Speedhunters had a couple of cool features on a salvage yard in California, one focused on American cars and one focused on imports:
Welcome to the wasteland - The great American junkyard
Imports in an American junkyard
I'd love to walk around in that place if they would let people in. I could spend days in there. This may not be as interesting to some of you guys, but I really love the history of it. These cars were new at one time, shiny fresh paint, sitting out on a lot in Anywhere, USA. Somebody bought them and loved them as much as you or I love our cars. And I wonder how they got to this point, when did someone decide they were too far gone?
What was the last straw for this Torino? At some point this car would have been somebody's pride and joy. They would have taken pictures of it and posted them in the Neogaf Automotive Discussion thread if there had been such a thing.
Fortunately for some of the more popular models like the Mustangs, Challengers, Chevelles, Camaros and Firebirds, you can practically buy anything you need for them. Fenders, hoods, bumpers, quarter skins, floor pans, grilles, etc.
But for more obscure cars, you could spend countless hours trying to find a salvageable piece of trim, and that's probably why many of these cars are still here, because eventually someone might need that one piece.
So what will become of our cars in forty years? I just hope mine doesn't end up on a freighter bound for Yokohama, melted down and stamped out into five Priuses.