What's the difference between a junkyard and salvage yard?
Mostly the name. Both words describe a business that takes in old or wrecked vehicles and sells their parts or their metal. Where people draw a line, a salvage yard leans toward newer wrecks and insurance write-offs, and its staff usually pull and inventory parts for you. Junkyard covers anything from a field of old cars to a scrap operation. Two other terms matter more for what you can do there. A u-pull yard lets you walk the rows and pull parts yourself for a small gate fee. A scrap yard buys metal by weight, crushes it and sells no parts at all. Check what a yard does before you drive over.
Checked Oct 30, 2026