Consumers using salvage and junk yards to keep their cars running longer

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The price of car parts and new vehicles has risen over the past few years, which has some people looking for ways to hold on to their vehicles longer and save a little money. One of those ways is salvage yards.

Shane Irving runs a yard in Leland and says people are looking for all kinds of items in his salvage yard.

“Yeah, a lot of things are different. Sometimes they’ll be looking for hub assemblies, axles, you know door locks, windows switches, just anything that the car quits on. A lot of the older stuff is a lot of electronic stuff. Replacing what they need to make it work, like to roll the windows down, heater switches, fans and stuff like that,” said Irving.

Another popular spot to look for used parts locally is Cape Fear Pick N Pull, which has right at 2,000 vehicles on their lot.

“With the increase in new car demand and used car prices following suite, we’ve seen a big increase in the demand for used auto parts. Budget conscious consumers holding onto vehicles longer,” said Marc Vanover, President of Cape Fear Pick N Pull.

According to Vanover, some of the common parts people are looking are tires, alternators, AC compressors and batteries.

You can find the Edmunds article referenced in the video, here.