Question Of The Day: What Is The Most Common Vehicle You Have Seen…
…on the side of the road?
Way back in the day, I used to work as an auctioneer at Logandale Auto Auction. I used to call it, “the red light district” because every vehicle there sold under the red light, which meant AS/IS.
AS/IS meant, as it is. That means whatever you bought when it came on the auction block. it was yours. That also included whatever spilled or fell off the vehicle as it was leaving the barn. You, and you alone, were the new owner of a vehicle that probably drank, smoke, and hung around with the bad boys.
Why do I mention this? Well, most of the vehicles that were sold at the sale were impounded or abandoned vehicles. Those vehicles you see on the side of the road in the USA? Well, out here, most law enforcement officers will stick a nice bright tag on the front and rear windshield of the vehicle, giving the owner “x” number of days to get the vehicle or the local wrecker company will pick it up and impound it.
From there, it’s a waiting game, and the vehicles get ever the more expensive to get out of impound. Here in Georgia, the standard rate is around $126 for the tow and $20 a day for storage. If you don’t get it in time they end up having a public auction which is usually advertised in the local county paper beforehand.
15 years ago, I would say that about 90% of these vehicles that were at those nearby auctions would eventually wind up at Logandale. The buyers would usually just fill up the coolant levels to the max, oil if it needed it, a cheap refurbished battery, a quick wash detail, and voila! Brand new auction vehicle sold to the general public with the ultimate of caveat emptors as the buying policy, AS/IS.
Back in the Y2K era, I would see a ton of old K-Cars make it through the auction along with Chevy Blazers, 1980’s GM econoboxes, and most notably, the Ford Taurus. Sometimes it seemed like the majority of the inventory at this sale matched one of these four categories to some degree or another.
I was reminded by this from my ride home yesterday from an 85 mph racing circle here in Atlantan that we call Initerstate 285. Now that the weather is hot, I’m seeing a lot more vehicles on the side of the road with bright stickers to alert the local wrecker services. A 25 year old Buick Lesabre may have finally earned it’s wings on Exit 27. But the 2002-ish Cadillac Seville on Northdside Dr. may have fallen victim to the reptilian four figured fangs of GM’s Northsatr head gasket issues. A mid-90’s Sable wasn’t far away, and finally, a similar era Roadmaster sedan rounded out the four I saw over the course of the 20 mile drive.
I’ve seen a lot of rolling money pits and crusher fodder in my travels. But what about you? What’s the most common vehicle you have seen on the side of the road?
More by Steven Lang
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So yesterday evening I had to drive the entire I-405 corridor and part of SH-167. I made a conscious note in my mind to look for dead on side of the road. 1) An old British roadster, maybe Jaguar - was actually in good shape white, but clearly DOSOR south of downtown Seattle 2) Honda Civic, older black, owner was looking under the hood, traffic was crawling by (damn rubberneckers) and there was a clear pool of bodily fluids from the Civic on the ground under it 3) Chevy Suburban - newer 4) Toyota Corolla, on a SH-167 ramp - totally dogged out older model That's it. I guess I just filter out DOSOR cars when I drive.
In the last 10 years or so, it comes down to two cars: 1. Pontiac 6000. I've seen so many of them on I-475 that when it isn't a 6000, or the #2 car, it shocks me. 2. Ford Focus, first generation. Usually green. I have no idea why. One of my favorite memories of Focus dead on the shoulder was when I saw a co-worker's brand new Focus spew coolant all over the road. I gave him a ride to work. He said, "I think I screwed up buying that thing!". A year later, it was lemoned, and replaced with a Ranger. Another co-worker had a used one he had bought to replace an old Fox Mustang he had driven to death. He got to be infamous for asking people to jump him, as the Focus made the Mustang look good. After a couple of weeks at the dealer, it finally became reliable to trust enough to drive to Cleveland twice a week. One day, he came to work and the mirrors were about to fall off, and the roof was kind of flattened. It was the middle of winter, and during a blizzard, a semi cut him off and he had rolled it two times in about a foot of snow, and just kept on driving, as it was the middle of the night, and he never saw what company the truck belonged to. He fixed the mirrors with the insurance money, but the roof was left alone until the car was traded for a CR-V.