The Best Junkyard Finds of 2017

Here's a tip - don't expect the majority of cars junked in North America to resemble these Colorado and California cars. I've lived in the UK, and frankly you don't know what salty roads are! Or cold. Or snow. If Murilee were photographing junkyards in the North East US and Canada, the vehicles would be younger than the UK norm and in far worse shape. Pre 2005 cars on the road around here are not common.

Conundrum is right. There's a big difference depending on whether you drive in the so-called "salt belt" or not. Still, in some parts of the salt belt 13+ year old cars can be found struggling down the road. Not all states have inspection programs and the programs that do exist are not always well administered; a few of them are "slightly" controversial (my nod to our British cousins' knack for subtle understatement).

@JimC2 Inspections? Now there's no safety component, just smog. If there are no warning lights on the instrument panel and emissions are within spec, the vehicle passes.

@JimC2 You're right Jim. When scouring craigslist (via a Google search algorithm) for rare cars, I do find older models in the salt belt. Old Datsuns, Mercury Zephyrs, Oldsmobile Achievas, V-6 Tempos, etc. Many you can tell are not driven in the winter, but some are year-round transportation but are likely to be reasonably cared for (being treated with rust preventative and/or washed often). I thank God that I don't live in the salt belt. The issues down here in the Dirty South are that one, scrap prices pay decently and two, cars tend to get used up because people have to commute pretty far. My brother's 1997 GMC Sierra, for example, would be closing in on 400k had he kept a better eye on its oil level (it ran dry at 373k and the engine seized). His 2001 Altima was recently replaced by a newer Fusion, having some issues at 283k miles. He disliked the car anyway, so when it developed an issue with stumbling and stalling from a stop, he chose to get a car he would rather drive. (I traced the issue on the Altima to an oil seal that lets oil deposits on a little wheel inside the distributor, which is causing the issue. I cleaned the little wheel, and the car ran normally for a while until the problem returned a short time later. I plan on replacing the distributor one day, selling the car for him, and using the money to buy a wrecked 97ish 2wd Tahoe/Yukon or a pickup with a good running 350 we can swap into the GMC. I've spotted a few for cheap, and I can part out what's left of the donor truck as well.)

Not to be picky, but they stopped making them after 1991. With the 1992 refresh, the AWD was dropped, but the V-6 was added. Tempo's AWD system was designed to get you unstuck, it wasn't meant to be used on dry pavement, and doing so could definitely cause problems. It was more akin to a part-time 4wd system than it is to what we see as AWD today (which doesn't require driver input to work, unlike the Tempo). Even the 4wd Aerostar worked automatically with no input required. If it detected the rear wheels spinning, the front wheels were automatically engaged.

@JohnTaurus This is why I still love TTAC. Thanks John.

@Detroit-Iron Resident Tempo (and many other unloved cars) enthusiast at your service. :)

@JohnTaurus Makes me angry they called it AWD when it was really a 4wd thing.

@Corey Lewis Well, those terms were being sorted out at the time. "4wd" usually meant truck/SUV.