Cars meet their fate in junkyard heaven
Giving salvaged cars a second life
Junkyard owner John Carroll does have a few regrets. Like the Gullwing Mercedes that he crushed – today it’s worth close to a million dollars. It sat around the Lexington wrecking yard for years, until one unfortunate day when he finally decided to get rid of it. He also laments the 1955 convertibles that also met their fate in junkyard heaven – those are worth $50 to $100,000 today. But otherwise it’s business as usual for Carroll, owner of JP Carroll’s Auto Parts. The salvage yard is hidden on 26 acres of land in suburban Lexington, where vehicles are taken apart and reclaimed for steel, copper, aluminum and rubber. The proud vehicles that were once masters of the highway are flattened to 10 inches high and shipped away. Carroll spoke with Globe correspondent Cindy Atoji Keene about how the glory days of the junkyard are long gone.
“If you ask me what car I see most frequently in the junkyard, it’s a Volkswagen and Hyundai. On the other hand, I rarely see Volvos or Saabs; they’re extremely safe and don’t fold up in an accident. I’ve been in this business for over two decades, and it’s a tough one. The license is almost impossible to obtain and it’s very hard working in the elements. Getting rid of the waste product can be very difficult as the value of scrap goes up and down all the time. Right now there’s a strong market for batteries whereas one time they were worth nothing; and I’m trying to figure out what to do with the tires. The junkyard business is a litmus test for the economy, and right now I think we’re headed for a real downfall. When the economy is bad, people start showing up here again, scrimping and scrambling, looking for used car parts and fixing their cars instead of buying new ones. I’ve been doing this for two decades, and I started when recycling wasn’t in vogue as it is today. Cars would sit in backyards and just rot; you could tell a rich person because they had two cars jacked up instead of one. I used to ride around and knock on doors and ask people wanted to get rid of them, and it grew from there. The oddest experience I’ve had was that someone once left $60,000 under a car seat in a bag. It was his lifesavings and he inadvertently left it in the car. My workers get to keep the loose change that gets left in the car as a fringe benefit, and on average they collect about $250 a week. Undoubtedly, every car has a story. There’s no question in my mind about that.”
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