Salvage Yards in Florida

All the Florida yards on this page sit in the south, packed around Miami. Opa-locka has the most, then Hialeah, with Medley and Homestead making up the rest.

Miami is the search term, but not the address

This one trips people up on a map, so take it first. Almost nobody searches for Opa-locka, they search for Miami, but the yards themselves sit in those smaller cities ringing it. Opa-locka and Hialeah are effectively next door to each other, and with Medley you've got a cluster inside a few miles. You can call all of them without any one being a real drive.

Homestead is the exception, far enough south to be its own trip. That distance is also the reason to call it separately, because it doesn't get worked over by the same buyers circling the Opa-locka yards every week.

More German metal than the size suggests

Nissan is deepest, then Toyota, Ford, Chevrolet and Honda, with Hyundai carrying more than it does in most states. Ordinary enough so far.

Then Mercedes-Benz and BMW, both running deep for a group of yards this small, ahead of Chevrolet in several of them. Miami's traffic has always been its own thing, and what these yards break skews to more expensive cars than a comparable cluster anywhere else. Infiniti, Lexus, Audi and Jaguar all show up in usable numbers.

So if you drive something European and someone has told you the part is dealer-only, call south Florida before you accept that. Including from out of state.

Where the money is saved

Air bags, tail lights, doors, mirrors and wheels are the busiest items, which is the collision repair pattern you'd expect. On the German cars in these yards, that pattern is where the savings get absurd. A single headlamp assembly on a late Mercedes or BMW can cost more from the dealer than a month of payments on the car. The used one is the same part with the same part number.

Buying from out of state, and from north Florida

There's nothing listed here in Orlando, Tampa or Jacksonville, and no sense pretending otherwise. If that's where you are, these yards can still help, because most of them ship and a part on a truck beats a day of driving that you'll never get back.

If your car came from somewhere else originally, say so on the call. On some models it changes which interchange numbers apply, and it's the sort of thing that causes a part to arrive and not fit. Get the shipping cost quoted at the same time as the part itself rather than after you've agreed to buy.

Making the call count

Year, make, model, trim, engine, and the number off the old part if you can reach it. Ask about the warranty and the return terms while you're on. Thirty to ninety days is the usual spread down here.

If the first yard doesn't have it, ask who might. The Opa-locka and Hialeah yards trade with each other all week and most will point you straight at whoever does, which costs them nothing and saves you an afternoon.

Opa-locka is the place to start

Opa-locka is the biggest group and the obvious place to begin. The city pages below open onto the yards in each one, with numbers and addresses.