enough to do that. I bought a 91 Loyale 4wd and the guy told me I could get a replacement title. Turns out the title had been stamped non-repairable. My locked up 88 3dr title was my only option. Its a risk and I would be afraid to try to resell it, but I'll drive her till she dies!

[TROGDOR!]

I work in management for a salvage yard. We very rarely sell vehicles, because...

 

1) A dealer license costs money. But even more so, you're required to have special dealer insurance which costs a BOATLOAD of money per month- it's required to keep a current license. Unless you're operating a used car lot on the premises, it's not worth the money.

 

2) Without a dealer license, we're allowed to process 4 titles per year. This means we can either sell or rebuild a total of 4 vehicles. In the fiscal year 2006 my boss bought a wrecked truck and repaired it to use as a delivery truck. He also bought a wrecked Cadillac and repaired it, and gave it to his mother as a gift. As a favor to his best friend, he allowed him to surf the salvage auctions and purchase a car to repair for himself- boss's friend paid for everything, but the title still went through our business. That's three of four. He often lets his employees do the same. In most years, we easily hit our limit without even selling to customers.

 

3) We're not even required to get titles. At our business, we do, and it requires extra money and paperwork. Many yards don't bother. Most people here have good intentions when purchasing a vehicle, but there's many people out there who don't. If something shady happens with the car, guess whose door the police knock on first?

 

4) Selling a car without a title is out of the question. Just like in #3, if something shady goes on, we're the first ones the police come to. It's just not worth it.

 

 

We have sold entire vehicles in the past, and will do it again. But due to the reasons I mentioned above, it's a very rare occurence. And unless we actually post a vehicle for sale, we will never, EVER just sell it to some guy who walks in wanting to buy something. There's just too many crooked people out there, and we've got too much on the line to mess around with getting in trouble over something.

 

Hope that clears things up a bit. And yes, I've been on the recieving end of some very firm "No's" about buying entire cars, and even knowing the facts doesn't make it any more pleasant.

[ShawnW]

If you work at the yard or even are AT the yard you just gotta buy it from the Previous owner before the yard does.

[TROGDOR!]

If you work at the yard or even are AT the yard you just gotta buy it from the Previous owner before the yard does.

 

I'd LOVE to. Unfortunately... the insurance companies all have contracts with the salvage auctions, and CANNOT sell to anyone else. So my hands are tied in that matter.

 

We do occasionally buy from individuals, but 9 times out of 10, the price they want for their car is too high to be profitable, and we pass on it.

 

No offense to private owners... it's just, at the price they want, it's only worthwhile to another private owner. And when they call, I do my best to steer them toward that end.

[Crawlerdan]

the same thing happened to me, i wanted to buy a complete 91 turbo sedan at a wrecking yard, they said no, so i asked them to cut it in half and sell me both halves, they did it- i got all my parts, everyone is happy

[GoldDiggerRoo]

I know here in Virginia that yards are *supposed to* send in the title of a car when they get it as "junked" to the state, after that it can never be registered in this state again under that vin number.

 

I once bought a '70 Dodge Charger R/T from a junkyard and went thru that whole hassle. I just ran the car with vin/tags from a junked Charger I had. The car was sold to a guy in PA and it is now registered with it's orginal VIN there. It's stupid, I called the main DMV, State Police... didn't matter, if the car was 100% perfect, it still couldn't be brought back from the dead with it's orginal VIN.

[Subieguy]

Money! That is what it is all about. The local yard here had a 87 hatchback just into the yard. I asked him if I could get it. He told me $500 and it is yours. I would just have to wait till the first of the year to pick it up because they had reached the limit on how many cars they could sell in a year.

[daeron]

interesting slew of responses.. of course, no one from florida chimed in with any of the legalities local to me, but most of the responses were about what I had figured.

 

I have three U-pull-it yards local to me, two of them owned by the same company. I know they have no qualms selling cars off their lot, as one of the lots has an area that ALWAYS has about 6 cars for sale on it... Despite that, I have gotten pretty well the same response from them as anticipated. However, I haven't been asking with cash on the barrelhead. I have also often considered asking them what I could get "the works" off of a vehicle for... since most of the time, thats all I care about.

 

I ought to post a similar question on craiglist and see if I can get any good responses on my local laws, because this question has always puzzled me. Obviously the laws vary from state to state within the US.. I would imagine other countries are probably about the same. Any of our Latin American or Australian market friends care to chime in? (and no, I am not dismissing our neighbors to the north as being "more or less just like us"... )

[joostvdw]

I'm not really a neighboring country but still wanted to say something...

 

you can buy cars here from the yunkyard, they don't care as long as they make money from it, but you can't drive them on the road legit, because they're registered as junked and the plates (and corresponding paperwork) have been destroyed. So the only reason someone would do that, is for a parts car that you can put on your own property.

 

I some occasions, if you're quick enough though you can buy the car with the plates and paperwork, because the junkyards get the titles, so as long as they don't destroy them, you can buy the car legit.

[RavenTBK]

Since your wanting responses from Florida, heres one.

 

As in other states, money talks. You can get anything you want out of a yard, just without a title. Theres no such thing as a "salvage" or "rebuild" title in Florida.....least the last time I checked there wasnt. If a car is totalled, thats it. That VIN is struck from the records of the State... but you can, however, register it in another state that doesnt cross-check with Florida... Tennesee or Arkansas for example.

 

Only way to get a junkyard vehicle titled is to do some shady things with a drill and rivet gun that I'm sure are public knowledge, but I wont mention them. Same deal as above, you move more than 5 titles a year through you as an individual or as a business, you are required to have a dealers license, which takes more money than its worth to get set up in most cases.

 

So, with that in mind, most yards will refuse to sell a whole car, but theres some local to me that have "lost" cars outside the back fence... I'll leave the rest of that to your imagination.

[daeron]

Since your wanting responses from Florida, heres one.

 

As in other states, money talks. You can get anything you want out of a yard, just without a title. Theres no such thing as a "salvage" or "rebuild" title in Florida.....least the last time I checked there wasnt. If a car is totalled, thats it. That VIN is struck from the records of the State... but you can, however, register it in another state that doesnt cross-check with Florida... Tennesee or Arkansas for example.

 

Only way to get a junkyard vehicle titled is to do some shady things with a drill and rivet gun that I'm sure are public knowledge, but I wont mention them. Same deal as above, you move more than 5 titles a year through you as an individual or as a business, you are required to have a dealers license, which takes more money than its worth to get set up in most cases.

 

So, with that in mind, most yards will refuse to sell a whole car, but theres some local to me that have "lost" cars outside the back fence... I'll leave the rest of that to your imagination.

 

 

awesome, one of the like, three other floridians saw it, AND they knew a thing or two more than I was certain of!!

 

A certain sibling of a parent might have been guilty of rifeting something once or twice so I am familiar with that routine, and I was aware we had no such thing as salvage titles.. I have investigated this as much as I've been able to, but my best resource has been my tow-truck driving neighbor, who is cuban and speaks English somewhat better than my Spanish.... but not THAT much.

 

thanks again there, raven.

 

And Joost, I suppose I left my Eastern friends out of the picture entirely.. I know there was a german with a turbo that had to do some trekking to get to a junkyard for an ECU a while back.. I just somehow picture land in europe as too expensive to run a junkyard on, I guess. thanks for the world-view!

[Virrdog]

Interestingly in Ohio they want the title if they are going to take a whole car (in interest of non-stoledness). But all you have to do is something like put the engine in the backseat to make it a 'non-whole' car.

 

It'd be nice if States were more consistent so there wasn't an easy way to "wash" a title clean across state borders and scam someone.

[Uberoo]

in Idaho it seems they need a title to it before they even start breaking it.as for them selling it.they sell at private party value or similar...not cheap.

[daeron]

in Idaho it seems they need a title to it before they even start breaking it.as for them selling it.they sell at private party value or similar...not cheap.

 

I think my area operates under similar auspices.. All this is speculation, but I have been watching and thinking for a long time about it..

 

My junkyards all have two separate yards; one to walk through picking through the cars, and one that we are not allowed to enter. I have been told in the past that there were legal issues regarding entry in that area, beyond them simply wanting to organize and examine the cars on intake....

 

Also, in my area it is REALLY easy to have any "junk" car that you have a title for towed off, and the tow truck guy usually pays 50-100 bux, IF you have and sign the title over. They just hand the car and signed title over to the junkyard, and make a profit there, I am sure. Non-titled vehicles, however, they simply haul away for free.

 

My idea is that all a junkyard can do without a title in my area, is crush it and sell it for scrap (which is not unprofitable, they just watch the weight and know what any given car is worth. Apparently, enough for the truck driver AND the JY to get a slice before the steel goes to the recyclers..) The only vehicles allowed out in the yard are vehicles whose titles have been legally transferred to the junkyard. Thus, a titled vehicle gets there, goes into the B yard (no customers) alongside the untitled vehicles, which are just being picked over (maybe some stuff removed for sale anyhow) and then sorted aside and crushed. Meanwhile, the titled vehicles watch this happen to their neighbors and new friends, while awaiting the title transfer, upon which they get to go out into the A yard and get picked apart by the likes of us, sawzalls, BFHs, crowbars, and torches in hand,

 

I may be wrong, but I think I hit close to the truth. as for the sale of vehicles, the consensus seems its alot easier to just get to know your local tow truck guys and make sure THEY know who to call when they get an old subaru to pick up

[GoldDiggerRoo]

The scrap price is not much for old subarus because of weight. A guy I used to know would take cars to the crusher, he'd have to remove the gas tank and the tires and wheels. I gave him two EA81 wagons once, I think he got around $40 for the pair... he was rather pissed.

 

As for the junkyards, few around here keep whole cars for sale, two I know of actually, and I really only know of one or two years that will let you look around a take stuff off yourself.... a lot won't let you in the back.