Photos from the Cohort by L. Seddon.
Where are the old-time classics that used to be part of our neighborhoods? For us who enjoy vintage cars, the answer perhaps is, that the further away from the cities the better. After all, the quick-paced big city life consumes cars (and one could argue, lives) at accelerated rates. Some survive, naturally, but in cosmopolitan areas old cars can become rare rather quickly.
But should one look further away, like the countryside or small towns, old cars seem to hang on longer. Never mind if they’re functional or not. And if isolated even further, like an island, for example, old metal can be around in surprising numbers. With unusual samples sprinkled about too; like the rotting LHD 1960s Mini 1/4 Ton Pickup that opens this post.
This is a long way of saying that I was rather surprised and pleased with a collection of vintage cars uploaded by L. Seddon at the Cohort. The photos were taken in Kefalonia, one of the largest islands in the Greek Ionian Sea. The island’s area size? It amounts to about 300 square miles, which if I trust Google, is a good deal smaller than Los Angeles.
But that size doesn’t keep the island from being a repository for cool old metal. Because as simple as they were, few things were more charming and cool than a Citroen 2CV, even if in nonrunning condition. Like this one, sitting unused and rotting away somewhere on the island.
Before you all get the impression that this post features solely rotting iron, let’s pay a moment of attention to this ’69 4-door Opel Kadett fastback. Another no-longer-common piece of vintage machinery, and apparently still in running condition.
Elsewhere on the island, someone is putting some effort (however limited) into preserving this Ford Escort (MK1). No way to capture in its current location this Escort’s face…
… but here’s a similar vintage one. According to the original caption, sitting out “neglected behind a car rental/classic car restoration business”. Maybe belonging to some client who ran out of resto funds?
Let’s remain around this so-called “restoration/car rental” shop, where few cars seem restored, much less ready to go serve as rentals. Here’s another forlorn vehicle nearby the Escort, a ’66-’71 Opel Rekord. We’ve never covered this generation of Rekords here at CC, but an overall look at the model’s history was posted by Paul a while back.
This shape should be familiar to quite a few of you, particularly if you watched the UK show Life on Mars. A Ford Cortina (Mk3). Have they all ceased to exist outside of car shows?
Here’s an oddity, a ’59-’64 Skoda Octavia, the last FR-format model before the maker’s products went rear engine for a while. By this point, most of you must have noticed that the provenance of these cars is quite varied. A natural byproduct of Greece never being a major car producer; something that came quite clear to me while watching a Belmondo film shot in Athens in the late ’60s.
Let’s remain with cars from the Eastern Bloc with this UAZ 452 panel van. Hard to tell in its current condition, but if you squint, you can appreciate the simplicity of detailing associated with Soviet machinery. Basic, sturdy, yet filled with character. Iconic in their own way, these vans had a long-running production; from 1965 to 1985.
And here’s the interior. I hope whoever owned this UAZ knew his Russian well…
Far more ornate, this Chevrolet 1940s truck, with an expressive Streamlined nose. We featured one of these a while back in its native nation, though that one was in working order.
And to close this island tour, a look at a product from another island; a ’48-’51 Vauxhall. With no visible trim or badging, impossible to tell if this is a Velox of Wyvern. What can be seen, is the very “Advance Design” influenced face of this offering by GM’s British subsidiary.
In almost all of Greece we can see cars like this, and also several from the 80’s and 90’s still parked in the cities.
We are going to continue with old-fashioned cars for a long time, the green wave and the new SUVs are not going to prevail yet.
That looks like a 1988 to 1991 Geo Prizm photobombing your final photo. (From the non-US spec rear bumper, I’m guessing it’s actually the Toyota Sprinter hatchback that the Prizm was based on.)
I went on holiday to Greece twice in the Seventies just after it joined the Common Market. It was like a living motoring museum with examples of every make since the War you could imagine. Where else would a 57 Studebaker Estate sit beside an Alta version of the Fuldmobile, every type of Soviet Bloc car imaginable and plenty of British cars.
But best of all where the 3 wheeler trucks, a unique Greek mini-industry. Nearly 30 companies churned these out and they were ubiquitous. And also the first casualty of the Common Market as the peculiar laws permitting them had to comply with CM. Even as I holidayed, the factories started closing down. A decade later and they had all gone. https://cybermotorcycle.com/marques/greek-marques.htm
When my parents retired in 1975, from a city of over 500,000, to a very rural township of approximately 1,000, it was a CC awakening. In my former city, expired and abandoned cars, and fleet vehicles, were mostly limited to older industrial areas. Drive to the country, and it was a different story. In mid-’70’s rural Ontario, many old dirt roads, with their 1920’s to 1950’s engineering, and limited outside traffic, remained plentiful. Rather than blasting through boulders and bedrock, to straighten them, some roads curved all the way around boulders, and rock outcrops. Very common. Their appearance, and meandering routes, still largely intact from before WW2, and earlier.
Abandoned old cars and trucks were a common sight. As you often felt like you were travelling back in time, on these old roads. Rarely, explored by outsiders. Not nearly Deliverance-like in culture, but the movie gave you an idea of the rustic experience. This is where I first saw so many obscure autos and trucks, from the ’40s thru the early ’70s. I am familiar with many cars from this era, because I explored the wrecks. Not because I experienced them, in their prime. Unlike, many people here.
This was a very fun post to see. I recently got back from a 4200 mile road trip in the American Southwest. “Abandoned” cars and trucks are everywhere in yards and fields, and in the dry climate, perhaps similar to Greece, rust is mostly on the surface. It’s great to see the European equivalent. I certainly didn’t see any Mini’s or Opels or Vauxhalls, and the only Escorts I saw were front wheel drive. But I did see lots of Chevy trucks. And this (American made) VW pickup.
The Opel Kadett B fastback 4-door sedan is practically a unicorn. The 4-door was never very common, and I’d forgotten that it was available in the fastback style. That fastback roof was originally called the more expensive Olympia in Germany, and not available initially on the actual Kadett. It was never imported to the US, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these 4-door fastbacks before.
Good eye! I noted the Kadett and kept reading, but after this comment I had to go back and look, and sure enough–it IS a fastback of sorts. I remember these as a kid in Greece in the 1970s. Our landlord had a Kadett 4-dr of this generation, but it had the squarer roofline.
Cars use to be very expensive in Greece in the 1970s and 1980s. In the mid-1970s, a car like a Kadett or Escort or Cortina or Corolla might go for 300,000 drachmae, about $10k US. In the ,mid-70s, $10k bought a nicely optioned Cadillac or Lincoln or less expensive US-spec Mercedes.
Basically, a car cost about 2.5 to 3x what it cost in the US, in a society where wages were about 20%-30% of what Americans made. So cars were VERY expensive, and with inflation, they just got more expensive, so people bought cars and kept them. Or kept them in the family. They maintained them well.
That, plus the relatively dry climate, plus the lack of harsh winters (fewer cold starts), plus the fact many private cars were NOT used for commuting–they were used to leisure, meant that cars lasted a long time.
Until the 1990s, when in relative terms the price of cars was less (no more duties, per EU) AND the government had the equivalent of “cash for clunkers” to remove pre-1990s cars that had no emissions controls, no catalytic converters, old cars like Citroen DS, Mercedes fintails, Opel Rekords, Alfa Romeos, Peugeot 403/404, and so forth were easily spotted. By 2000, most were gone.
Great post!
I see there’s an early Mk.3 (FWD) 5-door Escort hiding behind the Mini pick-up. Rare to see that generation now unless it’s an XR3i or RS1600i. Looks rather less rusty than the Mini.
The Mini is after 1969 if the bonnet badge is original. The little shield was introduced when Mini became a marque on it’s own. The LCV were made until 1983 and never lost the sliding door windows and external door hinges of the early cars.
I’m proud to be one of the few keeping properly old cars on the road in the big city. I definitely understand why it’s so much less common than in a less dense area with less hectic roads. Even if old cars do get away with a quiet existence in a back lot, they tend to get tagged or broken into once they become obviously decrepit.
These scenes from Greece strike me as being not entirely rural like I’d expect. They seem to be more in smaller towns rather than the actual countryside.
Fascinating to see.
That Mark 3 Cortina is a post-’74 version with the revised dash.
Conversely the Vauxhall looks to be from early in the production run: smaller headlights and more centrally-mounted taillights.
‘A Ford Cortina (Mk3). Have they all ceased to exist outside of car shows?’. Saw this beauty just a few weeks ago in Stirling, Scotland. The rattle can matt black spray job suits it well. The M registration would identify it as a 1973 and two doors were quite rare even new.
That car looks wrong to me, I reckon it started life as a 4 door.
Yes, definitely a conversion. You can make out the little chromed triangle filler for the wind-down window in the rear whereas the two door had a hinged rear window, slightly rounded at the back, giving a coupe-like profile:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/64joe/29753301390
As a young Cortina fan (don’t worry, I liked GTO’s too, both the Ferrari and Pontiac kind) I was sad that we never got the Mk 3 in the US, as I thought it seemed modern and sophisticated (Swoopy styling! Overhead cam engine!) compared to its predecessor. Looking at it now, it seems like the worst of imitation 1970’s Detroit styling. I think Vauxhall and Opel did it better … though only slightly better.
L series Vauxhall is likely a Wyvern that front wheel looks 16 inch
The 2CV is a “Dolly”, one of many special editions that consisted primarily of two tone paint schemes.
Nice to see there are still some oldie out there quietly rusting away .
A guy I know took a picture of a WWII VW “KubelWagen” street parked in Greece in the 1980’s, it was old and tired with flat tires, they didn’t want to sell it sadly .
-Nate
The UAZ ‘Breadloaf’ is still in production today!
I could make out ‘Amper’ ‘Benzin’ ‘Voda*’ but not the last one. I can guess…
*yes, Vodka means ‘little water’. It’s not recommended neat as a coolant…