Abandoned Cars. Your experiences...

[Egg Centric]

A friend of mine had a Skoda, back in the days of when they were bad and he had no end of bother with it. It was worthless so he left it at the roadside, unlocked and with the key in the ignition. It soon disappeared and he never heard any more about it.

I got rid of a trashed Chinese e-bike like this. Chained it up somewhere highly visible with a terrible lock and waited (for about a week!) for it to be stolen. It's not a bad method so long as it's done considerately. Mind you I lived in Watford at the time. It wouldn't work where I currently live, it's too nice.

 

[PeterC]

A couple of years ago a car was left for a long time in our street. It was taxed and insured but eventually one of the tyres deflated. At that point I reported it which must have had some effect as somebody inflated the tyre but didn't fix it. A couple of weeks later it was back on the rim and I reported it again. This time it was moved,

 

[Sun Chariot]

Three years ago, an oik abandoned a black Vauxhall Corsa in our cul-de-sac. With a very narrow road of 11 houses and an existing yellow line (because parked cars can block residents from getting in/out), we didn't take kindly to it.

I rang the council twice in the first week of its abandonment. "Not our responsibility - contact the police" was their stance. When I rang the police, they explained that it wasn't a police matter (concurred with my belief) and I should raise with my local council.

Four weeks later and the car "mysteriously" rolled out of our cul-de-sac, resting on the junction with a main road. Now it was an obstruction to traffic on both roads. I rang the council again.
"I'd like to report a car will be on fire."
The council's call recipient sounded confused: "What do you mean, will be on fire?"
"It'll be on fire tonight - melting your main road - if your council has not removed the damn thing by 5pm today."

It was gone by 5pm...

 

[MikeFromLFE]

We live in a cul de sac - and over the years we've had a number of cars appear in our road. These are often desirable, and always appear at night. Asking round the neighbours reveals that they are not visitors.
According to the police it's not uncommon for stolen cars to be left somewhere - like a cul-de-sac - where they can be occasionally watched by the thieves to see if they are recovered due to having a tracker. If they are left alone for a 'period of time' the theives then feel safe to move them on.

 

[Dr_Paul]

The grass verge between my back garden wall and the road that runs past the back of my house has literally been cut and tidied only twice in the last six or seven years.

Isn't that called rewilding these days?

 

[Russel]

On my dog walk, there is a Ford KA that has been sat in an overgrown front garden for around 10 years, because the garden is so overgrown, you can only see the car in the winter, the car looked quite tidy when it was first dumped in the garden so I don't suppose it's done many miles, I'll have to do a quick MOT check next time I walk past to find out!

My local Asda had an Eastern European (can't remember the country) registered early 2000s VW Gold abandoned in the carpark, it was there for about 3 weeks with 4 flat tires until they had it removed.