Crushing Cars & Destroy Anything - Technology Solutions - Car crusher: Car crusher is an industrial device used to reduce the dimensions of derelict (depreciated) cars prior to transport for recycling. A Ford van being crushed in St. Louis MO a blue 1990s Lincoln Town Car after crushing Car crushers are compactors and can be of several types: one is a "pancake", where a scrap automobile is flattened by a huge descending hydraulically powered plate, or a baling press type, with which the automobile is compressed from several directions until it resembles a large cube. A third type is a mobile crusher. It is small enough that it can be moved from location to location with a semi truck. This machine utilizes a much smaller plate that crushes the vehicle in sections, as it is slowly fed through the machine.