Hundreds of Thousands of Brand New Unsold Cars Parked Worldwide to Rot in Car Graveyards

Holy crap! I would hate to be the guy maintaining all those keys, dead batteries and flat tires. Oh hummm that's vehicle 1,999 only 10,000 more to go. By the time you get done you will have to start all over again. LOL

a reply to: sean

In my experience the keys are left in the ignition, they are not removed and stored somewhere

a reply to: sean

It's probably a holding area, bet ya most of those cars don't even stay there 2 weeks. Sure thousands wont sell yaddayadda but 98% of all those cars are going somewhere one way or another, this thread is whack, get a thread where 100's of tanks are rolling through America on a train? Holly heck land invasion preparations within the USofA!!! - or M1A1 Abrahams goin for referb, u chose the more sensational,10,s of thousands of parked cars? all different colours, superbowl parking lot, all same make model and colours? Global economic collapse.

I've missed ATS lol

What about insurance and I wonder where it would come into play with this.

a reply to: Enlighten3d

As they still belong to the manufacturer or distributor it would be covered on their insurance, not each one will require an individual policy.

This is very similar to China and their mass building projects. China is currently making apartments and malls that are empty and deteriorating. i.dailymail.co.uk...

The building gives the facade of economic progress and prosperity while the real people can never afford to live in these cities or have the cash to shop in the malls.

My question is, are there any of these massive car graveyards in the US? We could start by doing some investigative journalism and ask these important questions.

Are car prices so high today to make up for the loss on previous years? As U.S. taxpayers, wouldn't we be entitled to some of these vehicles since taxpayers bailed out some of these big car companies?

So there you have it! Our tax dollars didn't go to waste after all during the bailout. The benevolent government must have forgot to send us our new wheels.

Hey guys, you all paid for them a thousand times over. Maybe its time to collect on our investment.

This topic is pretty much a hoax.

I work for a software company that creates and maintains a software system that runs a distribution algorithm for many major car manufactures. The distribution algorithm tells manufactures when and where to ship their vehicles so they will sell. It saves the manufactures billions of dollars in vehicle shipping and handling fees.

The algorithm takes data from vehicle dealerships regarding past sales. Data such as popular makes, models, colors, and accessory packages that sell the most at that location. It takes into account the dealership's location such as low income or high income neighborhood, and other information about the area. It also takes forecast data provided by the dealership and analyzes it to help plan the best distribution.

The software will not only tell the manufactures what models and accessory packages to ship to which dealer, but also tells them which models, colors, and accessories to manufacture more of or less of.

Most of the time these vehicles will sit in large holding lots along shipping ports, or anywhere really, and you will see exactly what the OP has shown. Instead of just dividing all the vehicles up evenly and just blindly shipping them off to random dealers, wasting money, they wait for exactly the right moment and location to ship these vehicles to, in order to be sure they will sell.

I'm fairly certain the images provided by the OP are just that... holding yards for vehicles that are going to be shipped at the exact right time and to the exact right place.

Judging by some of the replies on this topic, I see this hoax has done it's job.

a reply to: MysterX

How about the export market?

Why don't they load these cars onto cargo containers and ship them off to poorer parts of the world to see them at greatly reduced rates?

Some money coming in, and poorer people benefiting from having access to a reliable vehicle is a winner and it wouldn't affect the prices in the domestic markets plus the positive PR for the manufacturer would be priceless..i wonder why they don't do this?

a reply to: Indigent

I'm sure they don't waste them, they just eventually ship them to 3rd world countries to sell them overpriced.

My thoughts on why they don't do this to a certain extent... Not all 3rd world countries have the infrastructure to handle alot of automobile traffic I would think. If they don't have the infrastructure in place then even though we feel this is a considerate donation to help out... It would only hinder progress.

leolady

originally posted by: WeAre0ne
Judging by some of the replies on this topic, I see this hoax has done it's job.

Not my replies! - thanks for your post, wont temper the anger at the auto industries in this thread, but you have tried vialliently

a reply to: Ameilia



Surely not ALL these cars go to waste! I know big businesses dont care much for their Environment but to let these cars go to waste would be just plain Ignorant! I reckon they do get sold eventually or they can easily lower the costs of these cars to get sold or even re-use the parts!

But I also see that more & more greenland gets covered over with concrete & Tar! just what we all need... more Tar & Concrete = Less breathable air!

originally posted by: mikell
In the US there's lots like that after floods and hurricanes also the automakers here are required to keep so many of each model for about 10 years. All those abondond looking buildings in Detroit are actually full of brand new cars waiting for the government to let them be scrapped

Manufacturers are only required to supply replacement parts. There is no requirement to warehouse whole cars for ten years. At least not in the US.

originally posted by: gottaknow
Oh! So relieved to see this post! This is something that has been bugging me for years. I suspected something like this was going on as it just doesn't add up all the cars they have on the lots all year long that just vanish to make way for the new + the prices constantly rising even though we should be well saturated in newish cars if they're selling that many.

I've wondered the same about other products as well as they stores are always full of new things, but, where do all the unsold items go? Furniture, electronics, appliances top the list of my "wtf happens to all these new, but unsold models?" list. Hopefully clothing and food get distributed at least somewhat to poorer citizens/places.

I guess you've never been to a Big Lots store. It's one of my favorite places to shop for tools, gardening equipment and lots of other stuff. The prices are really cheap but what you get are old stock items some other company dumped. I don't know if Big Lots is all over the US or not but there are several stores where I live.

a reply to: Ameilia

The truth is you don't know that much about business, and zero about the car business. I don't know if you are in any position to instruct people how it is when you thought auto makers only made enough cars that would be sold. Laughing out loud.

a reply to: Ameilia

Other than these photos, what proof does this guy have to substantiate his claims?

This is why I ask; During my career as a longshoreman, I loaded literally hundreds of thousands of automobiles onto ocean going vessels for export to various countries around the world and every single one I loaded came directly from a "staging lot" like the ones depicted in the photos. In some of the photos, the car lots depicted are sitting directly adjacent to a port facility. I can see the water, the dock, the rail lines, the sheds, the cranes, etc...

When loading autos onto a "RO-RO" (Roll on, Roll off) vessel, the pace is unbelievable. In an 8 hr. day, we would unlash & unload some 10 to 12 thousand import autos and then, load & lash 10 to 12 thousand export vehicles and more often than not, we'd finish early. It takes huge pre-stage lots like those depicted in the photos to get this done and what I'm seeing doesn't really look that unusual, at least not to me.

ETA: Here's a picture of what it looks like inside one of those RO-RO ships and this is just one deck. These vessels are usually 800 to 1000 feet long with 8 to 12 decks. Some of the decks are even height adjustable to allow for the loading of industrial equipment as well. Usually, you don't have as much head room above the automobiles as is depicted in this particular photo. More often than not, when loading autos, you can't even stand up straight when you get out of the car.

originally posted by: Flatfish
This is why I ask; During my career as a longshoreman, I loaded literally hundreds of thousands of automobiles onto ocean going vessels for export to various countries around the world and every single one I loaded came directly from a "staging lot" like the ones depicted in the photos. In some of the photos, the car lots depicted are sitting directly adjacent to a port facility. I can see the water, the dock, the rail lines, the sheds, the cranes, etc...

Being that the type of sales I am in allows me to get into some pretty interesting facilities with my TWIC card. I have been down to Port Elizabeth and have watched the longshoremen load and unload cars. The autorack trains arrive full of American made vehicles which are then unloaded and then the trains are reloaded with import vehicles. The amount of cars there are huge and the impound yards are always full.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

You are exactly right. The numbers I talked about moving in my port were very conservative compared to larger ports and were done with less than 50 men. Very fast paced work with no room for error.

So again we have somebody taking a story and pictures from 2009 and changing the date to 2014? Do we not have anythng not from 5 years ago to be outraged about? Sure 5 years ago when the recession hit car dealers across the world had extra inventory that ended up selling at reduced prices. It is now 2014 qnd car sales are booming.

It seems they would at least auction these cars off. I wonder if some get sold that way?
Also with so many cars parked there you would think someone would steal one and most likely never get caught.

originally posted by: corblimeyguvnor
a reply to: sean

In my experience the keys are left in the ignition, they are not removed and stored somewhere

All those keys in all those cars