My son’s 2002 Ford Focus needed a throttle cable. Due to the age of the car, no new were available.
A young man who rents from my sister graciously pulled one from the local auto salvage yard. Cost? $6 and some cash for the young man.
The shop that installed it charged my son $154 and tweaked son's car. He reports it is running better than ever.
With the current soaring prices for used cars and the shortage of new, I’m glad my son can keep driving his beater. He has never been into cars. If it starts when he turns the key and moves when he shifts into drive, he is content.
This salvage yard has survived for years with a business model that doesn’t change. They don’t pull parts and don’t recommend anyone who will. Their inventory? Walk the 3 acres behind high voltage electric fences and look. The do sort by make (domestic). Foreign? Go look. Tool boxes are inspected going in and coming out. That said, the staff is polite and respectful. There is little trash and no weeds but the lot is dirt and muddy when wet.
They don’t keep cars around too long. The crusher/chopper is running all business hours.
At my age with stiff numb fingers I do little mechanical work. I miss it.
8 comments:
Result, and that's what a lot of people are doing, keeping their old rigs/cars running. Maybe that's no bad thing. Speaking of which, '08 F150s seem to need front end work at around 300k... grrrrr.
Yep, the 'classic' junkyard mentality, it works and keeps them in business... Now the real question is, what kind of dogs do they have? ;-)
Spent many a happy day searching through junkyards.
LSP
300k? Think you may have gotten your money's worth out of it.
Old NFO
No dogs, just a 20,000 volt three strand electrict fence atop a 10' high chain link fence. Bi-lingual warning signs.
DrJim
Kept many a vehicle running over the years. The last car payment I had was in 1984. Being in the car biz, I gav payments, not made them. Mainly bought vehicles the dealership didn't want but I needed to make the sale by taking in the trade.
I know that place. Pulled a few parts there myself. They probably still have a specific section for old usps jeeps. One of my sons was a rural carrier and maintained his old jeep with parts from there regularly.
Franknbean
PS tonight is Tuesday and my jam night at Rule105 -7pm
Franknbean
Can't make it tonight but will try next week.
Ours was "Peanut's junkyard".
As teenagers we joked that Peanut would weigh you in/weigh you out.
But the price of scrap metal has been going up, and up, and up, so the older cars get eaten by the monster don't they?
Greybeard
In their case, I think it is a matter of room.
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