I get sick to my stomach watching some of those "Cash for Clunkers" videos on YouTube. Perfectly good cars getting destroyed with no effort to salvage anything, including valuable spare parts.
Such a monumental waste and for nothing. Multiple followup studies have shown there was no environmental benefit.
Might explain why I cannot find a dashboard electronics circuit board for our 4Runner. The 4WD light burned out. I could probably remove it and repair it myself. But that is pretty much the only bit of electronics on the car. I am worried about the 4WD pneumatics system. But I have a plan for that — replace the automatic 4WD system with a manual system with switches on the wheels.