Carbeque Christians

We used to melt old cars and try to reclaim the steel. Now, new "car shredders" literally chew old clunkers into bits and pieces, and magnets pull out the good from the bad.

It's a beast of beauty, that shiny new 2001 SUV.

But within a few years, it will be a broken-down heap of junk. It will die and go the way of all old autos.

Sure, it may spend a season on the used SUV lot. It may go through two more owners, but soon the thrill is gone. The sheen will dull, and rust will creep and corrode. Even old favorites like BMWs from the '80s. Their first owners paid big bucks, expecting the cars to last a lifetime, but by the new millennium they are burning quarts of rich OPEC oil and eating lots of good green cash to keep rolling in replacement parts and labor. Costs rise. The cars are doomed. Infused with obsolescence, the end quickly approaches.

Taken in tow they will go, hauled behind tow trucks or riding piggyback on car carriers. Off on their final ride to the old cars home, the junkyard - now renamed "The Auto Recycling Center" - to be stripped of usable, salable doors and headlamps, bumpers and windows, taillights and floor mats.

Ford, General Motors and...