Dixie Auto Salvage

Dixie Auto Salvage is a family-owned auto salvage and towing operation at 1795 E Washington Dam Rd in Washington, serving St. George and the surrounding Southern Utah communities. The operator states the business has been serving the area for 30+ years and is family owned and operated.

Services

- Used auto parts (sourced and shipped nationwide per the operator)
- New auto parts
- Vehicle sales
- Vehicle purchase / buyback
- Junk and broken-down vehicle pickup
- Abandoned-vehicle removal
- Towing and impound services
- Off-road recovery (operator states this includes work for law enforcement)
- Law-enforcement towing contracts (operator's stated specialty)
- Scrap metal pickup and pricing — including copper

How an Auto Salvage Yard Actually Works

For drivers in Southern Utah who haven't worked with a salvage yard before, the basic flow is straightforward. When a vehicle is totaled, abandoned, or no longer worth repairing, the salvage yard takes possession of it, drains and recycles the fluids (oil, coolant, refrigerant, fuel) under EPA-compliant procedures, and then either parts the vehicle out or processes the shell as scrap metal. Functioning components — engines, transmissions, body panels, doors, glass, electronics, wheels — are catalogued, inventoried, and sold to retail buyers, repair shops, and other yards across the country.

For a buyer looking for a specific part, the typical path is: call the yard with the year, make, model, and part needed; the yard runs an inventory check across its own stock and an interchange database that connects salvage yards nationwide; if it's not in local stock, the part can usually be sourced and shipped from another yard within a few days. This is meaningfully cheaper than a new OEM part, especially for older vehicles where the manufacturer has stopped producing the original component.

Off-Road Recovery in Southern Utah

The off-road recovery service is genuinely useful in this region. Southern Utah's surrounding BLM land includes some of the most popular and most punishing OHV terrain in the western United States — Sand Hollow, Sand Mountain, the Hurricane Cliffs, the Smithsonian Butte Backway, the trails around Gooseberry Mesa, the routes feeding into the JEM Trail system, and the broader corridor down toward Mesquite. UTV and side-by-side culture in the area is enormous (Hurricane's annual UTV Takeover regularly draws thousands of riders), and so is the rate of broken vehicles needing recovery from places a standard tow truck can't reach. A salvage operation that runs heavy-duty recovery equipment into rough terrain — and works on contract with local law enforcement on those recoveries — is filling a real gap in the market.

Selling a Junk Vehicle

The operator states they will pick up and pay for any broken-down or junk vehicle. Sellers should expect to provide proof of ownership (clear title in the seller's name) before pickup. Pricing on a junk vehicle is driven by the current scrap-metal market plus any salvageable component value (engine, transmission, catalytic converter, wheels). Vehicles with clear titles, complete drivetrains, and minimal flood/fire damage typically command meaningfully higher pickup pricing than vehicles missing key components.

Copper and Scrap Metal

The operator also pays for copper and other scrap metals, which is consistent with the broader business — yards that handle vehicle scrap typically have the equipment and buyer relationships to handle other ferrous and non-ferrous metal categories as well.

Hours and Contact

Yard hours posted on the website: Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Reach the operation by phone at (435) 632-8568, by text at (435) 233-6067, or by email at [email protected]. The yard's tagline: "Dirty parts. Done right."