Author: Murilee Martin
The 2000s were something of a golden decade for “tall hatchback” MPVs in Europe, and the excellent news for Japanese manufacturers was that that they had loads of home-market-optimized vehicles designed for space efficiency that could possibly be brought over to compete with the likes of the Renault Modus, Citroën Xsara Picasso and Hyundai Matrix. From my recent trip to the scrapyards of Northern England, here’s a discarded example of a flexible Honda that we never saw in North America: the FR-V. What really makes this automobile stand out is its interesting seating arrangement. There is a row of three…
The mighty Volkswagen Group Empire has absorbed quite a couple of storied brands over the many years, from Porsche to Bentley to Scout, but you will not see the products of one in every of its biggest subsidiaries on American streets. That is SEAT, whose products are common sights throughout Western Europe. With a view to find used-up SEATs, your best bet is to travel to junkyards on the opposite side of the Atlantic, which I did recently. Today’s Junkyard Scrapyard Gem is an Altea compact MPV, present in a self-service boneyard in Yorkshire, England. The Spanish automotive industry never…
The Nissan Pulsar first appeared in the USA because the 1979 Datsun 310, then got here back 4 years later in hatchback and coupe form. The Pulsar hatchbacks got dropped here for 1984, leaving just the Pulsar NX (often called the Nissan EXA in Japan). For the 1987 model yr, the N13 Pulsar showed up in American Nissan dealerships, and it was an enchanting little automotive. Here’s considered one of those second-generation Pulsar NXs, present in a Denver-area yard recently. Because it was derived from the Sunny, otherwise often called the Sentra over here, this automotive might be considered a…
YORK, England — Automotive shoppers in the USA have not been in a position to buy recent French cars since the ultimate Renault/Eagle Medallions were sold in 1989, which implies I needed to go across the Atlantic to search out junkyards scrapyards (as they call them here) with loads of Citroëns, Renaults and Peugeots in stock (though I do find the occasional Mexican-market French machine within the automotive graveyards of Colorado). From the identical U-Pull-It in York, England, that brought us the Peugeot 307 CC awhile back, here’s a tiny-yet-spacious tall hatchback that was forcibly retired at age 14. The…
SHERBURN-IN-ELMET, England — Alfa Romeo took a break from selling recent cars in the USA after 1995, when the ultimate Spider Veloces and 164s were sold here. That beat Fiat and Lancia (each of which departed after 1982), but still deprived us of the Alfa 164’s handsome successor: the 166. The best method to find discarded 166s is to cross the Atlantic, so that is what I did recently. I have been spending a whole lot of time in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in recent times, being the descendant of immigrants from that tiny but proud nation, and there…
YORK, England — By the point our current century got began, most American automotive shoppers had grow to be fully committed to pickups and SUVs as their preferred rides. Cross the Atlantic at the moment, nonetheless, and also you’d find that the compact MPV was some of the popular decisions for Western European drivers searching for loads of passenger and cargo space in a small package. The Citroën Xsara Picasso was one in every of the best-selling compact MPVs of its era, and I’ve found this ’06 in a self-service scrapyard (as they call them here) in York, England. It…
While there are many JDM vehicles roaming the roads of america (I daily-drive one myself), they do not often appear in the large self-service automobile graveyards that I frequent while researching this series. Until now, I’d found a discarded 1979 Nissan Fairlady Z originally brought over by an airman and that is it. Then I got word from a few of my local junkyard tipsters that a final-generation Cresta had appeared at a yard near Denver, and I got over there immediately. U-Pull-&-Pay’s inventory system doesn’t have entries for vehicles never sold in america, but whichever worker did the data-entry…
YORK, England — Honda began selling the Fit-based second-generation HR-V in the USA as a 2016 model, but we never saw its first-generation predecessor here. That boxier, shorter machine debuted in Japan as a 1998 model and went on sale in Europe for the 2000 model 12 months. During my recent trip to the junkyards scrapyards of northern England (that is what they call them here) I discovered this first-year example at the U-Pull-It in York. U-Pull-It UK is owned by Dallas-based Copart and its two British locations (the opposite is in Edinburgh, Scotland) operate very like their counterparts in…
YORK, England — What the world needs is more Pininfarina-styled two-seat convertibles, right? On the opposite side of the Atlantic, Ford believed this to be the case and created a really small yet very cool Pininfarina-designed convertible based on the Ford Ka, itself based on the Ford Fiesta Mk3. During my recent trip to the scrapyards of Northern England, I discovered this 2006 StreetKa in a Yorkshire self-service knacker’s yard. The StreetKa was available from the 2003 through 2006 model years, with just over 37,000 produced during that point. Australian pop star Kylie Minogue was hired to pitch the StreetKa,…
BARNSLEY, England — Top-of-the-line things about traveling to the automotive graveyards of a distant land is that you just get to see discarded examples of vehicles that never got here close to being sold in the USA. I visited the breaker’s yards of northern England recently and photographed loads of machines that never had a probability of coming to our continent, including a 2007 Mitsubishi Colt, a 2008 Mitsubishi i, a 2005 Smart ForFour, a 2005 Vauxhall Tigra, a 2009 Alfa Romeo Brera S and a 2010 Peugeot Bipper. Today’s Junkyard Scrapyard Gem is a really useful South Korean MPV that…
