The sale of reusable salvage from old cars is only a small piece of the auto recycling pie. Once cars are crushed, they're shipped off to a recycling center where they are shredded and separated into small pieces, which are then sorted into various metals.

Less wear and tear. We want to stress that this is only theoretically true; even a car with very low mileage can turn out to be a total beater if it hasn't been cared for properly. But all else being equal, lower miles mean you can expect a longer life from most components, which helps keep ownership costs down.