What happens to aging cars in the U.S.?

Question

It's really wierd, but I don't see many cars from the 1980s or even early 1990s with any regularity. Where are these cars going? Not to the junkyard, a lot of them must have low miles. Are they being bought by wholesalers and shipped out of the country to Mexico and South America? Anybody have any insight?

Answer 1

Post 1976 or 77, the quality of cars took a nosedive. This is when all cars became equipped with emission controls and started going to onboard computers.
Most of the cars of that time up to about the mid 1990's, usually wouldn't last more than 5 years. People were lucky if they got their loan paid off before the car was useless.
Many of the cars of that time period are either sitting in someone's backyard (on blocks or stripped) or have long since been crushed at the scrap yard.
Junkyards wouldn't have them because nobody wanted parts for them - they just wouldn't last long enough.
Some people have kept theirs and actually done what's necessary to keep them going, but not many.
Thanks to the foreign car manufacturers, the U.S. automakers' standards were pushed up high enough to make a quality product that would at least last for the life of the loan!

Answer 2

Have you been south of the border lately? Many of our used cars head south to where they are affordable transportation in developing countries. Mexico for instance really does not have a finance industry where cars are purchased for payments like here in the US. The serviceable cars that we cast off are snapped up by ready and eager buyers down south.

Answer 3

Other than the junkyard, they are either being bought by wholesalers and stripped for parts or sent to third world countries to be sold.

Answer 4

Some are shipped out of the country, but most are drained have the aluminum parts removed (because they aluminum is worth more than steel) and crushed for recycling.