How one company helps keep Colorado's dirtiest cars from driving again

HENDERSON — For 80 years now, mechanics have been pulling parts off junked cars perched on battle-worn lifts at Stadium Auto Parts, cleaning and tagging every intact gearbox, radiator or alternator for a second or third life after resale. Thoroughly accelerated into the modern world of trade, Stadium’s sprawling lot includes an entire shipping bay for wrapping and boxing internet-purchased components.

But some of the hulking engines waiting on tall racks in the main Stadium warehouse have a rare “not for resale” label. These old soldiers must never be put back in a running car, but instead must be disabled and melted down for scrap, as part of a relatively new recycling and retirement program run by a company called Shift.

Old cars at the end of their useful life can either go to those