The Rivian R1T pickup parked inside a former steel mill that’s now known for its specialty salvage on Detroit’s east side seemed almost out of place at first glance.
The electric pickup from a U.S. brand that might not be a household name just yet appeared mostly intact, and staff noted it was last reported with fewer than 200 miles on the odometer.
But on closer inspection, the smashed roof, white scrapes on the passenger side near the lower front end and lots of grime and grit coating the interior said this truck, a 2022 launch edition, wasn’t just parked after a leisurely spin.
The Rivian, with “State Farm” and what appeared to be “Move with Teslas” written on the windshield, was a victim of Hurricane Ian, which devastated parts of Florida early this fall. An attached 2022 “Barefoot Beach” parking or entry pass offered some testimony of a previously sunbaked lifestyle.
The R1T was special to the 20 employees at Pacific Motors, however, primarily because it was the first Rivian they had brought into their building and grounds on East McNichols, not far from the Coleman A. Young International Airport. It was also of interest to those who follow Pacific Motors’ social media postings, and it prompted about 150 inquiries in less than a week after the find was shared.
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Vehicles like the Rivian aren’t brought to this specialized junkyard so they can be restored. They’re purchased, often at insurance auctions, to be stripped of their parts and resold in pieces or packages that can be dropped into other vehicles or for other uses entirely.
Tesla battery modules, for instance, are popular for home solar projects and for use in transforming other gas-powered cars into electric vehicles. In one case, a customer used several Tesla batteries to build an electric yacht.
“Some of (the vehicles) have been in accidents, some have been in floods. When you get into a car wreck, the insurance company buys your car, and we buy it from them,” said sales manager Anthony Garrison. Many come from places like Florida and Texas.
Pacific Motors deals in rare, exotic and luxury vehicles or what might better be described as wrecks. It’s what this business on a third of an acre with its old Detroit factory vibe is all about. Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, Aston Martin, McLaren, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce — cars with names that sound like they’d never end up in a junkyard — have all made their way here, although it’s not always obvious what brand a wreck is.
The logo was still evident on the hood of a gray 2021 Porsche Taycan sitting outside the large brick building on an overcast Friday in December, but the car’s damaged front end, smashed windshield and missing driver’s side door indicated it wouldn’t be driving anywhere, especially considering it needed a cinder block for support.
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Despite its appearance, the remnants of this German EV aren’t likely to go to waste.
A new Taycan, with a starting price north of $86,000, would be expensive to repair, especially with brand new parts.
That’s the case with lots of other high-end cars, too.
And it can be a challenge finding replacement parts for rare vehicles, said Tom Turner, Pacific Motors’ assistant general manager, because you can’t necessarily head over to AutoZone for the exact piece.
Dealerships in search of rare parts even source them from Pacific Motors, the staff said, because of the time needed to get replacements, and replacement parts from the manufacturer are preferred to aftermarket parts.
Maintaining the connection to the original brand during a restoration is also key, Garrison said, referencing an old saying that you want to “keep your Chevy a Chevy.”
While the wreck on the lot might not look like much to an average person, that same wreck to the eyes of someone who has spent years combing auctions and breaking down all manner of vehicles can be full of promise and potential.
“A lot of times you’ll see these cars all crunched up and mangled and a mess, but there’s thousands of parts on a car, and a lot of times something will look really bad. Once you peel it open, take the layers off the onion, everything underneath is smelly and makes you want to cry,” Pacific Motors owner Darko Stojanovski, said with a laugh.
“We’re all car guys. It’s more fun and enjoyable working with the high-end stuff, the cars that everybody likes, the ones that generate a lot of emotion, and then at the same time we do our best to try to turn it into a profitable business,” Stojanovski said.
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“It’s way more fun taking apart a BMW I8 than like a Ford Fusion or something.”
Stojanovski and company said they do work with American brands. Garrison pointed to a Chevrolet SSR, a kind of retro-looking car truck from the 2000s with a passionate following, parked next to a box truck, and the staff noted that Chevrolet Corvettes and high performance Ford Mustangs are among the vehicles they’ve handled. On the day the Free Press toured the business, an old Ford truck was parked next to the Taycan.
For the most exotic vehicles that the Pacific Motors handles, Stojanovski pointed to high-end race cars.
Stojanovski said he has friends involved in International Motor Sports Association, or IMSA, racing who will sometimes let him know about a wrecked Ferrari 458 or 488.
Stojanovski, whose father used to run the steel mill here (a few of the rolls were still sitting in random locations around the building), started small, he said, working in one section before eventually expanding and taking over the whole property.
Now, the business, which calls itself the anti-junkyard, has areas where wrecks are dismantled and engines and other large pieces are palleted for later sales, a room where parts can be arranged for sales photos and an office. The company has customers all over the globe.
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Inside on this particular day, two silver Rolls-Royce Phantoms, one a 2004 and one a 2005, sat parked near each other, one with its suicide or coach doors opened wide to show the storm-damaged interior. These vehicles, despite their heritage and prices well into the six figures, are also prime sources for spare parts, which can cost many thousands of dollars.
Working with so many different types of cars, many of them with rare names and pedigrees, means Stojanovski and the others on staff look at vehicles differently than most people, he said.
For one thing, vehicles and brands that wouldn’t seem to have anything in common often do.
“It’s interesting to see Ford parts on an Aston Martin, Mercedes parts on a Tesla,” Turner said.
Seeing so many cars up close can also mean punctured myths.
“Once you see all these cars get taken down into the bare foundation of what they are, the frame basically. You look at them in a different way, and I’ll say that a lot of those cars that everybody, really, really likes are not very good cars,” Stojanovski said. “Like Lamborghinis and Ferraris, we’ve seen some pretty, not-so-nice stuff on those cars, straight from the manufacturers in the way they build them and the way they engineer them. It’s like a never-meet-your-hero type thing.”
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber.