Abandoned Car of the Week

1959 Edsel wagon lives in salvage yard



Ford Motor Company developed Edsel to give it a fourth brand to gain market share from Chrysler and General Motors competing against Buick, Oldsmobile, Dodge and DeSoto. The sedan was marketed with great fanfare in 1958, but failed to gain enough sales to keep it alive. Edsel was discontinued in late 1959 after less than 3,000 1960 model cars were sold. About 116,000 Edsel's were produced. This 1959 Edsel station wagon was discovered in a salvage yard.
(Photo by Jim Prueter)

Street of Dreams



A Dodge delivery van (far left) and a Ford panel van sit atop what look like 1950s vintage Ford vehicles in this "street of dreams" for old car junkies in an Arizona salvage yard. The Dodge van appears to be from the mid-50s. Also seen are the front end of a VW Beetle (far left) and an assortment of bicycles.
(Photo by Jim Prueter)

The first affordable automobile



A collection of Model T and Model A Fords was discovered in an Arizona scrap yard this winter. The Model T was the first mass produced car, and in its last year in 1927 could be purchased for as low as $360 (equivalent to $5,616 in current dollars). The Model T finally gave way to the more modern Model A in 1928. Ford produced 15 million Model T cars and trucks from 1908 through 1927.
(Photo by Jim Prueter)

A Cavalier for the masses



This second generation circa 1990 Chevrolet Cavalier was spotted behind an auto repair shop in eastern North Carolina. The 1990 Cavalier got an upgraded base 2.2-liter 4-cylinder engine making 95 horsepower. The optional V6 engine was also upgraded to 140 horsepower. The Cavalier was sold in the U.S. from 1982 through 2005. Chevrolet replaced the Cavalier with the Cobalt in 2006.
(Photo by Jim Meachen)

Early '50s Ford pickup



The 1951-1952 Ford pickups were part of Ford's "Bonus Built" postwar trucks, which ran from 1948 through 1952. The trucks had two wheelbases: 114 inches for the 1/2-ton F-1 series, 122 inches for the 3/4-ton F-2. By the time the 1951 Ford pickup appeared, the gearshift had moved from the floor to the steering column. The 1951 Ford pickup also introduced a new front end. Gone was the smiling horizontal-bar grille and inboard headlamps, replaced by a single-bar grille with three massive "teeth." Along with a wraparound front bumper, this gave Ford trucks a more aggressive frontal appearance. This relic was found on the side of a road near Boone, N.C.
(Photo by Jim Meachen)

Third-generation Ford LTD



This third-generation Ford LTD (1979-1982) was found languishing behind a repair shop in eastern North Carolina. The third-generation was downsized from the previous iteration losing about 15 inches of body length and seven inches of wheelbase. Available was a 5.0-liter and 5.8-liter V-8. Ford built 356,535 LTDs in coupe, sedan and wagon variants in 1979. Sales tumbled to 141,562 in 1980.
(Photo by Jim Meachen)

Stacked Lincolns



Lincoln enjoyed a measure of success during the second half of the 1970 decade selling as many as 189,546 vehicles in 1979. However, Lincoln sales still trailed arch-rival Cadillac by about 200,000 in each of those years. These two Lincoln sedans have gone into retirement on top of each other. The top car is a 1978 model and the bottom car is a 1975. (Photo by Jim Prueter}

Remains of a Chevy Corvair pickup



Chevrolet took its small 1960 Corvair lineup in several directions including a light-duty truck introduced in 1961 featuring Loadside and Rampside models. Like the car, the truck featured a rear-mounted air-cooled 80-horsepower flat-six engine. The truck was built through 1964. This skeleton of a Corvair pickup was found in an Arizona salvage yard.
(Photo by Jim Prueter)

Ford trucks in retirement


These seventh-generation (1980-1986) Ford trucks have ben retired to a storage area, their useful life over. The 7th generation was the final version of the F-Series to offer a three-speed, column-shifted manual transmission; it is also the second-to-last vehicle sold in the United States with this configuration. (Photo by Jim Meachen)

The birth of GM's automatic transmission

Oldsmobile was General Motors' test vehicle for a new automatic transmission developed in the late '30s dubbed Hydra-Matic Drive. It went into production in May 1939 for the 1940 model year. The first Oldsmobiles so equipped were shipped in October 1939 in the Oldsmobile Series 60 and the Oldsmobile Series 70. It was not unusual to see the new transmission advertised on Oldsmobiles of the time as displayed this abandoned. (Photo by Jim Prueter)