Spotted Ordinary Abandoned Vehicles

[RichardM5]

underwhelmist said:

Nice pictures. I don't know what E number that BMW is (not a BMW geek) but it's my favourite shape, and a great colour. Shame it's being reclaimed by the spiders!

E46

[Blakewater]

cmvtec said:

RSVR101 said:

The house was immaculate and not that old before they got it too so I wouldn’t necessarily say it would have had to be faulty for them to park it up. It’s in a lot worse state than it looks in that pic, lots of green, the house has been swallowed by ivy. I think it’s been sat there for 3 years.

I used to live in an apartment block mostly populated by Chinese people, and a lot of them seemed to treat cars unusually. At the time (around 2011), there were a number of "nice" premium cars about, that after a while were just parked up in the basement car park and left. Twice while I was there I believe the management company had a cull and got all of the cars dragged out. I remember parking right next to a really tidy 4/5 year old S-Class that just got thicker and thicker with dust, but there were loads down there.

The guy who ran my local Chinese takeaway has recently fled to Hong Kong to escape his gambling debts. I think a few abandoned cars are the result of people fleeing debts or the law.

Someone I used to work with had a Chinese boyfriend. His family had an empty house in another part of the country which they left when they moved for work. They didn't want to sell it or rent it out, so they just left it empty.

I'm puzzled by a few houses locally that have been empty for years. I would guess the owners have died and probate is taking a long time to sort out if there's no will or a dispute. I don't understand the mentality of keeping a house nice and then letting it go to rack and ruin whilst moving round the corner though.

[untakenname]

Dapster said:

Tyres inflated and look in decent condition, even if it's a non runner I wonder why they don't use a pressure washer on it once a year?

[thebigmacmoomin]

sleepera6 said:

We need updates on these

WarrenB said:

Alpaca said:

Not my photo - found this 15 or 65 plate Fiesta on Flickr:

15 plate..

url]|https://thumbsnap.com/Dez5JFqY[/url]

Going off the state of it, it's probably only got a handful of miles on it - driven back from the dealers and not used since.

LR15WFS ….. taxed till May 2020 & MOT expired 8th May 2019. May 2018 MOT it had 88 miles on the clock.

There must be a story behind it …… nobody would buy a brand new Fiesta & then do 88 miles in 3 years.

When I sold grandad's Skoda Fabia, it was 3 years old with 789 miles on.

Edited by thebigmacmoomin on Saturday 10th August 14:09

[RanchoGrande]

Check out these 2 which I found languishing in a London car park. Originally posted on the classics left to die thread





nearest nbt bank

According to the MOT history, neither have moved for a long time and both have less than 20k on the clock!

Edited by RanchoGrande on Saturday 10th August 19:18

[anonymous-user]

RanchoGrande said:

Check out these 2 which I found languishing in a London car park. Originally posted on the classics left to die thread





nearest nbt bank

According to the MOT history, neither have moved for a long time and both have less than 20k on the clock!

Edited by RanchoGrande on Saturday 10th August 19:18

Stance dude.

[Coldfuse]

This thread fascinates me.

How does this happen? who are the people who abandon them? what are the stories behind the cars?

I've scanned back through some of the older posts and some things have now gone when you goto the google streetview links, but of course you can go back in time on street view.

I also find the ones that are outside pristine houses most ponderous... theres one some way back that looks like its in a very respectable neighbourhood outside a very respectable house, and its apparently been there for 15 years...

What is the story?! i must know!

[revvingit]

Coldfuse said:

This thread fascinates me.

How does this happen? who are the people who abandon them? what are the stories behind the cars?

I've scanned back through some of the older posts and some things have now gone when you goto the google streetview links, but of course you can go back in time on street view.

I also find the ones that are outside pristine houses most ponderous... theres one some way back that looks like its in a very respectable neighbourhood outside a very respectable house, and its apparently been there for 15 years...

What is the story?! i must know!

In no particular order. Some would only last temporarily, others for many years.

- Restoration projects that the owner will "get round to some day"
- Bereavement; lots of people simply can't let loved ones things go.
- Hoarding; hoarders keep everything; including clapped out cars - they'll convince themselves off a sentimental reason.
- Probate - could be an extending probate process. Or the family could have just left it.
- Owner in prison; partner/friend has kept car for them.
- People with large debts / dodgy lifestyles avoiding them by fleeing country.
- Left outside houses bought for investment/money laundering to make them seem more occupied but owner never visits house.
- Inherited car but can't afford to run it yet can't sell it for sentimental reasons/feeling of that being wrong. (surely that's a likely explanation for that Ferrari?)
- Someones dead inside the house (it's been known to happen - look up Joyce Vincent)
- No real use for a car but it's handy to have one "in case".
- Someone else couldn't be bothered to dispose of the car so dumped it in their drive and the person lumbered with it can be bothered with the hassle of getting it removed.

Edited by revvingit on Sunday 11th August 00:55

[Fastdruid]

revvingit said:

Coldfuse said:

This thread fascinates me.

How does this happen? who are the people who abandon them? what are the stories behind the cars?

I've scanned back through some of the older posts and some things have now gone when you goto the google streetview links, but of course you can go back in time on street view.

I also find the ones that are outside pristine houses most ponderous... theres one some way back that looks like its in a very respectable neighbourhood outside a very respectable house, and its apparently been there for 15 years...

What is the story?! i must know!

In no particular order. Some would only last temporarily, others for many years.

- Restoration projects that the owner will "get round to some day"
- Bereavement; lots of people simply can't let loved ones things go.
- Hoarding; hoarders keep everything; including clapped out cars - they'll convince themselves off a sentimental reason.
- Probate - could be an extending probate process. Or the family could have just left it.
- Owner in prison; partner/friend has kept car for them.
- People with large debts / dodgy lifestyles avoiding them by fleeing country.
- Left outside houses bought for investment/money laundering to make them seem more occupied but owner never visits house.
- Inherited car but can't afford to run it yet can't sell it for sentimental reasons/feeling of that being wrong. (surely that's a likely explanation for that Ferrari?)
- Someones dead inside the house (it's been known to happen - look up Joyce Vincent)
- No real use for a car but it's handy to have one "in case".

I'll add a couple more.

- Catastrophic failure (ie worth more to repair than the value) but too lazy to get rid.
- Unreasonable expectation as to the cars value when it comes to sell it. ie Not prepared to sell for its real value and yet not using/maintaining it either.

[Coldfuse]

Some good points there, thanks for that. things to think about. Sometimes i feel sorry for these poor cars left to rot when they could be used.

[The Mad Monk]

revvingit said:

In no particular order. Some would only last temporarily, others for many years.

- Restoration projects that the owner will "get round to some day"
- Bereavement; lots of people simply can't let loved ones things go.
- Hoarding; hoarders keep everything; including clapped out cars - they'll convince themselves off a sentimental reason.
- Probate - could be an extending probate process. Or the family could have just left it.
- Owner in prison; partner/friend has kept car for them.
- People with large debts / dodgy lifestyles avoiding them by fleeing country.
- Left outside houses bought for investment/money laundering to make them seem more occupied but owner never visits house.
- Inherited car but can't afford to run it yet can't sell it for sentimental reasons/feeling of that being wrong. (surely that's a likely explanation for that Ferrari?)
- Someones dead inside the house (it's been known to happen - look up Joyce Vincent)
- No real use for a car but it's handy to have one "in case".
- Someone else couldn't be bothered to dispose of the car so dumped it in their drive and the person lumbered with it can be bothered with the hassle of getting it removed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Vincent

[RanchoGrande]

These were all in the same car park in a Central London block

[anonymous-user]

Local hairdresser went bust but paid 60 year lease on parking spaces?

[JamesRF]

Just 27k on that Porsche, nearly 10 years since it's last MOT!

Always curious as to how these end up getting left like this, the way the MG and Porsche are parked close against the wall would suggest the owner/s planned to leave them for a while?

[WCZ]

that 512, maybach and turbo are nuts

[RanchoGrande]

JamesRF said:

Just 27k on that Porsche, nearly 10 years since it's last MOT!

Always curious as to how these end up getting left like this, the way the MG and Porsche are parked close against the wall would suggest the owner/s planned to leave them for a while?

Yes, it's all very odd, Especially given the low miles on all of the cars I posted recently. Central London car parks are a treasure trove of unloved vehicles.

[Dapster]

RanchoGrande said:

..... Central London car parks are a treasure trove of unloved vehicles.

There are many cars parked in underground car parks all over London that I think are neglected rather than abandoned. Wealthy foreign owner keeps a London pad with parking space, and keeps a car in the space for when they are in town. Some years it may be all summer, other times, it may be a few years before they are around and use the car. In the meantime, the car just languishes gathering dust.

There are obviously rather more colourful stories behind some of them but I'd wager for many of them, the explanations are rather mundane. But yes, that 512 is something else!

[JamesRF]

Came across this video of an abandoned dealership in Marsham, couple of cars and plates of interest there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVZ3aUZk4dA

[Greg the Fish]

JamesRF said:

Came across this video of an abandoned dealership in Marsham, couple of cars and plates of interest there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVZ3aUZk4dA

Looks like a scene from 28 Days Later!

[M4cruiser]

WCZ said:

that 512, maybach and turbo are nuts

Yes nuts on a thread about "Ordinary" vehicles!