Best Salvage Yard Money Making Methods in GTA 5 Online

The Salvage Yard is the latest addition to the growing list of businesses you can run in GTA 5 Online. In this guide, we’ll be covering the Salvage Yard and the best ways to make the most money with it in GTA 5 Online.

Recommended Videos

Which Salvage Yard to Buy in GTA 5 Online

To get yourself started with a Salvage Yard business in GTA 5 Online, you’ll need to have a good amount of money already available to purchase and optimize the business right off the bat. You’ll want to have around 4.4mil ideally to purchase the Salvage Yard with add-ons. Once you’ve got the money, head to your phone and open the web browser.

Select Maze Bank Foreclosures and look for the blue house icon with a crossed screwdriver and hammer. These are the various Salvage Yard locations you can purchase. The vast majority of the missions for this business take place in the city, so you’ll only want to look at the locations there.

The Salvage Yard location in GTA 5 Online

The most expensive location is often the best when buying businesses, but in the case of the Salvage Yards, it’s actually a bad idea to buy the La Puerta Salvage Yard. It’s the most expensive, but it’s in a terrible location. It’s right next to where a gang invasion event spawns, which means you will often get interrupted trying to enter your business and will have to fight some gang members first. It’s also a spot where vehicles really struggle to spawn in properly near you. They often end up far away in a spot that’s awkward to reach.

It’s far better to go for one of the other central city Salvage Yard locations, such as the Strawberry location or the Murietta Heights location. Both of these are basically the same as the La Puerta location but cost a little less and have a far better location for running missions from. Once you’ve chosen the location, it’s time to choose your add-ons.

Best Add-Ons to Buy for the Salvage Yard in GTA 5 Online

For the Tint, you don’t need one, but adding some color does make the place look a whole lot nicer! Otherwise, leave it default and save yourself the cash on that addon. The next addon is Trade Rates, which gives you discounts on Mors Mutual insurance claims and repair discounts at LS Customs. It costs 450K, so it’s up to you if you find that valuable enough to you to add on. It will set you back a fair bit upfront, but you’ll save a good amount of funds on vehicle repairs and replacements over time. It works out to be a 50% saving on those services, so over the course of a year, you can easily get your money’s worth.

Buying the staff addon in GTA 5 Online.

Next up is the Tow Truck addon. It costs 1.1 million for the regular Tow Truck, but if you’re strapped for cash, you should go for the Tow Truck Beater. It costs almost half the price and is exactly the same in function. It just looks rusty and beat up, but that’s purely cosmetic – there is no difference between the two. You’ll want to buy one of these options, though, as they play a huge role in the missions and will be a key part in earning a lot of cash with the Salvage Yard.

The Wall Safe is more of an optional addon. By default, the business actually does already come with a small Wall Safe as part of the purchase. Buying this addon only gives you a slightly larger safe that can store a bit more cash. It’s nice to have if you’re already a baller, but if you’d rather save the amount of money it costs, then you can skip this addon.

The last addon is for Staff, which costs 625K, but they will make the operation run a whole lot smoother as they’ll be able to help you salvage parts at a faster rate. With that selected, you’ll now have addressed all the add-ons and can purchase the business now.

Best Salvage Yard Money Making Methods in GTA 5 Online

Head over there, and you’ll be introduced to the operation by the colorful character Yusuf Amir. The important part is that there is a computer in the Salvage Yard that you can use to select your mission of choice to go after the cars you’d like to steal. Now that you’re familiar with the PC, there are three main ways to make money with the Salvage Yard.

1) Vehicle Robberies

The vehicle robbery missions are really similar to something like Heists, but in these, you’re focus is purely on stealing a vehicle. On your PC in the Salvage Yard, you’ll be able to choose from three different options of car to steal, ranging from 250K to 400K in value. Which cars are available is changed every week, so check back for new opportunities. These missions can only be done once per week, so if you can clear all three of these missions each week, you’ll be able to make around 1mil per week from running these missions.

Once you’ve started a mission, you’ll have side challenges that you can complete to make the mission easier, as well as your main objectives. Follow the required objectives and complete the side challenges when you can, as those will award you extra cash on completion as well. Each of these robberies will take you around 45 minutes to complete, which means you’d be able to earn over 1 mile in under 3 hours of playing.

After the robbery, the car will be sitting in your Salvage Yard. You’ll have the option to sell it to Yusuf or salvage it for parts. Selling it to Yusuf is always the best way to earn the most money. Salvaging almost always results in less cash, so I’d avoid ever using that option. When you sell it to Yusuf, you’ll just have to drive it down to the docks, and then the payment will be secured.

2) Tow Truck Missions

If you bought the Tow Truck as an addon, then you’ll be able to head on over to use it in the Salvage Yard. You’ll just need to hop in and select Launch Tow Truck Service. It’ll kick off a nice straightforward mission where you go out, grab a vehicle with the truck, and tow it back to your Salvage Yard. Once the vehicle is back at the Salvage Yard, your staff working there will get started on breaking it down for parts. It’s a process that takes some time and is significantly faster if you bought the Staff addon.

Without the staff upgrade, you’ll be looking at 96 minutes to salvage a vehicle versus 48 mins with the upgrade. Each vehicle you salvage can bring in $40 to 60K, and you can have multiple cars in the various bays being salvaged at once. This means you could end up earning up to 120k an hour if you have the staff upgrade, which is really nice money!

3) Wall Safe

As you complete Tow Truck missions, you’ll also start filling up your safe with extra cash. Make sure you head to your safe to take out the cash there every now and then, as it can only hold around 150K cash. There’s not too much more to the Wall Safe than that. Complete your Tow Truck missions and just check in on the safe maybe once a day.

That covers everything there is to know about the Salvage Yard in GTA 5 Online and how to make money with it. It’s a really good business that has some great sources of income, and it’s easy to stay on top of even as a solo player!


The Escapist is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more
related content
Read Article How to Get the Bobby Witt Jr. Season Awards Card Fast in MLB The Show 24
Read Article Genshin Impact Phantom of the Night Web Event Guide and Rewards
Genshin Phantom of the Night key artwork
Read Article What is a Fish Frenzy in Stardew Valley? Fish Frenzy Notification Explained
Screenshot from Stardew Valley showing a character fishing, with several fish jumping out of the water
Related Content
Read Article How to Get the Bobby Witt Jr. Season Awards Card Fast in MLB The Show 24
Read Article Genshin Impact Phantom of the Night Web Event Guide and Rewards
Genshin Phantom of the Night key artwork
Read Article What is a Fish Frenzy in Stardew Valley? Fish Frenzy Notification Explained
Screenshot from Stardew Valley showing a character fishing, with several fish jumping out of the water
Author
Alex Berry
Alex Berry has been a freelance contributor at The Escapist since January 2023. His coverage ranges from funny takes on the latest games to a whole bunch of guide content on such titles as Honkai: Star Rail, Genshin Impact, and various new games. Alex is a jack of all trades when it comes to games, playing almost every new title that shows promise. From RPGs to shooters, all the way through to sports games, he plays it all, although he does have a soft spot for turn-based RPGs having started out his gaming journey with a copy of Pokémon Red on the original Game Boy. Alex has a master's degree in Business and is fascinated by online game economies, often spending a lot of time finding ways to maximize wealth in these games (but he should really be doing that in real life instead).