How did the American scrapyard die?
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- čas přidán 17. 02. 2022
- @euroasianbob9268 explains how an American automotive institution has all but vanished.
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#Scrapyard #ForeignCars #SalvageCars - Auta a dopravní prostředky
Thanks Ed for the awesome experience and opportunity of sharing my crazy car stories with the world of car people!
I seriously really enjoyed your story! The history lesson on aftermarket and used parts in the first half of the story was very informative and fascinating. Thanks for a great story!
thank you Bob !
I've driven by your yard a lot of times growing up and never realized the greater story! Thanks for sharing Bob!
The Wichita Car Mafia. I enjoy all of youguys videos.
Thanks Bob, it was fascinating to see how the automotive salvage industry has changed from a salvage yard owner’s point of view, and how you adapted and created EuroAsian Autos to keep the lights on and food on the table!
Bob has always seemed like the most honest guy. I’m happy for his success!
Thanks so much for the kind comment!
Agreed! Would love to buy a car from Bob one day.
Bob is a good dude I've been buying bmw engines from him for 15 years
seems so weird to say "honest" and mention a used car dealer in the same sentence but i get that vibe from him too!! LOL
I adore Bob for what he does. Of course, I had to move and now I need parts for my Miata. 😅
IT'S URINATION BOB!
👋”Slap!”
@@euroasianbob9268 You tell him, Bob!
@@euroasianbob9268 nah, you need to slap him with an old timing belt from one of his old Mercedes that he sold to you!
Be nice Hoovie.
😂
Bob is the man! So cool to see him on the channel. There's no one more honest in the industry, and he's a heck of a friend as well. I'm glad even my Volvo made a cameo at 3:23 !
Hey Elliott! Great to see the Volvo where it is today! It’s in good hands.
I *thought* that was the Spaceball!
And of course, next warning message to tackle on the Spaceball is the bad strut on the Four-C suspension system!
Clout chaSer
My dad had a salvage yard here in Northeast Texas in the 90's and early 2000's. We did great until the 0 down, 0% financing in new cars started happening. We went from having a full crew to just my brother, a friend of ours and I pulling parts. On top of that, the price of scrap metal plummeted for a while making it harder for us to make money on the bodies once the main parts were sold.
Yeah, repair doesn't really incentivize new loans which does the actualy economic growth.
A local scrap yard was closed because of the oils and chemicals leaking into the ground, but I loved that place... I drive a 98 Integra and could find parts for peanuts at the scrap yards... Now I spend a small fortune on them when I need to fix it.
@se10💖 no. Bad bot.
@se10💖 lay off the pipe
Yep. Same with my ej1, just a few years ago parts were cheap and plentiful. Now it’s barren and the parts are eBay prices almost
Same here outside of Joliet, ILLINOIS. They kicked all the yards out for that reason. Places where we used to wander around picking parts, talking about the stuff we were looking at and wondering about the cars when they were new. Miss it.
Didn't help the insurance companies started not letting people into the yards. ☹️
So, my Dad is actually the CFO of one of (if not the largest) Auto Recycling outfits on the west coast. Biggest issue for them is honestly finding dirt to actually open up their yards. For every yard they open, they’re in the black within 18 months. The owner and his dad are fascinating guys to talk to
My local Pull-A-Part and LKQ are great morning trips. I'll head out for a tail light, grab a few other parts while I'm there, and get to see cars in a way I wouldn't otherwise have been able. You're not a car guy if you don't trip out to a salvage yard at least twice a year.
@@andrewakrause I wouldn't say that, I've been ridiculously busy so it has been over a year since I've been to one but I will say if you do not LOVE going to junkyards - you are not a car guy 😬
@@andrewakrause and you might want to add an option to your car that it wasn’t originally built with, and the salvage yard is the perfect place to find the parts that you need, and it’s always nice to just browse and see the unique cars that come through sometimes!
@@andrewakrause lol thats a dumb statement. Maybe you are a car guy who can just afford new parts
@IC 680 true and false. Most car guys love seeing a weird old car every now and then.
Bob’s great- super personality, and seems so genuine. Hope he’s able to stay successful
We still have a scrap yard with 100s of c10s and pull your part option. I miss going to yards as a kid and getting emblems, pretending to drive everything! What a great past time
We had an alternator and starter repair place for years. I preferred them to buying a new one at the store. Most people preferred the store sadly and ignorantly. An OEM part fixed usually beats an el chepo from the parts store.
Yes, OEM properly repaired can run for years.
Not only that but most the time they'll modify them and get them to spin faster go out buy 2 brand new ones then bring one to get rebuilt then bench test them the rebuilt one will have more power
It depends, on some cars there are no good parts left to rebuild. All the alternators have worn down armature rings. Some alternator regulators were no longer made. The Bosch starter solenoids wouldn't work after they got hot, but the brand new replacement used a better design.
@@don2deliver I mean if you bring it to a real starter builder he'll do whatever it takes to get it working and working better than factory brought a starter down for an old big diesel engine guy looks at it says its to far gone not rebuildablbe and usually I go this other guy but his wife had cancer but after a couple months he got a hold of me said he'll work on it less than a week back up and running and better the a brand new one I bought there always rebuildable its just how lazy the person is doing the work same with everything
@@mikethorntonr1 They stopped making Bosch solenoids for automatics. And the ones for stick couldn't be made to work. I had gone thru 2 remanned starters each would not restart after running 2 minutes to an hour. The original starter would go 2 hours of hot soak before not starting. No rebuilder could bench check a hot soak issue on a starter solenoid.
My favorite junk yard back in the 90s always had the owner at the counter and always just about gave stuff away. Guy was dripping in gold chains and rings and the cash register was just a giant knot of cash in his right front pocket. And of course, only accepted cash.
If you were buying something smaller than door or a motor, you didn't get a receipt and it didn't go on the books...
I moved away from the area and came back some years later, probably around 2010, and EVERYTHING was on the books. No more giant wad of cash in the front pocket, you paid tax, you got a receipt, and prices went way up. I bet times were good for him while they lasted. I got some awesome deals from him back in the day. 🤣
I knew a place like that too - - I'd walk in asking "how much are the $10.00 Batteries?" - - would always get a laugh !
@@peterdarr383 My best memory of the place I was talking about was cutting all of the brake lines off a late 90s Buick that was sitting literally on the ground. After fighting with it for about 4 hours with various handsaws, I returned the next day with a Black and Decker "Wizard".
The Wizard was basically just a '90s cordless Dremel tool, with virtually no power, that I took out of my mom's hobby tool kit. But, it had cutoff wheels...
Dude took one look at that thing and said it was never going to work... I came back up to the counter 15 minutes later with my brake lines. He was so amazed that it worked and so sad for my prior day's effort that he didn't have the heart to charge me for the lines.
And this was a giant knot of lines. All of the ABS pump stuff and everything. He was a good dude! Ya know, other than the IRS scamming... can't really blame him there.
The taxing authorities wanted their cut. Same thing happened in NY.Biggest liars and thieves out there.
We had something up here that was somewhat similar - up until March this year. You got fair prices for cash, slightly worse if you wanted a receipt. For stuff like starters and alternators I would get receipts because warranty, but seats, doors, headlamps, intake manifolds, anything that can't really break past you dropping it, all went out of there cash.
All the local scrapyards and specialty yards around me have all gone out of business long ago. The only one left is the ultra-corporate Pull-A-Part
In my area, there’s Pull-A-Part and LKQ; a lot of the smaller mom and pop salvage yards have been put out of business because of tightening regulations.
@@digitalrailroader people don’t pay enough attention to all the horrible side effects of all the regulation. We get what we vote for 🤮
Maybe they should follow the same business model.
@@jefferyepstein9210 Mr. Epstein, you inspired my fantasy football team name, the Epstein Islanders 🏝😁💀
@@bannedbycommieyoutube5time920
That is awesome!!!! Glad I could be an inspiration!!!
I absolutely love walking around salvage yards especially old yards with older 90s stuff sitting around. My main gripe is some mom and pop yards want retail prices for a used part that may or may not leave me walking around, when I could go to a parts store and get it warrantied. So see both sides for sure. But it sucks when corporate yards buy any and everything and then the general public comes in and destroys a shitload of other good stuff for one piece. The private yards I’ve had good luck with, seem to really give a shit and try to take care of stuff.
True this is a huge problem in the lkq aurora location most of their inventory is straight trash. To add insult to injury the almost want retail money for used junk.
Yea I'm totally against that practice because I'm a car dude to my core I will never break a part to get the part I need because the guy behind me may need that part for his build
Very relatable statement here. The general public loves to destroy valuable parts just for something worth significantly less. I can't tell you how many times I see valuable interior pieces ripped out and broken just so whoever could grab the $30 aftermarket radio. Also the amount of motors that are ripped out of cars and left in the middle of the walkway is annoying. Import rows are always super messy.
@@brayannexon4613 UPull&Pay is the way to go here in Colorado, could not agree with you more here. The Denver location is even worse. It gets really annoying when you ask them to remove their warranty (because I tested the part in the yard, I don't need to return it) and they find something else to charge you for. Very inconsistent on prices, they tried to charge me for a $80 ECU (listed as Engine Control Module on their website, not Electronic Control Module) for a power door lock module haha! What a joke.
@@Fordster22 This is also my biggest gripe with U-Pull-It yards. I pull parts to resell full time. I find that once a car is on a yard for more than a few weeks any valuable part is either gone or has been broken by some idiot pulling a worthless part. Like, it's not difficult to take things apart correctly. But most people are just lazy or stupid. Luckily the yards here in NY are pretty good. I can generally get 40-60 parts most times I go.
Came here directly from Hoovies latest video as soon as I can, when I heard that Bob is on Vinwiki, saw reminiscent of many things from other CZcamsr channels space ball Volvo V70 R that sits in Elliots garage,Car Wizards Leaf, old merc hoovie tried to save, little bug eye. Superb video, and amazing story Bob. Kudos
Thanks!!!!
Great video! I grew up in the 80s and 90s playing with watercooled VWs. I remember distinctly many salvage yards we used to frequent every single weekend looking for "OEM plus" parts to install on our cars. Or just to look around. Almost all of those yards are gone now. One was replaced with a housing development, a Target at the location of another, and a business park at another. One that is still around is only because the owner saw the future and restoration needs. He physically moved every single car in his salvage yard to a more remote part of our Minneapolis metro area and is still in business to this day. Hadn't been there in 10 years and visited recently. Phone was ringing off the hook looking for vintage European parts in his yard. Old 80s and 90s VWs, BMW, Mercedes, etc....
Had no idea that the scrapyard business had changed so much!! Glad to hear that Bob was able to hang in there and make a successful transition!! Best of luck in the future!!
I remember an air-cooled VW scrap yard down in South Phoenix. Only thing they had were type I, II, III and some oddball IVs. We went there several times tracking down parts for my and my brother's volkswagens.
There was an all air cooled VW parts house in Fresno called Subway VW. They had every nut, nit and bolt for Bugs and mod parts for dune buggies.packaging showed that parts came from Mexico, Brazil, etc..all reasonably priced. They closed out about 1980 and all their stuff was bought out by Sebring West who is still in business today.
I like Euroasian Bob. He shares interesting stories from his life experiences... I hope to see him again.
*Urination Bob
Great to see "Urination Bob" on the channel!
By far the best story and story teller on the channel so far. Been watching for a couple years now. So glad bob is on now! Thanks Ed!
Really appreciate the history lesson and truth behind this sad and ever changing hobby/profession for us car guys. Loved every minute of this story and was cheering on!
Wow! I am honored!
@@euroasianbob9268 I live in the KCMO area & yes when i buy my next used car, your getting my business, i dont want a cheap car, im too old to push those things
Sounds like another industry being sunk by big corporate collaboration.
When he mentioned Copart fees, I felt that. Granted, I know profiting from auction is a slim chance so I just buy for personal vehicles. Still, the Durango I bought at auction came with fees amounting more than half of what I bid on it. It's insane.
The last copart car I bought was $1850 or so. The fees were $9XX. Yeah, only fooling with fun projects here and there now.
Great story and breakdown, Bob always seems like a super nice guy which I think is rare in the used car world.
Bring back scrapyards! We need all the cheap parts we can get! 🤙
@se10💖 lay off the dope
With the production and material problems, I'll be surprised if they're not back
There _are_ cheap parts, they're just made of Chinesium and break in a heartbeat.
For real. Over the last 10 years LKQ bought up and ruined every parts yard around here. We have one local yard left, but it's not a pull your own part place so it's not the same vibe and they have to jack prices to stay in business.
@@ayitsyaboi I know the feeling, going to a LKQ feels like a job interview when you bring the parts to the counter. No one is in a good mood just kinda sad.
Bob's a good guy. Thanks for putting him on.
Worked for Bob yrs ago (late 90s) and rode in the Celica a couple times. Loved my time working there and for Bob
Hey Shawn! Hope you’re doing well! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Shawn!!
"Adapt or die." That's something I say a lot when people are resistant to change or unwilling to change. It used to get me in trouble when I worked in consulting, because it wasn't "client friendly." Looks I'm actually in the right, because anyone I've ever heard utter that phrase have been really smart, very successful, and have overcome major challenges. Bob is absolutely an example of someone who's really smart, and is now enjoying his success after overcoming some really huge obstacles over the years.
So... Adapt... or die.
"The only constant is change"
(and the other one is "fear of change".. so the other one wasn't the only one.. but you get the idea..)
'Adapt or die' is all well and good but when the political will to fight the consolidation of monopolies is gone, that choice is gone too.
3:27 oh look, it’s Elliott Alvis’s V70R Spaceball before he bought it!
My Dad always said his favorite job was working in the junkyard back in the early 1960's. He got to take whatever he wanted for his cars and was paid 3.75/hr.
If you pay attention you learn something new every day and I learned something new today.
This is the realest business story I ever heard, much respect for the guy I have no doubt I'd feel the same way about any business I start. Pure survival until you figure out the formula
My grandpa started a salvage yard back in the late 60s or early 70s that is still in the family. My mom grew up working there and delivering parts, which is how she met my dad when he was painting at a Cadillac dealer. My mom still did the bookkeeping when I was a kid and I remember the tones of business they had into the early 2000s. The place is an absolute shell of what it once was and who knows what will happen to it when my uncles finally give up on it.
One thing Bob forgot to mention how often the Oreillys/Autozone/etc parts is that despite their "remanufactured" pricetag, most are either Dead on Arrival or already failing after being "remanufactured with warranty". For example, an Alternator for a 94 Ford Taurus at Oreillys in Indianapolis is $186+$15 core charge and you could easily go through 3 of them in a year because zero f**ks are given in China about doing the job right. So when this happened on my 1987 RX7, I went to a You-Pull-It salvage yard and pulled an alternator from a Taurus for $15, instead of a RX7 one for $25, and it instantly worked right from the start. An original Ford part with 20 years of use is still better than a brand new chinese copy, and is 1/10 the price too.
A good salvage yard is the car guy's best friend, especially when you're just starting out. My buds and I usually make a whole day of it, hitting several yards within a few miles and end up finding some treasures along the way too. One such case is a tire changing jack for my RX7, it was $5 from a 90s Infiniti J30 and found entirely by accident.
Those corporate auto parts stores are jokes. Order from Rock Auto, Oem dealers, get used parts, or find a local independent parts place.
You are correct! Boy do I have some stories on that!
owned a yard for 5years
wouldn't even pull autozone alternators or starters for resale ,they went into the core barrel.took a few apart that just got put on and then the car died of something else.could tell sometimes the brushes weren't replaced.almost like they cleaned them up and reboxed them.this was 1993 -1998.they might have gotten better since then
@@euroasianbob9268 Dang, never thought my comment would get a reply from the guy in the video :) Got any stories about finding hidden gold while junkyard treasure hunting?
@@tsherwoodrzero nothing too crazy. A nice gun. Mostly goofy stuff. My employees may have found something and never told me!
This was a perfect video lmao. I am super familiar with basically everything Bob says excluding the line of credit lmao. I just bought a 2007 BMW 328xi off the auction for $800. But the fees were another $350. So it's not cheap. (Not including the towing & dealer fees I have to pay.) The one thing I recommend for anyone trying to resell cars is DO NOT buy salvage title vehicles as it's never gonna sell nearly as well as a clean title will. Only exceptions to this rule are rarer/brand new/highly sought-after cars as they will all still sell well to the right buyer. But also make sure you calculate the costs of all of the fees ahead of time to know what your budget is which also includes any repairs. So you do not overpay.
Where do you find good places for auctions is it online or in person?
Ah, buyers don't care what the title status is on the cheap cars. Condition is everything.
@@mph5896 Of course if a car looks like garbage then yes then a lot of people will be turned away and more so for cheaper cars. (My example was just for the fees.) But what I'm getting at is making good profit while buying cars off the auction. Soo many people are scared off the moment the read salvage or rebuilt title. Cause many people don't know the first thing when it comes to cars outside of the most basic knowledge. They will want to know what was wrong with it? How well were the repairs done? Does the seller just want to scam me out of my money? Etc. Not including the fact that sooo many people who still might be interested are gonna tell you that a salvage/rebuilt title isn't worth as much as a clean title car and will try their best to negotiate as much out of it as possible. I know more than just first hand as a lot of my friends, relatives, and other people I know do this to make an extra dollar on the side. If done right you can make absolute bank and on the contrary it can financially ruin you if done improperly. In the end all I'm trying to do is provide some insight for the people that might want to do this and not fight others over details that are not as important. I'm just generalizing if I can put it into a few words.
@@mph5896 And you can clean up/fix up a dirty car and flip it in the end. While you can't make a salvage/rebuilt title into a clean one legally.
@@LoganC278 I mostly just stick to IAAI and Copart. They are both online auctions. You can look around for local auctions but usually most of those are closed off to the public.
I think Cash for Clunkers ultimatly hurt the salavge industry a lot more than most people think. It was great at first because people were snatching up parts for their older cars, but then there were whole generations of cars that went directly to the crusher without having the parts stripped.
Didn't even bother actually recycling the parts, just material. They destroyed engines etc, what a waste. All to be 'green'. Also closed many dealers too.
I have an upcoming story on that coming here soon!
You’re absolutely right.
@@euroasianbob9268 LOL! I just asked you about it in another thread. Please do!
@@euroasianbob9268 always wanted to hear the insiders view of all that
I was a worker bee in a large successful full service salvage yard in the Detroit area back in the early 1990s. I believe they went bust within ten years after I left, and I always wondered why. The owners were savvy businessmen who had grown up working for their dad in the automotive salvage business. They took his yard when he retired, moved it out to the suburbs, and were seemingly printing money; they looked so successful. Now I understand what happened to them. This was a great story, thanks for interviewing Bob!
Which sub of the dirty D
@@jpconway5698 Warren
Junkyards used to be such magical places. Where dreams ran wild and anything was possible.
You and your best friend could kill a whole Saturday in the mud under a dead Caprice, risking being crushed by the engine or rearend you were yanking for your poorly-thought-out project car. You didn't care how dirty you got because you drove the truck to the yard and there was a hot shower & clean clothes waiting at home. No cover charge, no "I can't let you out in the yard because of the insurance," no "I gotta check your toolboxes." But somewhere along the line, junkyards decided they wanted to be respectable, and became "auto recyclers."
And the magic was gone.
A lot of that was new regulations, taxing authorities wanting their extortion money, and the ambulance chasing lawyers.
I miss the tough, no nonsense, no politeness, dirty clothes owners.
Urination Bob!! We love you.
I hope to meet Bob someday, he's obviously an honest and good man.
I've literally bought parts from this guy! If not directly from him it was from his business. I lived on the outskirts of Wichita and this video made me think of what happened to all the scrapyards that were around when I was a kid at one point. I didn't realize who this was at first but it's crazy how many cars got shredded and how crazy some of those junkyards got! Some of them ended up being "scrap yards" and honestly that is one of my favorite past times. Always working on cars you end up with a lot of scrap parts but me and a buddy of mine would just go around looking for scrap. We never stole or anything and if we were lucky we would even get paid to haul it off. We hauled so many thousands of pounds of scrap out of the rivers and creeks and ditches too and that was the best honestly. Hard work for free money sometimes but it was rewarding knowing that we were cleaning up the ecosystem we also fished and hunted in too 👍
You know what
He sounds exactly like a honest, down to earth entrepreneur. Being extremely cautious is the approach we non rich people take with businesses, specially when you eat from what you sell
Bob is a true down to earth business man . He is the American Dream. I love that he admitted that is phones were shut off. Keep at it Bob !! I see a future John Staluppi !!
I appreciate his humility ... a quality that's becoming more rare nowadays 👍
Got a killer scrapyard near me, God bless Harry's U pull it
I went the route that Bob described. I used to get parts out of the junkyard for my old beaters to keep them going, then stopped going with the rise of the internet and cheap Chinese stuff (and the mistaken impression that new is better than used). After 10 years of replacing cheap Chinese junk multiple times I soon realized that used OEM was often better. It's a shame that the scrap yards are drying up.
Exactly! I have many stories about that!
This happenes in truck salvage about 13yrs. They came in bought up all the starters and alts even ones with no cores and Now rebuilts aren't a thing.
I remember getting JC Whitney catalogs and being too scared to buy anything bc the prices were ridiculously cheap.
Buddy and I sat in 8th grade class and just flipped through Jc Whitney catalogs.
@@mph5896 same!
It seemed when they moved out of Chicago you didn’t hear much about them anymore
@@mrrobertwu Last I saw, they moved downstate---I forget the town. They originally were in an extremely dangerous "hood," even though only 8 blocks from Chicago PD's HQ. (Given the awful business climate of IL, IDK why they didn't move to IN or WI).
@@elultimo102 they went out of business like two years ago i think it was Utica we passed it up going to grand bear lodge one time
Bob is the man (and his wife is great too)! I bought an e93 M3 from him and it was better than advertised. Keep up the honest work, Bob. You're the real deal.
Thanks for sharing and the kind words!
Ahhh thank you!! Appreciate your business & the kind comment!
Came here from Hoovies channel, Bob you did really good! And I learned a lot. Thanks !
I’ve seen a lot of these very things happen in my local salvage yards. The biggest mistake I’ve seen was the policy of some yards of “we never crush cars, ever”. That lead to $ millions in lost revenue by allowing thousands of cars to rot into the ground becoming worthless over time.
GREAT STORY AND OH SO TRUE ON SO MANY LEVELS! I've been a recycler/salvage dealer since 1984 and the changes to this industry have been phenomenal. Back in the early days even a dumazz could make money. As time went on margins shrank, as mentioned then aftermarket, corporate yards, and auction fee's too boot! I remember a time when we had 2 rollback and 2 wreckers. I live in a state with "junk" bill of sale so that eliminated rebuilders buying on many cars (good thing). Then the auctions (Copart, IAA ect) started getting into global mode. Meaning buyers from other country's, So (still true today) BOS (bill of sale) cars are LEAVING THE COUNTRY. Many third world places dont have a DMV, so why would you need a title? Granted I'm leaving out many details here, but I just can't type that much. Anyway moving on... add the fact that I'm a 2 acre yard in the middle of a major metro area. There is no room to expand. Our salvage salvation has been that we have switched over exclusively to LATE MODEL (newer). I cut my teeth on hoopty's and street junk. I guess that still works if you have a zillion acres to let cars sit and get picked. But there's just no money in it for us. I was lucky that I always kept up on my cash flow (altho marginal at times in the past) so I never owe the bank. I could retire now but in all honesty I really enjoy what I do. I've seen many guys come and go. Often due to their own mistakes not competition. Sorry for my erratic writing style. So many things are coming to mind I could go on and on and on.
It’s great to hear your story and that you’re still in the car business. People like you and Bob remind me of my dad and growing up around a service station. Keep up the good work!
I like how he puts EUROASIAN in all caps like he's yelling "My name is not Urination Bob!!" lol
You have Hoovie to blame for that!
The junk yard in my town is still open, but they charge an arm and a leg for parts. One part they charge more for than what they pay for the whole vehicle.
That’s when you find another place or order stuff online these junkyards are getting GREEDY
Greed is a deadly sin and there business will die
The yards in the Chicago area were horrendously expensive, not worth it to pull anything unless it was some obscure part. Easier and cheaper to go on eBay and have it shipped to the house. Now I've moved South and there are good junkyards with dirt cheap parts. Out in the country. Cars with no rust. It's amazing the difference. LKQ is worthless though.
Same in the UK. When i was a kid there were Scrapyards everywhere and i remember going to them with my Dad to pick parts. Now they have all gone. Just specialist yards that are closed to the public and sell online.
I love the community and how you can flip from The Wizard, Hoovie, Bob...and all comes together on Vin!
Its sad to see salvage yards going away. Central nj use to have a ton with good parts in all of them. Now there's only 4 left and even those are getting pressure from the townships to close so the land can be used for high density housing
I have to make another trip to Red and Black in Jamesburg.....
This is a great story. Bob walked into my life here on CZcams a successful man. In fact, he makes it look easy but now we know he and his wife busted their behinds to be where they are today. Nothing came easy but he did whatever it took to survive and at the same time learn from his success and failures. I am a big fan of Mr. EuroAsian Bob.
Thanks for the very nice comments!
Thanks Kerry for the very nice comment 😊
I so like Bob, his energy, and his willingness to keep a clear head,with both feet well planted on the ground. Good for him!! Glad to see him on VinWiki
Thanks for the nice comment!
I was born in a generation where the late 80s Mr2s, ended up being my favorite hobby car, and still daily drive them to this day. Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, junkyards used to have a plentiful variety of now rare Japanese sports cars. Thanks to cash for clunkers, those available cars, as well as all other cars from the late 70s to the late 90s, disappeared within 6 months of its implementation.
I've been told insurance companies are currently hoarding mechanically totaled cars until the supply chain issues are worked out. If true, there should be an interesting glut of high dollar cars on the market some day.
I've heard that too, hell even Hoovie said it when his Gladitor that he gave his coworker got totaled. Hoovie said that the car was perfectly repairable but due to supply chain issues they couldn't get the parts needed to fix it so they just totaled it out. I've also heard of other people who had their cars totaled for something that is easily repairable but the insurance companies didn't want to put them in a rental for 6 months or a year till the parts showed up and have to pay storage fees at the body shop.
The insurance company never usually takes possession of the cars. They go from towing company to body shop if not obvious total loss. From there if they get totalled, they go straight to auction.
Insurance owned body repair and salvage operations have been horrible failures.
How would they make money hoarding totaled cars? I know someone who had one that was totaled just recently, it went to auction.
Well done Bob. Great to see your business go from strength to strength. And great that here in Europe we can browse your inventory online. Here in Czech Republic, reading today that used car prices for
Great to see Bob on here and it was really interesting to learn more about him and how he ended up where he is
Bob is the man. Great to see him on this channel.
“O Riley’s and autozones selling every part for every car” but somehow not mine lol. Starquests are a forgotten legend
There is a HUGE American car/truck salvage yard about 20 miles from my house. They do a LOT of business. They have cars and parts back to the 1950s. The car salvage business may not work well with modern computers on wheels without tires, but business is booming when it comes to pre computer vintage American parts.
You know what else killed the salvage yard/junkyard!? Cash for CLUNKERS absolutely destroyed the market for cars I was interested in! Push it, Pull it, Tow it we will buy your crap! Now my b13 Sentra's are few and far between and anything else I was thinking about buying is just gone 😭 thank you for the video 👍
You do know that only vehicles that were EPA-rated at 18 mpg or less qualified for Cash for Clunkers, right? In other words, not a SINGLE Sentra was killed by Cash for Clunkers. But don't let that stop you from using Cash for Clunkers as a scapegoat for every car industry problem....
@@jonclark1288 All this means is that you don't know the whole story, sir. There is something known as the curse of unintended consequences. It's very real.
@@theanomalous1401 thanks for your understanding of where I was going with this.
Here in Canada, we had the program "Cash For Clunkers" or "Push Pull or Drag" All of those cars went directly to the shredder, now you have a hard time finding anything pre 2000 where I live.
Where you live in canada?
Way to go Bob! Hope you have more stories for us!
One of the best videos yet. So informative. Thanks Europe And Asian Bob.
I have a very similiar story. Started in auto body work in the early 90's. Opened my own shop in 2000. I can totally relate to the almost going out of business thing. I watched the other owners going on beach vacations and buying fancy new sports cars. Now I'm the only legit shop left in my area. Honestly though, I wish I'd chosen a different occupation. I should have been a chiropractor or something.
Great story Bob. I'm not in the car business but I grew up around it with my dad, grandpa and uncles. It brought back a lot of memories of things I saw them go through...both good and bad. I always wondered about your background having seen you on Hoovie and the The Car Wizard. I bet you've got tons of stories!
The ringtone on my phone is the Vinwiki intro music. I love everything Vinwiki !!!
Keep up the great work Ed, I am sick with cancer and your videos are the best medicine 💊.
Look into niacin flushes and chlorine dioxide. THC oil for pain relief if it’s legal in your state. CBD oil might work, too.
I wish you well with your cancer treatment, Kevin. I know it's not easy, and you look for anything that will make the struggle easier. I'm glad VinWiki helps to take your mind to a better place, if only for a short time. I pray for God to give you strength and comfort while you kick cancer's ass!
So happy to see him become successful! He worked hard and never gave up.
I always wondered about Euro Asian Bob and his story as he has seemed like a VERY interesting guy with a great amount of information….
Glad to see him make it to VinWiki…
One day someone is gonna put a statue of Hoovie up in Witchita, Mans done some wonderful things for ppl, Its great hearing Bob talk, almost cried when I saw the Starions
I needed a shortblock and have 3 scrap yards near where I live, all of them quoted 380-400(about 70-80% of a reman, and yes ripoff) and would "check their lot and call me back", I said ok, call them back a week later and get bs excuse after excuse, visit one 3 times "oh I'm still working on that", months of time wasted. Went on craigslist and picked up a longblock for 200 with a transmission next day, dude even helped me load it. One of those scrap yards went out of business last year, and I'm glad. If you're not a buddy of theirs, or someone they like they won't deal with you, and now anytime I need something I go to the pick a part 40 miles away, when someone else asks me I tell them that those scrap yards are a waste of time. In short the reason they're dead is because of suicidal incompetence.
One of the best VINwiki videos I've watched. Thank you.
My dad flew an ag airplane for 35 years. A couple times a year he’d get hired to spray the junkyards with Glyphosate or dioxin to kill all the weeds that grew up around the vehicles.
I grew up in the next town away from Times Beach, Mo. I remember when the town was abandoned and seeing the vacant houses with cars in the driveway and toys in the yard as we passed by on I-44. People left everything behind, only taking the clothes on their back after the EPA revealed that the entire town was covered in dioxin . There's a couple of interesting YT videos about it if anyone would like to know how it happened.
@@birdflipper I mean, we still use it on the farm. It’s a really effective contact killer herbicide. It’s an active ingredient in lots of commercially available products.
@ Bird Flipper Imagine what’ll happen when the EPA “magically” comes to its senses on dicamba and decides to evacuate areas. Hmmm. Could this all be by design?
@@EMichaelBall where’d you get your degree in agriscience?
My Pops was buying 1967-72 Toyota's in the 1970s and 80s buying them for cheap fixing them up for resale. I bought a 1968 Toyota 4 door parts car and fixed up really nice. I would get thumbs up by the early 1990s you didn't see to many of them around. My brother still has two of them.
I used to love going to the junkyard looking for parts. Kept my crappy cars going. It was always a trip negotiating with the owner and getting some stories from him. It was the way we did things. I miss it
A cameo from Tyler calling EuroAsian Bob "UrinAtion Bob" would have been EPIC...
He's done it in the comments lol
What a cool story. Could relate with a lot of the struggles he dealt with over the years. It’s definitely been huge changes and an adapt or die scenario for the auto salvage industry. Glad to be part of the still alive crew!
I really enjoy listening to Bob & his stories. He seems like a great guy. I hope he continues to have success
Great story from Bob. Enjoy seeing the large group of friends helping each other.
Glad you made it through the hard times. Good luck in your current venture.
Our local yards gave up the pick and pay model decades ago. Nowadays they sell whole assemblies to insurance companies for collision repair and don't want to bother with selling starters and alternators to people keeping old cars on the road.
I had a yard refuse to sell me a fender because they wanted to sell the whole nose clip. I couldn't buy a window because they wanted to sell the whole door.
I had a car fire once. Managed to plug enough vacuum lines to get it running, barely. My local salvage yard let me drive it right over to a smashed in the rear copy and swap all that plastic and rubber stuff over, plus seeing how it was supposed to be put together, for 20 bucks. They were crushing and didn't care about plastic back then. Saved my broke ass.
Respect. A refreshingly honest take from an honest, respectable businessman. Rare to see these days in our world of shysters, scam artists and carpetbagger corporations.
very humble guy. not greedy. nice to see that!
Here in California, the scrap yard never died. Cars don’t rust so the body lasts. The power train eventually dies or the car is totaled from an accident. But I’ve pulled body panels and interior parts of 20 year old cars with great success.
Thanks Bob. I used to love going to the scrapyard to look for trim pieces for my mid 70s Caprice Classic. I found finders, tailights, dash bulbs etc.
You are so right when you said people don't know what they are doing will get burned and will get out of this fast; but you hit the nail on the head when you said 10 more people will line up to take their place.
It is the same with merchandise auctions where with returns much of the stuff is used, opened, broken and it is not returnable yet people are paying over retail plus the auction fees on top of that.It used good to take a chance and buy an item for say 10 cents on the dollar up to say 25 cents, now I actually see people many times pay over retail.
BOB!! can't wait to hear more!!
Big thank you to Tyler and Ed for introducing so many new cool auto youtubers to a wider audience. EUROASIAN Bob is a great character, hopefully he plays a role in future Cartreks as well.
I'm from the California bay area we used to have the largest salvaged/wrecking yards they all dried up in the 1990s when the environmentalist came in and made so many rules and law's they had to shut down. I seen so many really nice classic car's and truck's get crushed in my father's uncle's friend's wrecking yard almost wanted to cry I was a teen at the teen in the 1980s my friend's just seen them as junk car's. Now here we are in 2022 everyone wants old U.S. iron classic car's and truck's. I wish I had some farm land to have put most of the car's and truck's I own. There was guy's buying up car's pulling trailers full of classic car's and truck's from California and taking them somewhere before they got crushed. Even old classic motorcycles thinking back there was some gems but I was a teen and didn't know any better back in the early 1980s what they would be worth today. Yup that was the good Ol day's if you grew up in the 1970s and 80s as a kid and teen you know what I'm talking about.
As I was taught in my Military Days.. Observe, adapt and concur !! HooAh !! You did that !! Again, HooAh !! Job well done !
A lot of people go to lkq because they'll still let you walk around the yard and the local yards won't allow you to even set foot anywhere near the boneyard anymore
Glad you got Bob on here! Seems like a good guy!
Bob your the original article. I enjoy your input when you pop up here and there.
Cheers 🇨🇦
More great content. Love Bob and his stories. It is as real as it gets.
Yet another guy Tyler Hoover has motivated and inspired to become more than they thought they could be.