Clunkers Could Cost Salvage Yards

“Cash for Clunkers” may mean increasing sales for car dealers, but it may start having a negative impact on salvage yards across America.

Clunker car’s engines and drive trains are destroyed by sodium silicate, known as liquid glass. The solution makes it impossible for auto scrapers to re-sell the engine or any of its parts.

“It seems like a pretty ridiculous idea really, because those are engines that we can re-sell to our customers that are in need of those engines, still have a lot more life left to them to get more miles out of them and use out of them. It seems pretty wasteful to just get rid of those motors,” says Todd Mathias, co-owner 13 Auto Salvage.

At 13 Auto Salvage in New Lexington they say having less engine parts available for sale will end up costing consumers who will have to pay more and look harder for parts.

“Eventually that’s going to affect the amount of good engines, good-quality used engines out there eventually,” he says.

All of the vehicles turned in as clunkers are still drivable, because it is one of the provisions in the program that the vehicle must be driven to the dealer’s lot. Any other parts besides the engine and drive trains are able to be scrapped and sold.