Breakers Yards - A Definition

A car breakers or wreckers yard is a business that dismantles wrecked or decommissioned vehicles. The vehicles are often brought to the yard and sold for cash based on the usable parts and are dismantled, with their parts being sold on at a profit, often having been reconditioned and verified. The non-reusable parts such as the scrap metal would be sold to a business which recycles metals and will give cash based on the weight and metal type.The vehicle obtained may come from many sources- when a vehicle is beyond repair it may be sold, the wrecker may be called to tow away a derelict car.The vehicles would be stored in the salvage yard in rows, often stacked, and an inventory of all vehicles, their reusable parts, and the vehicles location are recorded on a database (usually electronic) for easy reference. In recent times, satellite part finder services can be used where a part can be located looking at many breakers databases cumulatively, many of which are web- based and deal with requests instantly. Parts are often stored on shelves, ready to post or collect to a customer so that when a query or order online come in to the breakers business, the part can be sourced immediately without having to wait for the vehicle to be dismantled and parts removed. Some breakers yards also have the facilities to fit and install parts to vehicles, using a team of mechanics. Others to not offer this facility and purely sell the parts and require the customers own mechanic to complete the installation.Most of the parts that are dismantled are fairly small in size, and are easily removable parts such as headlights, seats, mirrors, hubcaps etc. The more major parts of the vehicle such as the engine or the transmission are equally removed and often reconditioned, either by the breakers yards or else sold on to auto-part factors who will do this, both of which will usually resell with a warranty.Not all cars and vans are dismantled. If the vehicle is in good condition in it;s body, often motor enthusiasts or amateur car builders would be keen to buy a vehicle such as this with the view to doing it up in their spare time as a hobby.