I moved to my current apartment in February and it’s been a bit of a culture-shock. I went from a quieter neighborhood around 10 minutes by train from the central business district to a much more raucous one that’s maybe 2 minutes from the CBD by train. It isn’t just the distance that separates my current and former homes. There are little things, too, like our complex’s resident abandoned car.
It’s a Spanish-built 2001-05 Holden Barina (nèe Opel Corsa C) and it’s been there since I moved in and probably long before. The licence plates have been removed and it’s absolutely caked in dust. Somebody’s scrawled something on the windshield but I can’t make it out. Something about it being Damo’s car? Damo, maaaaaaate, move your bloody car.
This is what it looks like when it isn’t encased in grime. For a few years, these were the best-selling B-segment cars (“superminis”) in the UK, where they were known as the Vauxhall Corsa. They were introduced to Australia to critical acclaim, winning Wheels Car of the Year. Their handsome sheetmetal has aged remarkably well, certainly better than that of the Daewoo Kalos (Chevrolet Aveo) which Holden replaced it with.
At first, I was annoyed that this dusty Barina was occupying a parking space in the basement while I had to park in a semi-covered, street-level spot that’s extremely awkward to manoeuvre into. Then I found out from a neighbor that it’s better to park upstairs because it’s near a security camera. The basement, conversely, didn’t have any cameras (I hope this has been fixed) and there had been break-ins (easy to do when the bloody gate was always broken). There was somebody in the complex who absconded when police showed up one day, leaving all his stuff behind. I wonder if he’s the Barina owner. I know it doesn’t belong to my allegedly drug-dealing former neighbors who were apparently using the security camera deadspot to ply their trade undetected. Sounds like a rough ‘hood, right? They never bothered me, though. Not as much as the lack of a recycling bin (in 2018!) or the constant screaming and carrying on coming from the alleyway/building next door.
Long after my lease ends (without my renewal, I should add), this Barina will probably still be here. Is there an abandoned car that’s become a fixture of your neighborhood? How long has it been there?
Mine is a green 1950-51 Mercury sedan that was left for dead in Allaire State Park here in NJ along one of the mountain bike trails.It’s in pretty rough shape and the engine/trans are missing. Steering shaft still turned last time I came across it a few years back. Very sad
I had been the head of an 1836 militia for 24 years at Allaire. Where do you access the trail from? Would like to see the Merc as I’m an old gearhead.
There was an early to mid-’90s silver BMW 320 sedan that sat on the street for at least 18 months. The city would come and slap an orange warning sticker, and the owner would rip it off; this went on several times. Finally, the city came out, placed another warning sticker on the window and spray painted a white stripe from the street right up the tire and onto the wheel. The warning sticker was ripped off again, but the stripe remained until that turd was finally removed. Good riddance.
We live in a townhouse development, and a parking space on the street is a precious commodity. Now if we could only get rid of the household that has a Camaro, Jeep, Mercedes, Accord, and 2 Civics hogging up the parking, I’d be happy.
Mine is a 1966 Plymouth Barracuda. I did an article on it for CC. It’s a V8 four speed model and is just sitting in a field, rusting away.
Not abandoned but there is a first generation Dodge Charger in a garage about four blocks from my house. As far as I can tell the Charger hasn’t moved in the 18+ years that I’ve lived here. I have walked past this location several times a week since 2000 and it has only been recently that I’ve felt comfortable talking to the people who live there. The Charger originally belonged to a guy who died in Viet Nam and his family has held on to the car for all of these years. The car is in reasonably good condition but would need some work to be driveable. They asked that I not take a picture of the car and I complied with their request; you really can’t see much of the Charger except the grille in any case.
I’m planning on finally asking about a 1968 Mercury Cougar a few miles from my house. I featured it in my Automotive Oddities of North Texas article not long ago. It’s been sitting in the same driveway for six years now and I’ve never seen it move. I’m hoping to learn it’s story.
Sadly, the 1967 Chrysler Newport that I wrote up here:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1967-chrysler-newport-custom-upscale-downscale/
…now sits seemingly abandoned in a public parking lot with big orange “Abandoned Vehicle” sticker on the back window. It’s been there for a month or two — I assume it’ll be hauled off pretty soon.
I have had a few in my neighborhood over the years. There was a yellow 69 Chrysler Newport coupe that belonged to an old lady’s father. I thought about asking about it but someone who knew her warned me off. There was also an old guy with either 2 or 3 rusty Ramchargers in his driveway. But those have been gone for a few years.
1959 Chevrolet, found in the woods somewhere off Green Pond Rd., Morris County NJ.
I’m contemplating whether a restoration is still possible…
This reminds me of the JATO rocket car story. There are several versions but there’s a well thought out one on the ‘net where the car in question was a 1959 Chevy. The usual story is it’s discovered impaled into the side of cliff several hundred feet in the air.
It’s an urban legend that I have no doubt was inspired by a couple of real life stories (a fifties’ Dodge commercial and a real rail-car that actually did have a rocket strapped to it). Regardless, finding an abandoned bat-wing Chevy somewhere in the wild conjures up visions of the story..
Mythbusters had some fun with that story
That was actually their pilot episode for the show, IIRC.
Speaking of Impalas, back in the late seventies – early eighties, on the way to Ski Roundtop north of York, Pennsylvania, there was this ‘65 Impala parked next to a rundown shack at an intersection where you needed to make a left to go back to the ski resort. It was there for years. Part of the directions for getting there were to make a left at the ‘65 Chevy.
Then one day driving up there both the Chevy and the Shack were gone.
Thought I’d share this one too:
“Pair of ’55s”
Richard Mine Road & Mt. Hope Avenue, Rockaway Township, NJ
(This area has been cleared out now and everything is gone).
There is 2 early 1970s Paykans and A mid to late 70 s Citroen Diane also I used to see A 1972 Chevy IRAN which is actually Opel rekord.
A gold w116 squeezed into a narrow spot off the alley around the back of the fire station. I thought they had it for the guys to practice using the jaws of life on, but it’s been there two years now. For the first year it just looked parked, but this year the windshield has been smashed (though it still looks weatherproof), and this week I saw the grille mesh is missing (though the surround is still there). Sad end to a mighty warrior of the roads.
Two in a garden on the road into town. An ‘S’ reg (1977-78) Mk.2 Ford Escort and a newer (must check!) Citroen Xsara. Both have been there since I moved here over five years ago, though the Escort’s already shattered front windscreen was knocked in by a Buddleia bush during a storm the Summer before last and the black plastic bag over the driver’s door on the Xsara has given up. There’s a newer Citroen DS3 that’s in use (actually a second new one bought this year so probably not officially a Citroen now). The Escort was a Metallic Blue once, but now is 75% red oxide.
My neighbors VW Bus, he wants to restore it someday. Other than sitting for a few years (that I know of) it’s in pretty good shape.
In my case, it’s a childhood memory gone away.
My earliest memory as a child (age 3) is the summer of 1953 and dad brings home the first Corvette the dealership received. He took mom for a ride, took me for a ride, and then traded the car to Grabiak Chevrolet in New Alexandria, PA (midway between Johnstown and Pittsburg) for two BelAir hardtops. Felt it was the dumbest car Chevrolet had ever introduced.
I turn 18, get in the antique car hobby with my ’37 Buick. A year later, I stumble into that same Corvette. Sitting in a garage four blocks from the family home, abandoned and rotting. Well, not exactly abandoned – the widow who lives there knows very well its sitting there. No, it’s not for sale. No it’s not going anywhere. That’s her late son’s car and she’s keeping it.
Get to know the lady, find out the story behind the car: Her son later bought a second Corvette from my dad, a ’58, and is killed in that car. She’s keeping the ’53 as a memento of her son, but doing absolutely nothing to slow down the rotting. Over the next four years, with my dad’s assistance (by this point he’d hung around me at the antique shows enough to realize that some of these cars were actually worth something), we keep a watch on that car. By this point dad’s willing to front me whatever it’ll take to put that car back on the road. He’s doing most of the watching because at this point I’m living in Erie, PA.
Summer of ’73 and one Saturday morning I get a call from dad. Guess who’s name just appeared in the local obituaries? I’m in my car within five minutes, back in the neighborhood within four hours. I drive past the lady’s house on the way home.
The Corvette is already gone. Somebody in that family had their eye on it, and probably had it pulled out before her body was even cold. Never did find out what happened to the car.
Two come to mind, one seemingly abandoned and the other neglected – for now.
A storage unit north of town has a ’66 Coronet two-door sedan just sitting there. It’s behind a fence and I am desperate to see more.
The other is a better story. A few weeks ago I’m in the front yard mulching leaves from my two oak trees. A pickup pulling a trailer idles by; the driver is a mechanic I know from work, so my interest is stimulated. He backs into the lower driveway of the house catty-corner from me. The owner appears and opens the door to the garage of her pool house.
She, the mechanic, and a third person then push out a black 1957 Ford Thunderbird convertible. In three years here, I’ve never seen that car before.
The Thunderbird is winched onto the trailer and tied down. He takes off; I learn a day or two later he does a lot of side work so he’s undoubtedly going to get the ‘Bird running again.
It’ll be great to see it’s return.
That’s incredible! There’s got to be an interesting story behind that Thunderbird.
I’m anxious to learn more. My speculation is it’ll be back around April.
To go along with CharlieD612 directly below, there are an unusual number of cars squirreled away in my small, you-don’t-get-there-unless-you-are-heading-there neighborhood. The house downhill from the T-bird house, and directly across from me, has a ’69 Cougar convertible in the garage that didn’t move all summer. He also has a ’30s model Ford pickup I have yet to see. The undertaker up the hill had a ’70 Cadillac hearse for a while. And the kid up the street who hit my mailbox last summer has a now almost vintage Grand Marquis. Although I learned that even though a Grand Marquis is a stout car, my mailbox is stouter as it tore the hell out of that Mercury.
I had an experience similar to your second story: in about 7 or 8 years of living in our current house, I had never seen our next-door neighbor’s garage open. Not a big deal, I work a lot, and she’s often up at her cabin. Then one summer day I walk out the door to find her garage open and she and her adult son are standing in her driveway next to a striking blue 1966 Dodge Charger, which had apparently been in there the whole time! He had a trailer and was in the process of loading it up to haul it off for restoration. I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised – walking around the neighborhood, I’ve noticed a fair number of garages with a classic car in one half, assorted junk in the other, and daily drivers in the driveway. To me that’s the insurmountable hurdle of “fun” car ownership: in Minnesota winter, I want to park in the dang garage!
Ours is a 1982-86 Toyota Camry complete with flat tires, visqueen drivers side window, and moss growing on its northern side. It has been here since 2013 when we moved to the neighborhood. Its demise seems to be accelerating of late, I think it might be a result of the moss growth.
There’s a Mazda 3 in our apartment parking lot with plates that expired in 2016. The tires are getting flat. I assume that the owner still lives here and pays for the space – otherwise it would have been towed long ago. Years ago, while biking through Rosedale (a rich section of Toronto, for those who are unfamiliar with the city) I saw a late ‘50’s Lincoln Continental rotting in a driveway with 4 flat tires. The body appeared to be in good shape, but I shook my head in disbelief at a forgotten car in a rich neighbourhood.
A 1995ish Mercedes C-Class. It sits in an unused parking space cutout at my local Home Depot. I think people may be living in it. Never seen it move and the windows are completely blacked out.
I remember a high school friend who’s dad had a metallic red big ford in his garage. Years later, as I learned about 60s fords, I realized that it was a 1966 7 Litre. 30 years later I still look whenever I am back visiting to see if the garage is ever open. It’s almost certainly not still there, but I still have to look!
There’s a blue 74ish Monte Carlo in someone’s backyard down the street, partially covered with a tarp and missing a rear window.
At the end of a dead end street not far away: Three F body Camaros, all facing the street. None of the three are in great shape and some have different color body panels on the same car. Cannot tell if one or more is a doner car.
Of The countless abandoned cars in my neighborhood, this Citroen Xsara wagon ranks as my current favorite. The Xsara didn’t have the pneumatic suspension in the first place, but this one features four flat tires. It used to be for sale for a while but no one took the chance….
Ive had a diesel Xsara hatch for years great little cars, my daughter has it now, it runs great and drives just fine( I took it and filled it up recently) By the way the body is galvanised so it will just sit there forever.
Ours was kind of a sad story. A gentleman in our building had taken an early buyout and bought his dream car. A fully loaded cab- forward New Yorker. I think when I moved in the car was pushing a decade and didn’t even have 30,000 miles. A while later his company went bankrupt and he lost his pension. He was forced to go on welfare for a few years until he turned 65 and got the government pension. The car sat thru a few Canadian winters which can be deadly for vehicles. He got his pension got a loan and resurrected his love. About 4-6 months after he suddenly died.
I guess his family which no one even knew existed handed the car to wherever he got the loan, took what they wanted and trashed the rest.
It was a sad ending to a friendly neighbor and his dream ride.
There was an older 2nd generation Taurus that sat for like 4 years in front of a house, never moving and getting more decrepit and dirty as time went on. A 2010 Challenger R/T came and went, and then a Ram took the Challenger’s place. Yet the Taurus, silver, and rust by that point, never moved. It even had a plastic bag wedged into the right front wheel well that just stayed there until the UV rays hitting it made it disintegrate. Suddenly one morning as I passed it, it was gone. I don’t know why, I never liked the Taurus design at all, but it saddened me to see if gone. Now it’s just the black Ram 1500 4×4 sitting there most mornings. Once in a while, I see it pulling out, going to work I guess.
I’ll try to find a picture of the Audi A1 that sat unmoved in the basement car park of my sister’s apartment building for at least 5 years, covered with dust.
The vultures in my neighborhood recently devoured this innocent Subaru.
Is this a regular occurrence? I feel as though there are some stories you are withholding here.
Audi 80… one of the most common type of abandoned vehicles in this part of the world (there’s another one on the parking lot of the apartment complex where my Mom lives).
These cars are just too reliable and forgiving – people drive them until they literally start to fall apart. Then they fix them with blue insulation tape & a piece of wire, and drive them again.
Well, since you ask, it’s…..mine.
Being inner city of late, I really don’t need a car, and it hasn’t much less dust on it than that Barina. Worse, it has a slow unfindable electrical leak, and after not moving it for 2 weeks, it is now flat. Actually, I found that 2 weeks ago. Really must fix it for the Christmas break.
Yes, it looks abandoned, but be nice, it’s registered and has plates. Or did, last I looked (they have been stolen once before).
I don’t know if you can call this Renault Premier truly abandoned, but it hasn’t moved for years and years.
Well, humpf to you, Mr tonyola.
For those of us who’ve owned 2nd-hand Renaults, not moving for years and years isn’t abandonment, it’s a sign of rude health, temporarily set-back. I mean, just look. It is, for example, still in one entity, undivided by rust. This’d be considered a hot performer in the Community.
I myself recently had a Renault that was 8 years old – no, really, it was as old as that – and, despite the derisive comments of neighbours who had to mow around it, it had whole days of functionality one year.
Abandoned indeed!
Rude man.
Well, this is South Florida, which gets no road salt so cars don’t corrode from the bottom up. Besides, this is the only Renault I’ve seen for quite some time, either moving or stationary.
I was in FL last week, and it was interesting to watch the “rust line” migrate from hoods and roofs to fenders and rockers as I drove back home to the Middle West.
Geez – an Eagle Premier. A real unicorn. I could fill a book with photos of local lawn ornaments where I live, but I doubt I could find one of these.
I probably owned the last Premier in northwest Arkansas. My yard was too small when the transmission gave up the ghost a 2nd time. The local shop refused to rebuild it a 3rd time pleading lack of part availability.
They forced me to make a smart decision to finally scrap the darn thing.
It’s actually labeled a Renault Premier, not Eagle ? That would make it very rare indeed. I wish I could buy it. It would be a nice daily driver.
My bad. It’s an Eagle.
Mine is a Plymouth Horizon that has been sitting at an aboandoned house in my neighborhood since we moved in 2 years ago.
I’ll thank DougD for not rubbing my nose in it, but the closest ‘abandoned’ cars to me are in my machine shed. I’ll eventually get around to them, really!
Not two miles from me is a white fin-tail Caddy of which I’ve only seen the back end, buried under garage junk. Been there as long as we’ve lived here (17 years).
Theres a driveway full of luxury cars that dont move near me a Statesman, 450 Benz and 7 series BMW all on flat tyres covered in dust at the curb outside was the rustiest Cadillac Seville Ive ever seen complete with chrome welded chain steering wheel and 100 spoke rims, the Caddy was first to go but the driveway sprouted a Camry recently, so we;ll see how long that lasts.
Those Barinas were good little cars much better than the rebadged Suzuki they replaced but the Badge was later glued to a total POS Daewoo and sales dried up, GMH doesnt have a clue about marketing they will glue badges on any old rubbish.
Lots of interesting older cars posted. I just get to see a rusty silver second-gen Dodge Stratus sedan every day. I would guess an ’05 or ’06 SE model with the 5-spoke 16″ alloys and very bad rust in the pinch welds. Hasn’t moved in the 3 years I’ve lived here.
Back home in WV, the Clarksburg airport had a second-gen green Taurus and a third-gen burgundy Explorer in the parking lot for years. The Taurus had actually started to sink into the pavement. They were finally removed when the parking lot got resurfaced. There were four gouges in the old pavement that didn’t entirely get filled in during the resurfacing. I would say the Taurus was already there when I started visiting regularly in 2006 and got towed around 2011 or 12. The Explorer appeared sometime between those years.
My 1996 Nissan Sentra! It’s been parked in front of three different homes since February 2014. Haven’t had the funds to fix it, so I hope to get it off my hands next year.
There’s a street here in Fremont, California that runs behind a number of businesses and condos with no fewer than 10 90’s era Camrys scattered around that haven’t moved in at least 6 months. There’s a smattering of Corollas too.
In the way to my work I pass by an early 90’s VW Santana, back to home I used to see a Taurus-catfish forlorn in front of an abandoned house. Each time I’ve passed by it there were more parts missing, the last time I’ve seen it the wheels also have gone. A day after that there was a construction Company cleaning the whole place it use to be to start a building. Probably the public service moved it to a junk yard. No more source of hard-to-find spare parts for free…
This Avanti is one of the more interesting semi-abandoned cars around here…
Wow, my car on CC. Well, luckily my Corsa C is in a much better shape. These are a lot of fun to drive, better combo of comfort and sportiness than the Fiesta in my opinion. They also have timing chain problems that are expensive to fix, which may have done in this one. Also got noisy cams and tappets.
It’s been about 10 years now since a local petrol station had not one but two NSU Ro80s rusting away behind it. To be restored one day apparently. Same for the 404 that sat next to them. One day, they were just gone, so that probably went nowhere.