Life after Death: Where Old Cars Go To Die: Imports Edition

As a car enthusiast, I have mixed emotions about going to junkyards, especially since rare cars can be found in shoddy condition. Even more sad than a rare car that bit the dust, is seeing perfectly good vehicles with no body damage in the yard. Such was the case at my visit to a local "pick and pull", in the Twin Cities area.
Since Cash for Clunkers, or CARS, hit, yards are filling up fast with unwanted, clean, damage-free "clunkers" that the government deemed "worthless". Moreover, it's the consumers who traded their decent, often low mileage cars and trucks in for a new "fuel efficient" car who are worthless.
Peering upon the rows and rows of clunked, and barely recognizable Chevy and GMC fullsize trucks and tucked amidst the corpses of what once was America's top selling vehicle, the Ford F-150, gems were to be had. And I'm not talking about the cars on my "guilty pleasures" list either. Yes, there were Montero Sports there, and Explorers were there in droves, but that's not the point.
I came to this junkyard, like I do the others, hunting for photogenic material, and I found a few vehicles that piqued my interest.Sitting on death row in the "Foreign" section of the yard, Camries and Corollas sat out in the Minnesota air, rusting to their death along with Subarus and the occasional 10 year old Maxima. Though most of the Japanese cars bored me to death, there were two cars that caught my attention. One was a 1985 Mark II Toyota Supra. Unlike the majority of the Japanese cars in the yard, the Supra had seemingly no real crash damage, but it did have some rust. Maybe it had engine problems, or maybe the owner was too stupid to baby it. What ever the reason, here it lay, on death row, rotting, fading, wilting in the soon-to-be harsh Minnesota winter.

German cars were also present at the yard, with CFC'd Audis and BMWs making up the bulk of inventory here at this pick and pull. Scattered throughout the hoards and hoards of twisted remains of once-luxurious Audi 100s, 90s, V8 Quattros, and BMW E34s, a select two cars got my attention enough that pictures were warranted. The first is a VW Quantum wagon. It seemed to be in great shape given its age, and how many miles it had (85k), so I think this car was accepted from a charity, or a car someone donated through their website. Quite a shame, really.

Next up, in the sea of dead, rotting cars, I was surprised to see an E28 in here. Well, in this case stunned is the more appropriate word. Sitting in a row of malnourished, and badly beaten and weather-worn Mercedes and Audis, this E28 had me almost on the verge of tears. Maybe. The black paint still looked decent, the tan leather was immaculate, including the dashboard and shifter, which is quite a shock in junkyard dogs. To make the matter even more tear inducing, three of the four BBS-type alloys were sitting behind the car relatively scuff-free. What pains me most is this wasn't a CFC victim, either.It's as if the owner woke up one day and said "To hell with this old car, I want a new one."