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)

Mercedes-Benz /8

(Photo by thermionic)

Somewhere in Greece, this nice Mercedes-Benz W114/W115 (usually referred to as "/8") is standing unused at a roadside. Apart from some missing chrome and the too new W123-rims, this example looks almost collectible-like. Like many Mercedes of this size, it probably had a long and useful life since it left the factory between 1973 and 1976. As the /8 was very successful, there are still plenty of it left, making it a quite affordable classic today. So maybe someone decided this Mercedes was cheap enough to not drive it, but place it on the roadside as decoration.

AMC Pacer

(Photo by ic21985)

Unlike the Citroën DS in the previous post, which undoubtedly is a beautiful car, the AMC Pacer may be argued about.
Many things were special about this car.
As an answer to a growing demand for compact cars, AMC created the "first wide small car" (original advertisment slogan) in 1975. Despite only being 4,32 metres long, the Pacer was 1,98 metres wide, which lead to unusual proportions. The very high amount of glass (37% of the exterior) further contributed to the extraordinary appearance, as well as the passenger's door being 10 centimeters longer than the door on the driver's side.
Another speciality had originally been planned for the Pacer, but the intended use of a Wankel rotary engine foundered on emission regulations in the USA. Therefore, the only "strange" engine available was a 5.0l V8 introduced in 1978.
Unlike this oversized engine, the versions with six cylinders sold quite well, although they also consumed quite a lot of fuel for the size of the car. This was largely due to AMC attaching importance to safety features causing a high weight.
Today, the AMC Pacer is increasingly popular as a collectors' car. A well preserved example can be seen right below the one in an extremely sorry condition here:

(Photo by 731132)


(Photo by pontfire)

Holden HJ

(Photo by salsablue)
This car is probably the one in the most advanced stage of decay on this blog so far.
While HJs in good condition are worth quite much money today, this example with all its missing parts, rust and bullet holes won't be worth anything anymore.
Probably it has been used for spare parts before being too rotten for that.
Sold in three versions called "Belmont", "Kingswood" and "Premier" plus coupe, wagon and different commercial versions between 1974 and 1976, 176202 HJs were produced.
A properly maintained HJ looks like this Premier:

(Picture from Wikipedia)

Toyota Celica

(Photos by www.urban-travel.org)
This Toyota Celica has a very special story to tell.
It is standing in a Toyota dealership in a military buffer zone on Cyprus that had to be abandoned in 1974.
Since then, this and some other cars with as little as 37 miles driven in their whole lives are standing there collecting dust.
A comparison picture is not necessary this time, I think, as the car is "new". Only the motorhood looks damaged and the mirrors have probably been stolen, as you can see from the holes in the fenders.
Here you can find more photos this photographer took when he had the opportunity to visit that great place. The town is still not accessible and guarded by soldiers.

Simca 1100

(Photos by deudeuche)

Won't write too much this time, the pictures speak for themselves.
The Simca was produced more than 2 million times between 1968 and 1981.
Later, the make was converted to Talbot by the owner, Peugeot.

For comparison, the car in better days:

(Photo by renault19872000)

Plymouth Arrow

(Photos by dmitriy79. Click here for more photos of this car and higher resolutions.)

The driveway of a house is a strange place for an abandoned car.
However, this 1976 Plymouth Arrow 160 has been left there and does not look like it will move soon.
In fact, the Plymouth Arrow was a Mitsubishi Lancer Celeste, but as Mitsubishi did not officially sell cars in North America at this time, this model was sold as a Plymouth in the USA and as a Dodge in Canada from 1976 to 1980.
144000 cars were sold. Interestingly, Plymouth used the name "Arrow" for a truck from 1981 on.
The example in the picture is equipped with the basic 1.6-litre engine.
Notice the white-wall-tire and the original extra-headlamps.
Here you see a Dodge Arrow in better condition:

(Picture by dave_7)

Citroën CX Break

(Photo by Deudeuche)
This Citroën CX Break is obviously completely lost. Standing in the middle of bushes, it is rusting away and many parts are missing.
The CX, which was produced from 1974 to 1991, was sold more than 1 million times.
The Break (estate-version) was introduced in 1976 and made up a big part in the sale numbers. It was also available with 8 seats.
But as many of these cars have been scrapped, you can almost call the CX rare and extremely good examples can cost 20000€ now.
When it was new, the Break looked like that:

(Photo by citroen-cx.info)

Peugeot 504 Coupe

Here we have a Peugeot 504 Coupe just standing on a street in the Netherlands.

(Photo by Skitmeister)

The car looks more or less undamaged, only the paint will probably have suffered from the dirt on it.
But the fact it has two different rims could tell that the owner did not care about it all too much even before he abandoned the car on the roadside.
The 504 was one of the most successful models by Peugeot. First introduced in 1968, the last 504 was built in Nigeria in 2005. In Europe, the production ended in 1983 though.
The Coupe, just as the convertible, was built in the same time, but in much smaller numbers. So nowadays, this model is rare and quite expensive.
The car in the photo was built after 1975, recognizable by the large taillights. So it has 106 or 144 bhp.
Originally, the car looked like this:

(Photo by Robotriot)

As you can see, the abandoned car does not have the original bumper and front rim anymore.

Jaguar XJ Series II

(Picture by Martin van Duijn)
This is a Jaguar XJ6 Series II, which has been built from 1973 to 1979. The car in this picture does not look to rusty, just the dirt coming with time has covered the paint. It has been abandoned in the garden of a house nobody lives in anymore. The car seems to be a bit customized with tinted windows, extra chrome around the wheels and white sidewall tires. So somebody seemed to have liked it before it was left to rot.
It once was a large luxurious limousine with 3.4 or 4.2 litre engines. Nearly 130000 Jaguar XJ Series II were sold, including the coupe-version. The XJ6 cost around 65000$ at that time.
Nowadays, it is not especially rare or expensive, although very good examples can cost more than 25000$.
In better condition, the car looked like that:

(Image from a seller on mobile.de)

Ford Escort Mk2

Welcome to my new blog.
Here, I will show you cars left to rot somewhere, compared to what they looked like when they were new.
Sometimes, I will also write about abandoned car dealerships, showing pictures and telling as much of their story as I can reconstruct.

This first post is about the Ford Escort Mk2 you see here:

(Photo by paul70allen, click on the picture for a higher resolution)
This car is standing on a car graveyard and somehow looks like it's been shot at.
The Escort Mk2 has been produced from 1974 to 1980.
Here you see the 3-door-version, that was also available as the sports-model "RS2000", which looked a bit different and had 110hp. The Escort was also sold as an estate or with 5 doors.
When it was new, it looked like this:

You can still recognize the original rims and some chrome parts on the abandoned car. The mirror is on the right side because the car is British.