Ask The Best and Brightest: Where Are the Cars?

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

Welcome! I don’t know how you managed to separate yourself from the merry makers in your midst, but we aim to provide you with a little late December diversion. Today’s car-related entertainment comes to you via Google Earth and a TTAC commentator, who suggested we have a gander at the abandoned airfield at Downsview Park, Ontario. Sure enough, there’s a line of new but definitely uinsold cars parked in rows on the runway, ready for… winter. We’ve been saying for some time that new cars are stacking-up like cordwood. So, where’s Waldo? Please add new manufacturer car lot locations below.

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • CarPerson CarPerson on Dec 26, 2008

    Already noted above is the fact that Satellite photos can be YEARS out of date. As far as the Kent, WA location (20MI SE Seattle), it is the railhead where cars are unloaded for trucking to dealers. It’s always cycling between full and nearly empty. However, driving past three weeks ago, it was about as deserted as I have ever seen it. The north lot was empty. All the yards are clearly visible from SR (State Route) 167 that parallels the tracks and yards.

  • Fincar1 Fincar1 on Dec 26, 2008

    I've wondered for a couple of years what percentage of the cars in existence in this country are sitting in dealer lots, manufacturer lots etc. in normal times. I live in western Washington, and so it's easy to drive by the transit lots at the Port of Tacoma, and the Kent lots mentioned above that are also transit lots. And you drive along South Tacoma Way past the car lots, or the Ford and Chevy dealers in any town, and you soon get the idea that a lot of the productivity in this country is devoted to storing automobiles - and of course paying for these stored automobiles. They belong to someone, right? So what we're talking about in this thread now is just a bulge. If the current upheavals in the Old Three do soon result in what seems inevitably a large reduction in car production in this country, the main difference in the short term will be to the jobs of those building the vehicles. As for the inventory of existing automobiles my sense is that the reduction of that will be a considerably longer-term process.

  • Landcrusher Landcrusher on Dec 26, 2008

    Don't let the photo being out of date keep you from using it as a negotiating tactic. Just keep it in your pocket until they pull a fast one. Fight fire with fire. Enjoy.

  • Gsp Gsp on Feb 04, 2009

    That airfield is not "abandoned". It is used every day by Bombardier, government executive jets and a sightseeing company. Underused yes but not abandoned. Aircraft use the main runway to taxi.

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