Chevrolet Vega

(Source: Oldride.com)
The Chevrolet Vega Kammback is rare, just like every other variant of the Vega. This might sound surprising, considering almost two million examples of this model were sold between 1970 and 1977.
The reason for this is the horrible quality of the Vega. With rusting bodies and terribly engineered engines, Chevrolet's smallest model had a serious impact on the reputation of the brand. The example in the photo above was sold in 1975, when sales were already dropping, as the reliability issues became known.
Probably the only reason for the people to still buy the Vega was its price. To keep it low, GM developed a unique system of transporting the new cars. By storing them vertically, they could fit 30 instead of 15 vehicles on each rail car. To make this possible, cars were fitted with an option the customer couldn't choose. It was called "Vert-A-Pac" and included modifications to the oil pan, the battery and some other parts to keep fluids from leaking. (Source:autoblog.com)

[Special] Abandoned dealership - Boundary Garage

(All photos by Mr. Gav!)
Somewhere, on a small country road near Ipswich, United Kingdom, one can find this gem of an abandoned dealership. At some point in the last four years, the owner of the small garage obviously had enough of it after more than 50 years (the business was founded in 1954), so all the cars for sale back then are now slowly rotting away.
Eight vehicles are permanently parked on these premises. There are some second hand cars which aren't exactly valuable or interesting, namely a Peugeot 405, a Volvo 850, a Mercedes-Benz 190D and one Ford Mondeo. The other half of the stack deserves more attention, though.
The Peugeot 305 Break from 1988 the workshop used as a service car is quite a rare sight nowadays and looks rather unique with the flashing light on the roof.

Another rare car here is this 1979 Reliant Scimitar. Reliant, a company people outside Britain only know for its three-wheelers, if at all, produced this model in three generations between 1965 and 1986 but only sold a few thousand examples of each generation.

Even rarer, the 1969 Daimler 250 V8 is a sought-after classic. Based on the Jaguar Mark 2, only 4885 examples of this facelifted version left the factory. With lots of rust and moss on its body, this one would need a lot of TLC to shine again.

The oldest car the dealership stores is this 1967 Land Rover Series II. Its license expired in 1992, so if any member of this models' huge fanbase should decide to restore it, they better be prepared for some downtime damage.

(Screenshot from Google Street View)
While all of the photos above were taken in 2013, Google drove past the garage in 2009, when it apparently was still active. Nevertheless, the Land Rover, the Reliant and the Mondeo were already standing in their respective spots back then. And while the Daimler has moved some metres in the last four years, it already had a visible layer of rot on it. The 305 is also present in 2009, but obviously still in use and therefore a lot less brown.

Toyota LiteAce

(Photo by me)

Sometimes, abandoned cars look like they could actually still be usable for many years and thousands of kilometres. This Toyota standing in a parking lot in a small town in Greece is quite the opposite. Hardly displaying any undamaged parts, this LiteAce from the early 1980s wears the traces of having been used hard for about three decades.
As this is what those small commercial vans were built for, not many have survived until today. And as almost nobody is interested in collecting this kind of car, they are likely to become extinct soon.


(Photo by andrewcarspotter98)