Starting with a 1981 Fox-body Ford Granada and ending with a 1989 Chrysler New Yorker Landau Mark Cross Edition, the eighth year of the Down On the Junkyard series featured 52 discarded cars that I found sufficiently interesting to be worth photographing. They ranged in age from seven to 51years old, were built in locations ranging from Abingdon to Aichi, and ended their respective roads in conditions varying from basket case to pretty clean.
Here are my favorite ten, the ones that got me the most worked up when I first spotted them gleaming from within the junkyard chaff, presented in model-year sequence.
1966 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan
I drove more miles in a 1965 Chevy Impala sedan than I have with any other vehicle, which makes any 1960s full-sized Chevrolet a noteworthy Junkyard Find in my book. On top of that, this ’66 was assembled on the same week I was born. Yes, I bought the clock, just because.
1967 Chevrolet P20 Adventure Line Motorhome
All manner of recreational vehicles were built out of bouncy, tin-canning Detroit step-vans during the 1960s, mostly by Midwestern manufacturers, and this Chevy P20 combines full-on hooptiness with a wistful view of a period when most RVs were not attempting to be rolling luxury hotels.
1972 Jeep J-4000 Pickup Truck
It saddens me that most pre-1990s American light-duty trucks have five-digit odometers, because this extremely battered ex-snowplow Jeep I photographed in a Denver yard might have more miles on the clock than any vehicle I have ever photographed. This truck worked hard for 45 years.
1975 Mercedes-Benz 240D
Here’s a car that might have more miles than the Jeep J-4000: an oil-burning, slow-as-molasses diesel W115 Benz, found in the San Francisco Bay Area. These cars should last forever, but sometimes their owners let them get towed away for unpaid parking tickets, or trade them in on youthful 1990s Mercedes-Benzes, or just discard them out of ennui.
1976 Audi 100 LS Sedan
Just about all of these cars were eradicated from the face of the earth by about 1990, thanks to a combination of Teutonic complexity and low resale value; I hadn’t seen one in a wrecking yard for at least 25 years when I spotted this one in Colorado Springs.
1981 Datsun 280ZX 2+2
Some say the Datsun F-10 is the ugliest Japanese car ever made, but I disagree. I say it’s the 280ZX 2+2, and that’s why I photographed this one in Northern California.
601,173-mile 1987 Mercedes-Benz 190E
A gasoline-powered, single-cam, five-speed W201 with the highest plausible odometer reading I have ever seen in a wrecking yard (the highest implausible reading was this ’81 Volkswagen Rabbit Cabrio, indicating 930,013 miles on a janky-looking odometer). Still looked pretty nice when The Crusher ate it.
1989 Ford Tempo All Wheel Drive
Here’s how sick I am about oddball rare-but-not-valuable Detroit cars: I shouted “YES!” and did a little dance when I spotted this car. Have you ever seen a Tempo AWD in person?
1991 Toyota Camry DX with V6 engine and manual transmission
Manual-transmission second-generation Camrys are really rare (at least in North America), but I’ll see maybe one every few years. This is the only example of a second-gen Camry with a five-speed and a V6 engine I have found in all my years of junkyard explorations. Disappointingly, you couldn’t get the All-Trac Camry with this engine/transmission setup.
1993 Plymouth Voyager with manual transmission
It was possible to buy a new Chrysler minivan with a five-on-the-floor manual transmission through the 1995 model year. Few did. After years of checking mid-1990s minivans for three pedals, I found this one in Colorado.
Originally written by Murilee Martin for The Truth About Cars.
(http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2018/01/best-junkyard-finds-2017/)
To receive stories in your inbox every week, sign up for our weekly newsletter here.
Check out the more than 8,000 car listings on My Classic Garage.
Click here for information on financing for classic cars from Woodside Credit.
Click here for information on collector car insurance from TDC Risk Management.
Click here for information on transporting classic cars from Plycar.
