My wife wrecked our car a couple weeks ago. When we went through all of the obvious things - we’re thankful everyone was relatively unhurt, insurance handled everything, we’re already in a new car - but among all of that my wife said almost jokingly “I’m just pissed that I just filled up the tank before the accident.”
The gallows humor got me thinking: Gas prices are high! While our late model compact sedan had a smallish gas tank and I happen to live in an area where gas prices are below the national average, it still cost us close to $50 to fill the 14 gallon gas tank. Someone who drives a Ford F-150 with the V8 engine with it’s massive 36 gallon gas tank who lives in Minneapolis, which has some of the highest gas prices in the country, will be set back over $150 to fill their tank based on current gas prices and that’s the cheap stuff. If gas prices spiked again or even if you use premium gas, it could easily eclipse $200 to fill the tank of many trucks, vans or SUVs.
That’s not chump change! Especially when you consider that a salvage yard will often only pay a few hundred bucks for salvage cars and that’s the ultimate fate for most cars that insurance companies deem a total loss. A full tank in a totaled car could almost double the value of the vehicle!
Do salvage yards make a concerted effort to siphon the gas and reuse it for their own vehicles? I assume they cannot resell used gas, but they can make use of it. Do they?
When I worked at a used car lot, we would routinely pump all but about 2 gallons out of every car. We used that gas to fill other cars that were empty. We hardly ever had to buy gas for the lot.
Yes there is a concerted effort at a salvage yard.
Even though the towing company has siphoned the fuel tank, the salvage yard still has to drain all fluids from a wreck. Many will use the waste oils in their heating systems. Its called processing the wreck.
Back in 1975 I worked nightshift at a self-serve gas station. After each sale, I’d drain the hose into a gas can. The year I worked there I never bought gas (and it was 52.9!).
Back around 1990 I was in a breakers yard (AKA automotive junk yard) in England getting some parts for my car. Somehow the place caught fire and it turned into a smokey, hot inferno quick. The ground was soaked in oils and gasoline for decades. I had to escape out the back over a tall fence into a farmer’s field.
Salvagers have to drain the gas, and all other fluids now. It wasn’t always done, and when it was it was often drained into the ground. This has left hundreds, maybe thousands of toxic waste sites around the country, now only good for junkyards since no one will pay the cost to rehabilitate those sites.
I had a friend who ran a wrecking yard for about 15 years, from maybe 1975 to 1990-1. I once worked counter in a wrecking yard, but I learned many things from him over the years. One was that in the early days, gas tanks were scrap that he was paid $X a ton for; by the end, they were toxic waste that he had to pay $XX a ton to have removed and processed.
My first car was a Model A Ford (1930) (no, I’m not that old).
In the reading was an article about early wrecking yards (and pics of absolutely gorgeous “wrecks”).
Of especial interest were the gas tanks of the 1920’ and 30’s - they were made of some exotic steel alloy.
Does this ring a bell with anyone?
My Q: Why a special steel for gas tanks?