Cars that went to the salvage yard in quick order

[skyactiv]

I spotted a Dodge Avenger coupe today. It's been awhile since I've seen one and I live in a large city.
What other cars can you think of that hit the salvage yards in quick order?

 

[OneEyeJack]

There's a junkyard here that has 12 Chrysler 300's lined up, all with engines, transmission, wheels and gas tanks missing. The owner said that a local Chrysler dealer is his best customer for parts of those cars.

The junkyard owner said if you wanted to make a good living repairing cars and wanted to specialize in a line that would keep you busy that you should pick Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat. He said the turnover of parts for that line of cars is the best followed by Mercedes.

 

[01rangerxl]

The early Mitsubishi based Avengers never sold in large numbers, so they were kind of an unusual sight when new.

I can't think of a particular model I have seen hitting the yards early other than the usual rental car and weird brand econobox suspects, but I do sometimes see outliers that catch my eye. For example, Pull-A-Part had a 2008 or 2009 Fusion about a year ago. It was fairly complete, but was a rental car grade trim level. It had an underhood fire that did a lot of damage...pretty much everything from the dash forward was trashed. The damage was enough to put the car in Pull-A-Part's budget, probably around $500.

The last time I was at Pull-A-Part, about three weeks ago, there was a 2003 Nissan Frontier crew cab on the yard. It was a V6, had not been wrecked, and only had about 140K miles on it. It looked like up until recently it had been a fairly nice truck. No idea how it ended up junked so soon. I can't imagine any mechanical problem making that truck worth junking at those miles...plenty of Pathfinders, Frontiers, and Xterras to get replacement parts from. Pull-A-Part only pays about $500 tops, usually much less for their cars.

 

[NHGUY]

Mazda RX7.When the rotary gave up,so did the owner.Much like the RX2/3,and Rotary pickup that came before it.

Citroen.The expensive and troublesome hydraulic suspension and easily rusted bodywork doomed them early.

Plymouth Cricket.After 2 years of support and sales,Chrysler turned their back on this Hillman Avenger,and this car was rather unique...rack and pinion steering,front struts,British lousy electricals...

AMC Pacer.These cars deteriorated fast,and any that lasted into the 1980s were left with no parts support (the steering rack would seize up) from AMC or aftermarket.

Renault Alliance/Encore/LeCar/Fuego/18i.All flimsily made,rusted quickly,electrical issues,weak engines,nobody knew how to repair them.Typical French cars.

Renault Dauphine.Bad when new,even worse in a couple of years.Most didn't live past the 1960s.

Vauxhall Victor/Envoy.GM Pontiac's captive import.They rust and break at the firewall.Only a handful left in America and Canada.

Opel Kadette/GT.Famous Opel quality.Relatives of the Chevy Chevette.Enough said.

 

[NHGUY]

Any British sportscar...MCTC/TD/MGA/Midget/Sprite/TR2/3/4/5/6/7/8/MGB....they leak,rust,fall apart in a crash,and leak some more.

 

[ThirdeYe]

I work in claims for an insurance company and I get calls all the time for brand new vehicles getting in accidents. It breaks my heart to hear about people getting a new car and totaling it the next day from someone running a red light and broadsiding them. While driving around earlier today I saw a 2013+ Honda Civic EX on a flatbed that had been broadsided, likely a total loss. Not sure if I understood the thread completely, but I know one car that was a hit-or-miss Lemon was the first gen Neon. Some people got good service out of them, and I know others who had nothing but issues with them from the start.

 

[Leo99]

Merkur XR4Ti. It was a milestone to get one of these to 100k miles. Not many made it. Lots of issues. Red hot glowing exhaust manifolds, caved in headliners, batteries lasting about a year due to the heat under the hood, leaky radiators... And I only had mine for 2 months. Bought it for $500 and junked it soon after.

 

[Donald]

Pinto, but they may have burned (gas tank location) before they wore or rusted out.

 

[oilpsi2high]

Chevrolet Cobalt

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: ThirdeYe
I work in claims for an insurance company and I get calls all the time for brand new vehicles getting in accidents. It breaks my heart to hear about people getting a new car and totaling it the next day from someone running a red light and broadsiding them. While driving around earlier today I saw a 2013+ Honda Civic EX on a flatbed that had been broadsided, likely a total loss. Not sure if I understood the thread completely, but I know one car that was a hit-or-miss Lemon was the first gen Neon. Some people got good service out of them, and I know others who had nothing but issues with them from the start.


The Neon was a follow-on from the Duster I think.

The only thing good in a Neon are the 4 port fuel injectors that fit in my Jeep 4.0 engine.

 

[qdeezie]

Originally Posted By: ThirdeYe
INot sure if I understood the thread completely, but I know one car that was a hit-or-miss Lemon was the first gen Neon. Some people got good service out of them, and I know others who had nothing but issues with them from the start.


You just made me have flashbacks to the 90s when I used to work for Chrysler. Those things were atrocious. You rarely even see them on the road today and that wasn't all that long ago.

 

[morepwr]

I havent seen a neon on the road in quite a while. I would ad Chevy Beretta to the list. I cant remember seeing one in a very long time.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: qdeezie
Originally Posted By: ThirdeYe
INot sure if I understood the thread completely, but I know one car that was a hit-or-miss Lemon was the first gen Neon. Some people got good service out of them, and I know others who had nothing but issues with them from the start.


You just made me have flashbacks to the 90s when I used to work for Chrysler. Those things were atrocious. You rarely even see them on the road today and that wasn't all that long ago.


K cars?

 

[Silverado12]

Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
Chevrolet Cobalt


I've seen some of those w/high mileage.

 

[WiskyBadger]

Suzukis,Pintos, anything mopar with the 2.7 v6, and mopar vans with the bad trannys.

 

[WiskyBadger]

Originally Posted By: Silverado12
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
Chevrolet Cobalt


I've seen some of those w/high mileage.
We have several in our work fleet with 140k+.

 

[dishdude]

Originally Posted By: Silverado12
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
Chevrolet Cobalt


I've seen some of those w/high mileage.


Cobalts have solid powertrains, they'll be hanging around for a while.

 

[CapitalTruck]

Plymouth Breeze/Chrysler Cirrus/Dodge Stratus. At the time I thought they had their stuff together, however, those vehicle dropped fast. One day a lot, next day none.

Somebody on a previous post mentioned Berettas. News flash, that was 20 years ago. I was thinking the other day that I never see Corsicas on the road anymore. Then I was like, oh, right...they're way over the hill!

 

[gregk24]

Originally Posted By: NHGUY
Mazda RX7.When the rotary gave up,so did the owner.Much like the RX2/3,and Rotary pickup that came before it.

Citroen.The expensive and troublesome hydraulic suspension and easily rusted bodywork doomed them early.

Plymouth Cricket.After 2 years of support and sales,Chrysler turned their back on this Hillman Avenger,and this car was rather unique...rack and pinion steering,front struts,British lousy electricals...

AMC Pacer.These cars deteriorated fast,and any that lasted into the 1980s were left with no parts support (the steering rack would seize up) from AMC or aftermarket.

Renault Alliance/Encore/LeCar/Fuego/18i.All flimsily made,rusted quickly,electrical issues,weak engines,nobody knew how to repair them.Typical French cars.

Renault Dauphine.Bad when new,even worse in a couple of years.Most didn't live past the 1960s.

Vauxhall Victor/Envoy.GM Pontiac's captive import.They rust and break at the firewall.Only a handful left in America and Canada.

Opel Kadette/GT.Famous Opel quality.Relatives of the Chevy Chevette.Enough said.


My mothers first car was a Renault Alliance, she said many people told her they were poor cars but she never had an issue with hers.

 

[crazyoildude]

A lot of Cadillacs from 96 on with the northstar that engine was very powerful and fast but it had head bolt issues and the engine had to be removed to fix it the correct way. Before 1996 (dex cool era) they seemed to be good but after 96 we did a boat load of them they were a German design to make up for the HT-4100 another engine we did a lot of and the conversions to 350 oldsmobile engines.