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GREENSBORO — Just off Burlington Road, surrounded by an electric fence and the sawed-open carcasses of scrapped vehicles, sits a kind of automobile purgatory.

There, under the unblinking gaze of disembodied front ends piled three to a stack, huddle a few dozen vehicles — including a red SUV, seemingly still ready to take on some rough terrain or at least a quick errand to the grocery.

“It’s a shame they have to crush it,” said Michael Guarglia, president of Tri-City Auto Salvage.

But the SUV and other vehicles the salvage yard has collected under the cash for clunkers program are paying for their automotive sins — being old, guzzling gas, breaking down, being a clunker.

“They’re starting to roll in now,” said Guarglia, adding that Tri-City has seen about 25 clunkers arrive so far.

The vehicles sitting in the dirt of the yard are in varying conditions, but it’s clear most are past their prime, metal dinosaurs in their final days.

Others are seeing a stream of the vehicles arriving from the federal stimulus program as well.

Jeremy Strickland, purchasing manager for D.W. Griffin, said 15 or more have been coming in daily.

Although the program requires that the cars be scrapped — the idea is to take older gas-guzzlers off the roads and replace them with something more efficient — most of the vehicles are receiving a stay of execution.

For now, they’re being stripped for parts, said Kent Baltzer, scrap yard manager at D.W. Griffin.

For auto salvage yards, the program isn’t quite the boon it is for car dealers, but it trickles down somewhat, Guarglia said.

None of the vehicles can run. Each has had a solution of sodium silicate — liquid glass — poured into the engine, freezing it for good.

“That knocks out a lot of the value of the car,” Guarglia said.

Still, the program is bringing in some additional revenue, he said.

From the salvage yard perspective, the program started a little slow. Many dealers had been doing deals but were reluctant to perform a lethal injection on the engines without first seeing the cash from the federal government.

But the addition of more money into the program should loosen up the dealers and mean more cars headed to scrap yards.

In any case, the program is a good idea, Guarglia said.

“It is doing what it’s supposed to do,” he said. “It’s a positive thing. And we need that right now.”

For the clunkers already in the yard, the clock is ticking.

While salvage yards can sell off parts, there is a deadline of 180 days.

After that, they will meet their fate: being crushed in the jaws of a compactor and sold for scrap, ultimately to be melted down and emerge again in a new form.

Contact Jason Hardin at 373-7021 or at jason.hardin@news-record.com