Junkyard, salvage yard or scrap yard: which one buys your car?

The three kinds, in plain terms

• Junkyard, salvage yard or auto recycler. A full-service yard. Its staff pull the parts that sell, then the rest goes for scrap. People use the three names loosely.
• Self-service or pull-apart yard. The yard sets cars out in rows and customers pull their own parts.
• Scrap yard or scrap metal processor. It buys cars, or the flattened hulks of them, for the steel and other metals. Some run shredders.

Federal law treats all three alike. The Justice Department's definition of junk and salvage yards covers businesses that buy junk or salvage cars to resell whole, for parts, or for crushing, and names pull-apart yards, scrap processors and shredders (U.S. Department of Justice).

Side by side

Whether a yard tows varies from one business to the next, so ask, and ask whether the tow comes out of the price.

What happens to a car at a yard

1. Paperwork and reporting. The yard takes the title and includes the car in its monthly report to NMVTIS, the Justice Department's national title database, so the VIN can't be reused on a stolen car (U.S. Department of Justice).
2. Fluids come out. EPA's guidance for salvage yards is to remove fuel, motor oil, antifreeze, transmission fluid, and brake and power steering fluid before the car goes into storage (EPA). North Dakota's environmental agency tells yards to drain fluids before salvaging or crushing (North Dakota DEQ).
3. Mercury switches come out of older cars. Many cars made before 2003 have mercury switches for the hood and trunk lights, and some for anti-lock brakes. In 2006, EPA, the states and industry set up a national program that gave dismantlers incentives to remove them before crushing (EPA). Virginia makes demolishers certify the switches were removed from model year 2002 and older cars (Virginia DMV).
4. Parts get pulled. At a full-service yard the staff pull them; at a pull-apart yard the customers do.
5. The hulk is flattened for shipment to a scrap recycler (EPA).
6. It's shredded and melted. Steelmakers buy and melt the scrap to make new steel (EPA).

The scale is large. By the U.S. Geological Survey's estimate, North America has more than 280 car shredders, and they pull over 13 million tons of steel a year out of roughly 17 million cars (USGS).

Priced by parts, or by weight

A salvage yard prices your car on what it can sell from it: the engine, the transmission, body panels and anything in demand for that model. A scrap processor prices it on weight.

The steel market sets the ceiling. USGS put the average delivered price of No. 1 heavy-melting scrap at an estimated $319 per metric ton in 2025, against $417.66 in 2021 (USGS). That's what mills pay for processed scrap. A yard pays you less, because the tow, the draining, the switch removal and the shredding all come out first. The worked example is on what a junk car is worth.

So a complete car with parts people want usually does better at a yard that sells parts. A stripped shell is just metal.

Taking it there yourself, or having it picked up

If the car runs and the yard is close, driving it in is simple. If it doesn't run, it needs a tow, and a tow you hire yourself comes out of whatever the yard pays. Ask each yard whether it picks up, and whether the price it quotes already accounts for the tow.

Paperwork at the yard

Bring the title and your ID. Expect the yard to check them, because it has its own reporting to do. Some states give the yard a deadline to turn the title in: ten days in Massachusetts and Ohio (Massachusetts law, Ohio law).

No title? A few states let licensed yards buy older cars without one, under narrow rules, and in most states you'll need a replacement first. See selling without a title. Take your plates off before you leave, and file any notice of sale; the rules are on after you sell.

Where we fit

We buy whole non-running and junk cars and pick them up free, anywhere in the United States, whether or not they run. You sell the entire car and there's nothing to strip. The offer is based on your description.

Comparing buyers? See where to sell a car for parts and who buys cars for parts. For the rest of the junk-car basics, see selling a junk car.