My wife occasionally tunes in the A&E TV show Hoarders. I really don’t share her uneasy fascination with the bizarre and dysfunctional behavior of compulsive hoarders, but when I pulled up next to this Ford Escape at a local grocery store, I couldn’t help but pull out my cell phone and snap a couple of pics. All I could think was, wow — those people really are out there, right in my neighborhood. Another image after the jump.
Hoarders: Automotive Edition
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48 responses to “Hoarders: Automotive Edition”
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That has got to be illegal. But with unemployment/foreclosure/economic problems lately maybe Cops are going easy on people.
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I knew I'd been saving these pictures for something!
<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2604/3834276729_c1b4a40e47.jpg">
I've got a bunch more of this heap up on flickr.-
Yeah, but Haagen-Dazs. Classy.
Maybe it's Howard Hughes' whip?-
Perhaps upper white-trash.
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post more of those pictures, and we'll have to rename you "Trashy."
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Just one:
<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5055/5426016585_3ab575b2bb.jpg">
When I first saw this thing, I thought it had suspension modifications. Not so much…
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This one looks like garbage, the other one looks like stuff. They probably lost their place and are living out of it.
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Well, there are hoarders who stick stuff in cars, and then there are the real automotive hoarders, the ones with twelve old cars in the yard, garage, and barn, maybe four of them working, and parts for another half-dozen sitting around. Anybody got some pictures handy of those? Of course, it won't be pictures of your own yard, just a friend of a friend.
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Umm….
…would 10 vehicles, 3 operational, and random parts in every room of the house suffice?
Not that I know anyone like that. (Removes engine bearing set from microwave cart)-
Whatcha got there in the yard?
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67 Datsun (SSS), 67 Polara, 72 MGBGT, 77 Ironhead, 77 MGB Lemons racer, old Dodge RV tow rig, 79 MGB, 83 GPz 550, late R/T Dakota, and wife's itty-bitty teeny-weenie smart car. 🙂
Of those, only the wife's car, Lemon MGB and Motorhome are able to drive to the store with half an hour's notice.
I also have a pair of antique single-wheel trailers just to be different. One has a flat, which is kind of a big deal on a one wheel trailer.-
Cool collection, I'm jealous. (well, minus the Smart car, but then, it's not yours, so……)
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Well, I did put an intake and exhaust on the smart so at least it gets out of it's own way now. That plus the latest chip-flash and I'm surprised at how fun it is to drive… nothing confuses the masses like flying past them doing 90 on the freeway in a smart car. Or loading it with a full shopping cart at Costco (always draws a crowd).
I also beat a couple Corvettes at an autocross last summer. For those points alone the little bugger has grown on me.
<img src="http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs060.snc4/35383_1526438765469_1369652107_1383065_4404130_n.jpg" width="500" /> -
They make hop-up parts for the Smart? Do they fit anything else, or are they specifically for the Smart?
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Yup, there is even a "smart-cup" racing series in Europe. (Crazy French whackos).
The motor is a Mistubishi, but everything is pretty much smart specific. There are even turbo kits. Wife says I have to wait till the warranty expires before she lets me do anything else.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze8sElZuYfw -
Seems like there's a racing series for nearly everything nowadays….
http://www.mgmetrocup.co.uk/
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They may need some waking up, but look at it this way. Datsun rides Polara. 77 Sporty tows 77 Lemons racer. RV swallows 72 MG. GPz makes the 79 MG shake it's head, but MG allows itself to be pulled along. And the Smart rides in the R/T. Everybody's matched! It's like a Valentine's Day miracle.
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I know it's all pairings, but when you string them together like that it sounds like an automotive turducken or cherpumple.
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Naa, just an automotive square dance. Break out the banjo music!
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Bing-bicka-bing-bicka-bing-bicka-bing-bicka-bing-bing-bing!
Bing-bicka-bing-bing-bicka-bicka-bing-bing-bicka-bing-bing!
/Anyone who says anythin' 'bout anyone havin' a purdy mouth is gettin' shot. -
Pix of that GPz would be great – maybe appropriate tomorrow, for Two-Wheel Tuesday?
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I've actually posted it before a few times, but here's a link…
http://hooniverse.info/2010/12/14/hooniverse-asks-… -
A beauty! I had an '81 KZ750, precursor to the GPz, and now ride a ZRX1100 (liquid-cooled, but a descendant of that line).
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Whats wrong with the R/T? I love mine and their pretty dependable truck. The transmission wasn't designed to be flogged like it is in the R/T though
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Nothing really, it's been a great truck. I just put too many @#$%& miles on it.
It's a 98 1/2 so I wanted to kinda keep it in somewhat collectible condition. Then I started dating a crazy college exchange chick hundred's of miles away and put a gazillion miles on it (worth every mile). Then I got thumped in the front & rear bumpers. Then I got hit by an owl. Then a deer, and another owl. Then it hit 100K, developed a slight gas smell and wore out the tires so I decided not to fix it so I couldn't possibly drive it anymore. 🙂
I keep it parked right outside the kitchen window so I can stare at it and remember the crazy exchange chick. I may put it back on the road next year.
I'm only up to eight vehicles, three operational, and random parts in every room of the house and chicken coop, so you've got me beat!
You'll have to decide for yourself whether to feel good or bad about that achievement.
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2 words… "Chicken coop".
When you factor in that one of my 10 isn't actually mine, plus the fact that one of your cars can fit INSIDE said chicken coop with room to spare for the chickens, I think you have me beat.-
I'm pretty sure the coop hasn't actually seen a chicken in decades (hmm, though there is room…), so these days I use it for storing some of the larger, quasi-weather-resistant MG, Plymouth, and SAAB parts.
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OK, same question…. whatcha got in the yard?
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The list is revealed by hovering your mouse pointer over my avatar photo (which itself is one of them), then for even more info, following the appropriately-named "An Accumulation" link will lead to an article on everything except the disassembled Skyliner (currently at my father's place) and the HMV Freeway (acquired subsequently).
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Three vehicles, one of which is a storage shed of parts for the other two. I think I'm okay for now.
Were up to 11 here (stocked up for winter) with 9 that run, but "only" 5 are insured to be driven.
Nauseating.
The strange thing to me is how often the car-stuffing type of hoarder is driving a relatively new vehicle. Neither of the pics above is a rusty junker.. both are relatively new, somewhat shiny paint .. filled with junk.
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The Escape came out as a 2001 model, so it could be 10 years old, that's more than enough time for one of these people to fill it up. (of course, I highly doubt that they bought it new….. rather I hope they didn't, because can you imagine the smell after it's been holding garbage for 10 years? ewwwwww
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Around here the car of choice for these folks seems to be the 1st-generation Mopar minivan. There used to be one that I saw every time I parked in the lot behind my favorite Chinese restaurant downtown.
I used to go out with a girls who had the trunk and back seat of her Accord absolutely packed with stuff. A lot of it was random outdoorsy stuff, so she could stop and go for a swim or a bike ride at any moment. I kind of admired that, but boy was she tweaked.
I've got a friend with this problem, and it is a mental health issue. He's got so much stuff, even on his bed, you can literally see the outline of where he sleeps because it's the only part without junk (think snow angel). It's not good.
I am astounded at the conditions the people actually live in on "Hoarders". Animal Planet has a show about animal hoarders which is always unbelievable and appalling. This picture is from 2009 in Texas where a woman was living in her car with 22 dogs. The SPCA said that the car was soaked with urine and covered in feces. The ammonia level in the vehicle was 23 parts per million even after the doors had been opened for several minutes. As a frame of reference, humans start experiencing health issues at 12 parts per million.
<img src="http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/22-dogs-in-car.jpg"width="500"/>
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As a dog lover, that makes me instinctively both cringe and grind my teeth at the same time.
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I agree! It's one of the most pathetic things I've ever seen. Good morning to you! 😉
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Good morning!
(Looks at clock…. 10:17pm. Oops.)
…er, good evening, m'lady. 🙂
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my 40-ish neighbor a few doors down has a YJ Wrangler, soft top, with only her seat and the stick shift area not covered by floor-to-ceiling boxes, bags, books, trash, clothing, etc. and it looks like her dark dungeon of a condo is similarly decorated the time or two I've caught a glimpse through her curtain-crack. I'm always like, buy a bigger car than a YJ if you need it to hold all your collection of boxes full of plastic coat hangers and tattered paperbacks
While I admit to tossing the occasional bottle or food packaging article in the back seat some times, I dont think that there is ever a way for me to let that happen…
Not that I'd let it ever get this far, but I do have a standing date every month to completely empty each vehicle. This is to prevent certain items (like the boxes of left over marble and granite tile currently taking up space in the back seat of the pickup, or the TV in the wagon's way back) from becoming permanent fixtures.
There was a woman with a car like this in massachusetts, she was at a gas station when some trash got stuck on the gas and under brake pedal. She flew across 4 lanes of traffic and into another building across the street.
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