Junkyards are treasure troves for all kinds of cars, but you rarely find a Toyota Mirai.
Especially when the car in question is only four years old and is more than a thousand miles from the only state in which it was sold that year.
But that’s the position Murilee Martin found himself in when he visited a yard in the Denver area back in 2021.
He’s lucky to have even stumbled across it, as it wasn’t listed in the online inventory and, with the distinctive grille missing from the car, it looked just like any other 21st-century sedan at first glance.
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Martin got wind that Grumpy Cat Racing had visited the junkyard to find a replacement steering column.
They needed a replacement for their ’50 Dodge pickup road-race after its column broke during a drifter race in Colorado.
The crew traveled 50 miles to Aurora to find a replacement column out of a Toyota.
However, Martin was shocked to learn that the team had not only installed an electric-power-assist column from a Toyota, but that it came from a Mirai.
Writing for TTAC, Martin details that he previously reviewed a 2019 Toyota Mirai and, at the time, learned they could only be bought in California and were nearly all leased.
At the time, the vast majority of public-accessible H2 fueling stations in the US were in California.
And that doesn’t appear to have changed much as, according to the Department of Energy, there are currently 59 hydrogen fueling stations in the US, the vast majority still in California, with one also being in Hawaii.
The rivalry between EVs and hydrogen cars will continue to rage on, as buyers weigh up the pros and cons.
One man who owned both even did a direct comparison between a Mirai and a Tesla Model 3 to assess their strengths and weaknesses.
Meanwhile, this guy shared a video to break down the cost of filling up his hydrogen car.
The Toyota Mirai in the junkyard
The Mirai’s hydrogen tanks, electric motor, and batteries were long gone by the time Martin got there.
The dash was completely gutted, too, though much of the upholstery and trim remained.
Martin noted that the white of the WofTex seat fabric gets dirty quickly and holds onto the dirt well, but the Mirai’s seats didn’t look too back, especially considering where it was parked.
How did the Mirai end up there?
The truth is, nobody knows – but Martin seems to think an engineering company bought it in California, before shipping it eastward for research use.
He believes they then sold off the valuable bits before calling for a junkyard to haul off what was left of the Mirai.
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