Some Interesting Junkyard Finds at Collins Auto Salvage in Auburn, Georgia
This example, which had miraculously retained its original wheel trims, was the oldest car we found at Collins Auto Salvage. But that’s not to say there weren’t a few older ones we missed, lurking in the undergrowth.
MERKUR SCORPIO
Think automotive flops, and Edsel springs to mind. But let’s not forget that the Merkur marque sold half as many cars, finding just 64,474 buyers in the five years – 1985 to 1989 – it was active in the USA.
The worst seller of its two models was the Scorpio, a rebadged German-built Ford Granada. Despite being a decent car, only 22,010 people were prepared to hand over the required $26,000 to drive one of them out of a Lincoln-Mercury showroom.
CAPRI
In contrast to the Scorpio, here’s a captive import that sold well. Designed in the UK and built in Germany, the Capri and Capri II were marketed by Lincoln-Mercury dealerships between 1970 and 1978. When this early 1970s example was sold, the Capri was the second most popular imported car after the Volkswagen Bug, and in total 513,500 were sold.
PONTIAC LE MANS – 1979
Ignoring the rotten interior, this 1979 Pontiac Le Mans coupe still had plenty of great parts to offer. Then again, we can’t imagine too many people would have been interested in restoring one, so we suspect it will have probably ended up in the crusher. Of the 68,670 Le Mans built that year, less than a quarter were coupes.
FORD MAVERICK
Here’s an equally undesirable car from the same era, a Ford Maverick four-door sedan. As well as battling it out with the Chevrolet Nova and Dodge Dart, the Maverick was designed to tackle the growing threat from small Japanese cars.
While it didn’t set the world alight, it did sell well, with Ford producing 2.1 million units between 1969 and 1977. The nameplate has proved useful too, which is now used on a popular compact pickup truck.
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