[Multi] Opel GT

(Photo by KatrencikPhotoArchives)

The Opel GT, of which 103.463 examples left the factory between 1968 and 1973, always was a doubtlessly desirable car. In its homecountry, Germany, it still is well known for the slogan "Nur Fliegen ist schöner" - "Only flying is better.". More than 50.000 cars were exported to the USA, though, where it was known as the "Baby-Corvette". As you can see in these pictures here, not all of them survived. Nevertheless, the Opel GT is a popular classic today, with good examples reaching prices of 25.000€/30.000$. So, even the examples above and below probably are still worth some money. Most of them would require much more money to restore them, though.

Subaru L1800

(Picture by Atrocity_Exhibition)

This car has been left behind in an abandoned workshop at a college and obviously became the victim of vandals. Part of the damage may also be a result of the car being used for training purposes, though.
It is a 3rd-generation Subaru Leone wagon, also known as L1800, Loyale or Omega in parts of the world.
The wagon sold best of all variants of the Leone, but still not in really big numbers.
As this model also rusted quite quickly it is almost impossible to find a good example now, 18 years after production ended.
Here is one of the few still existing:

(Photo by Spottedlaurel)

Update 19.7.12: Had to replace the originally used picture with a smaller version due to some problems with Flickr. Clicking the picture will still bring you to the full-size photo.

Update 16.3.13: The scene has changed, and not to the better.
(Photo by donebythehandsofabrokenartist)

Lotus Excel

(Photo by Alpus)

Just eleven years after it left the factory in 1985, this Lotus Excel has been left standing in someone's driveway in Great Britain.
As the body is made of plastic, it doesn't rust and therefore still looks quite fresh for having been parked outside for 16 years.
The Lotus Excel is a facelifted version of the Lotus Éclat; sold from 1982 on.
Like pretty much every Lotus, it is not a common car. However, as it is not considered a classic yet, even very good examples hardly reach five-digit €-prices.

[Multi] Subaru SVX

(Photos by V6CavRS (two), [jonrev] and MindThreat)

Presenting the SVX as the successor of the not quite successful XT in 1991, Subaru was planning on selling 10000 cars per year. In the end, they only sold 25000 till the end of production in 1997.
The Subaru SVX was only available with automatic transmission which not only put off buyers who wanted to use the 3.3-litre-boxer-engine with a stick, but was also known for failing quite often. Therefore, it probably also is the reason why many SVXs can be found on scrapyards today and it is even rarer than it was when it was new now.
There are some fans of this model though who care for their car and keep it looking like this one:

(Photo by Rutch)

Peugeot 205

(All photos by me)

A Peugeot 205 may not seem special to you. More than five million examples produced between 1983 and 1998 do not exactly make it a rare car.
The one in the pictures above apparently has an interesting story to tell, though.
Especially the high milage (if it is genuine) is astonishing. 444784km are a lot for such a small car.
Furthermore, somebody still seems to "care" for the car. When I first visited it, a part of the front bumper was hanging down and the left front wheel did not have a hubcap. Two months later, the bumper was fixed and the hubcap from the right front wheel had been moved to the left.
To see all photos I took of this Peugeot, please click here.

Happy new year!

I hope all of you will have a happy year 2012!

Here is a preview to what will be the first post of the new year:

[Special] One year "Abandoned cars"

Today, this blog celebrates its first birthday.
I want to thank all the readers, who viewed this site almost 18000 times in total.

Now, let's look back at the five most popular posts of the past 365 days.

With far more views than all the other posts, the very first one takes the "victory".
This Ford Escort Mk2 abandoned in Great Britain opened the blog.
One year later, here is another example standing in the same country:

(Photo by iron_mighty07)

Unlike the Datsun 411 posted almost one year ago, the one below is far beyond restoration:

(Photo by edsel)

The third-most-clicked post is this Porsche Cayman
As it's probably impossible to find another abandoned Porsche Cayman, the next picture will have to represent the fourth place as well, which is taken by another Porsche, this time accompanied by a Rolls-Royce. Containing quite a lot of Porsches, I think it will do this job just fine (I highly recommend to click on the picture to view it in a higher resolution).

(Photo by reverendtheef)

The Volkswagen Karmann-Ghia on fifth place is one of the few stories told in this blog which have a happy ending.
In this photo, another VW is still waiting for being rescued:

(Photo by Rolfen)

So now, I am looking forward to another year of hopefully interesting pictures and stories. Let's see which posts will be in the Top 5 next year...

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)

[Multi] Citroën DS

(Photo taken in Great Britain by St33ly)

This Citroën DS has been abandoned in a barn of a farm in Great Britain, along with many other classic cars. If you want to see cars like a Triumph 1200, two Vanden Plas 1100 or a VW Beetle covered in moss, I recommend a visit to St33ly's Photostream on Flickr. For another photo of the DS shown above, click here.
Update 16.3.13: The cars in the picture above have obviously been vandalized, as you will notice in this picture.
The Citroën DS, famous for its elegant design and the innovative hydropneumatic suspension, is a popular classic nowadays. It has many fans around the world willing to pay high prices for a good example of the "goddess" (from the French pronounciation of the name: "Déesse"). These fans have to be strong now, as not all 1,5 million examples built by Citroën have always been loved by their owners and I have collected some of those that weren't.
As usual, you can click all photos for higher resolutions.

VW New Beetle RSi

(Photo by Danny McL)

It's the second abandoned car from Dubai in a row here, but this one is so special I just had to show it.
This car actually is not an ordinary Volkswagen New Beetle, but one of only 250 RSi-models built in 2001.
Its massive spoiler on the boot lid does not promise too much, as the 3.2l-V6-engine with its 224 bhp is capable of accelerating the car to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 6,4 seconds and makes it reach a topspeed of 225 km/h (140 mph).
I don't know the reason for a car even more rare than the Ferrari Enzo shown previously and still worth at least 30000€ is gathering dust in a parking lot in Dubai, but maybe there is hope that the owner is just enjoying a long holiday trip abroad.
[Update] According to the photographer, the car is still sitting in this spot half a year after he took the photo.

For comparison, here is a cleaner example of the New Beetle RSi:

(Photo by newbeetledriver)