I am not sure if this question has a factual answer, so I thought I’d start it out here and see what happens.
Last weekend my wife and I were returning home from downtown Nashville on I-24. In a stretch of about 20 miles we passed 12 cars abandoned on the side of the road.
How on earth do people just leave cars on the side of the road like that?
We talked about it and came up with a couple of ideas.
The car may have broken down/run out of gas and they did not have the money to repair it.
They were all stolen and just abandoned.
Some big monster, which no one has ever seen, craps cars on the side of the road*
I thought that if option 1 was the case, wouldn’t it be economical to have the car towed to a junk yard and then sell it for scrap? And if they were stolen and abandoned it would make more sense to leave the car where it would be easier for the thief to get home., imho.
I’ve been thinking of posting this in GQ myself. In Dallas, I will often see the same car parked on the side of a freeway for days at a time. These are usually cars which are worth something. There is an orange colored sticker on them which I guess is a notice from the police.
Sure, your car can break down and it make take an hour or so to get a tow. But for days at a time? I haven’t gotten close enough to look at the window sticker to determine if the registration was valid.
I do know that if I was stopped for a criminal infraction, the police would impount the vehicle. So, they’re not cars of people who have been arrested for DWI or other crimes.
Usually, they belong to people who don’t have the money for a tow truck right now. They may take a day or two (or more) to come up with the cash, or to con somebody into helping them tow it with a chain. Long term abandonment usually results in a tow and a bill sent to the owner of record so it isn’t a cost savings to just leave them there. This might not be the same in all areas.
Some jurisdictions don’t impound the car if, for instance, the offense is driving without a license. Obviously, they aren’t going to let you drive away, but they don’t have enough reason to impound your car. This will vary from place to place. However, this can’t account for very many cars in a year.
Stolen cars are more usually abandoned in parking lots of stores or apartment buildings so the joy-riding thief can rejoin his buddies.
Only one percent are crapped out by big monsters. They are usually big ass trucks with really big wheels, and are easy to recognize.
