Business becoming customer-oriented

By Sarah Anne Wright
The Cincinnati Enquirer

In the rolling hills of Northern Kentucky, beyond a two-tiered horse fence and swinging manor gates, sits Bessler's U-Pull-&-Save auto salvage yard where 800 cars sit in orderly rows, ripe for the picking.

“When somebody comes here and finds parts, they are really just thrilled,” general manager Rob Bessler said. “Older parts are getting harder and harder to find.”

Mr. Bessler's lot is the modern method of auto-parts salvaging. Extensive computer cataloging, retail-oriented customer service and increased environmental awareness are transforming the used-parts business into a bargain-hunting activity for the do-it-yourself mechanic.

Junkyard dogs, pools of antifreeze and acreages of rusting car carcasses are becoming more the exception than the rule as the industry seeks to orient itself to a greener future.

“The word "junkyard' is very much a thing of the past,” said Bill Steinkuller, executive vice president of the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) in Northern Virginia. “These days, you will find far more "professional automotive recycling centers.'”

The junkyard moniker is no longer the politically correct way to refer to the customer-oriented salvage yards that are popping up throughout the country.

Auto salvaging generated more than $7 billion in the United States in 1997, according to the ARA. Each year, about 5 million cars are retired from the road, most due to age and accidents, and their valuable parts are harvested by resellers. Sometimes, the lots are “we-pull” where an attendant will take the parts off the cars for a fee plus a discounted price for the part. Other lots strip the car for its usable parts and then put the car to the crusher. A good dismantler can pull apart 15 cars a week, Mr. Bessler said. Either way, the automotive leftovers are picked clean before the body is crushed and melted.

The “pick and pull” lots stretch the life of a car. Wrecked cars are prepped before they're put out to salvage pasture. Batteries and plutonium-lined catalytic converters are pulled away to be recycled en masse. All car fluids are drained and sorted separately — Freon, windshield wiper fluid, antifreeze, motor oil and gasoline are stored for sale, reuse or recycling. Little is done to regulate the environmental impact of salvage yards; a commercial license and zoning laws are the principal legislation governing the industry.

The 1960s Federal Highway Beautification Act requires that a salvage yard be completely fenced or similarly obstructed unless it has fewer than 10 cars, is more than 1,000 feet from the nearest road or is in an industrial area.

Most local environmental offices come knocking only if there is a complaint. The ARA has issued recommendations for modern auto recycling centers to follow; the guidelines are economically efficient and create a neater, more organized space where customers feel at ease. Bessler's self-serve lot has three full-time employees; the full-service lot employs upward of 25.

At the “pick and pull” lots, people outfitted with their own tools pay a fee ($2 at Bessler) and hunt down replacement parts on the same make and model of the car they're fixing. Self-service has long been a popular salvage option in California and Florida where temperate weather and huge resale markets fuel the demand for parts. Mr. Bessler is trying to bring the self-service concept to the Tristate area where only a handful of lots permit customers to forage for parts.

“It's a lot cheaper,” U-Pull-&-Save customer Loren Tackett of Warsaw, Ky., said while searching for a driver's side door for Corsica. So far, the retail public isn't coming in droves, but they're ready for them at Bessler.

Opening the door of a parked Toyota, Mr. Bessler showed some of the other items that one finds on the parts hunt. “There's always plenty of junk inside of these. You'll find pictures, papers, shoes, clothes and always lots of change.”

Mr. Bessler finds people come looking for headlight assemblies, plus a whole bunch of miscellaneous parts, such as jacks, knobs and the right-sized bolts to install a part.

“There are a batch of people who want to pull the pieces themselves,” Mr. Bessler said. “How useful is it if you have the part and you're missing the nut that holds it in place?”

Bob Johnson of Foreign Auto Salvage in Fort Wright finds that many people are looking for headlights — and the most popular parts are those of the Honda Accord or Toyota Camry.

Most autos will sit on the salvage lot for six months to a couple of years while their parts are gradually sold. The make and model of the salvage vehicles are cataloged on the yard's computerized inventory system.

If the cars in the self-service lot don't have it, chances are it can be found on the collective inventory of other parts' dealers.

Bessler gets online orders daily and sends parts through the mail without ever having talked to the customer. David Garnett, executive director of th Kentucky Motor Vehicle Commission in Frankfort, went online to find a door latch assembly for his wife's Toyota Camry Wagon. The dealership was asking $385, but he found it used for $85.

How much would it have cost had he walked the yard? One can only guess.