Return to the Volkswagen Disposal Yard in Moab, Utah

In mid-2018, a friend visited Moab and told me he thought the big Volkswagen disposal yard off Spanish Valley Drive was gone. Was that possible? We had photographed the treasures (i.e., old Volkswagens) in 2016, and I thought it unlikely that someone had bought them and moved them all away. Considering that there were 100 or 200 cars there, moving them would require a fleet of 18-wheelers, a serious expense.

However, I can report good news: as of October 2019, Tom Tom Foreign Car Parts is still at 1809 E. Mill Creek Drive, at the junction with Spanish Valley Drive. It looks like someone maintains the place because I saw fresh cat food and cat water outside. I did not see the watch cats, but possibly they were on rodent patrol. I only had time for a few mobile phone images. The yard has been cleared and neatened a bit, but the overall ambience is intact.

Here are a couple of Type 3 Volkswagens, known as the Squareback in the USA market and the Variant in Europe. These were handy little station wagons with more interior room than the Beetle. I had a 1965 model in college. My dad bought this car in Ankara, Turkey. He drove it to Genoa and had it shipped to Boston. When camping, I could sleep in the back at an angle or straight front and back with the hatch open. You can't do that in most of the pretentious crossover/SUV play trucklets that curse our highways and mall parking lots today. With its rear engine, the Squareback could go up and down snowy mountain roads with no problems at all.

Here is the classic Beetle, the Type 1 Volkswagen. The original is still popular.

This is the classic bus, officially the Volkswagen Type 2. It was also called, depending on body style, the Transporter, Kombi or Microbus. The Westfalia-Werke camper versions are still popular in the US west, and restored examples sell for serious prices now.

Tom was creative in his use of body parts to make the fence at his property. Well done! When you readers travel through Moab, make time to visit the Volkswagen museum. Buy one, take it home, and get it restored. Learn how to use a real transmission (i.e., with a clutch pedal) and have fun in your Beetle.

These are all digital images from a Moto G5 mobile phone.

The Volkswagen Disposal Yard of Moab, Utah

Dear Readers, I found another Volkswagen disposal (junk) yard. This one is in Moab, Utah, off Spanish Valley Drive. The official address is Tom Tom Foreign Car Parts and Service at 1809 E. Mill Creek Drive, Moab, UT. An energetic Tom Arnold ran an active recycling business for Volkswagen collectors, but he passed away some time ago, and now his collection of 200 or 300 bodies sits in his lot. Tom considered this his man cave, according to a 2009 article in Moab Happenings. A lady I met in Moab knew his son and secured permission for me to walk around and take photographs (small towns are great because usually someone knows the right person to contact about almost anything).

TomTom's VW Museum, watch cat on patrol

Needless to say, there is a lot of inventory here - buses, Beetles of various ages, Karmann Ghias, and Squarebacks.

I was concerned, was there a watch dog? No, even better: there were watch cats. These two were on perpetual rodent control and cuddle duty.

This was the Volkswagen Type 3, known as the Squareback in the US market. These were handy little station wagons with much more interior room than the Beetle. I had a 1965 model in college. When camping, I could sleep in the back at an angle or straight front and back with the hatch open. You can't do that in most of the absurd modern crossover/SUV play trucklets that the suburban "adventure" set drives to the mall. With the rear engine over the drive wheels, that Squareback could go up muddy logging roads or snowy passes in the Cascades.

There are at least a hundred Beetles in Tom's lot. I did not see any older split rear window models, but some may have been present somewhere. At least here in Utah, rust is not a problem.

This is a 1949 Type 1 split-window model, from Wikipedia Commons (public domain). These are collectors' items now.

The Karmann Ghia was based on the mechanical underpinning of the Type 1. These were nice little sports cars.

Tom had organized his inventory neatly. Volkswagens had such a long production life, you could fit parts from various years into a car you were restoring. The Type I (Beetle) was in production from 1945 to 2003. According to Wikipedia, "With 21,529,464 produced, the Beetle is the longest-running and most-manufactured car of a single platform ever made."

But if you wanted some chassis parts, air cleaners, mufflers, etc., that may have been more of a challenge.

My other article about a VW disposal yard is from Raymond, Mississippi. I need to return to see if it has changed.

These are digital images from a Fuji X-E1 digital camera. One day I should return with film.

UPDATE OCT. 2019: Many of the Volkswagens are still there, but the yard looks cleaner and the brush has been trimmed. Click this link to see the 2019 photographs.