Hooniverse Asks: Why do people leave cars in the Woods?

I live in a rural area of New York State. There used to be a lot of dairy farms here, but most of them are shut down now. Apparently, when a farmer didn’t need a car anymore (or it broke down), they would just pull it into the woods with a tractor, and leave it there. Sometimes they used it as target practice, too. There are four such vehicles hidden around the woods surrounding my family’s property, and they’re all pretty interesting.

Mid-Sixties C10 Pickup

This was the first car I found. I suspect it’s been sitting for a very long time. At least 20-30 years.

I suspect it has been here that long because there is a tree growing through the frame.

It was also used as target practice at some point.

I wonder how much I could charge for this patina on the hood. Looks really cool. It’s definitely not fake.

Pre-War Buick Roadmaster Sedanette

This thing is either a pre-war 1942 model, or it was built after the war from 1946-1948. Most companies just kept making their pre-war cars for a bit after the war.

Most of this car is slowly sinking down into the earth–besides all of the chrome-plated stuff which is still going strong after more than seventy years. Pretty amazing.

The hood was missing and I wondered where it went. After some sniffing around I found it.

The interior was seriously deteriorated. I guess that’s where most of the organic material in the car was.

There’s only a bit of foam from the seat left, and a very small amount of fabric. most of the gauges were still in good shape, though.

Judging by the enormous pile of shit under the glovebox, I would assume an animal has made a comfortable home out of this car. I really do find it amazing how well the chrome has held up after all of these years. Look at the lettering on the grille. Still visible.

Really cool car to see just sitting in the woods.

Late Sixties Olds Cutlass Sedan

This particular Cutlass was missing its engine, but it appears to have puked its transmission out of the front fascia.

The rest of this car was in pretty sorry shape–besides the stainless steel hubcaps, of course.

Neat badge. Decided to leave all of that sort of thing for somebody else to pry off with a screwdriver.

1961 Dodge Dart Pioneer Sedan

I had never heard of the Dodge Dart Pioneer before, but it’s a pretty cool bodystyle.

The interior of this car was really cool. Had a push-button shifter with tons of chrome.

Engine was still in it, too. Nothing great–dingly little iron slant six.

Badge on these is cool. Very fifties/early sixties.

Do you have any cool abandoned cars near you?

This seems like a good thing to do right now. Just wander around in the woods looking for derelict automobiles. Maybe you have something like this around you. Share it in the comments if you got it.

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11 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: Why do people leave cars in the Woods?”

  1. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    The shininess of the chrome on the Buick is really out of this world. Maybe you have a neighbour with a compulsory polishing disorder who hides away in the woods every other week? Srsly though, I would struggle not to get the clock or some sort of neat memorabilia out of the car.

    We live right next to what was the railway line between Bergen and Oslo. It is further inside the mountain now, in a tunnel, and the old line is full of neat little things for people who get easily excited. The train used to carry accidental seeds from Eastern Norway and the mountains, so the vegetation here is highly unusual. There is a bunker where the Norwegian central bank, Bergen office, was to hide their gold from the Nazis. But Bergen fell in hours and the gold went to Tromsø instead, and to England from there. Now the bunker is used for satanic rituals – people find the most off-the-beaten-path spots. There is also a fair share of abandoned cars. This one was removed six years ago:

    https://i.ibb.co/6PhgB6v/langhelle.jpg

    …and inside one of the tunnels, where another even older line meets the one abandoned in the early 70s, there’s a Mercedes truck and a flattened Vauxhall. Couldn’t find original images, so I here’s a bad screenshot from a report I wrote for the municipality in 2012:

    https://i.ibb.co/CWVz8Gn/MBgarbage.png

  2. onrails Avatar
    onrails

    There’s an early 50’s Buick of some sort near the north end of one of my usual bike rides. Not in the woods but in the driveway of a house that’s in the middle of nowhere. It gives the impression that it’s been there for a long time. One of these times I may actually have to stop and at least get a picture! I went by there two days ago, but looking out the window today and judging by the forecast, it may be a few more days at minimum.

  3. GTXcellent Avatar
    GTXcellent

    I used to wonder the same thing – why are there cars sitting around, rotting away? aaannnndd…….now I’m one of them. Our old ’88 F150 is still sitting alongside my shed after rusting a brake line a few years ago. Mechanics are great (other than said brake line), body is absolute toast, a few mice have wintered in it (hanta virus anyone?). Scrap steel is so cheap the local yard wouldn’t give me a single penny (said they’d take it and crush it if I brought in), I don’t think anyone would buy it, so what do I do with it? My oldest is still 6 years away from a drivers’ license, and it’s so crusty that I don’t think I’d want him using it as his driver anyways. So – it sits.

    That C10 is a ’62 by the way.

    1. outback_ute Avatar
      outback_ute

      And has a great anti-theft system!

  4. fede Avatar
    fede

    all that shiny trim must be worth something, specially the buick.

    are all those in someone’s private property?

  5. Anymouse Avatar
    Anymouse

    that is a 1968 Oldsmobile Cutlass S

  6. mdharrell Avatar

    “Sometimes they used it as target practice, too.”

    Where I grew up in rural Oregon this was known as “woodsing” a car, which meant driving it as far into the woods as it would go, then shooting it full of holes and walking back home (if one lacked the foresight to bring a second vehicle). Usage: The car’s about to die and isn’t worth fixing any more, so let’s woods it.

    Maybe the process goes by a different name in other places.

    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      Hollywood could make a three hour movie with twelve sequels out of that. I’d watch some.

      1. dead_elvis, inc. Avatar
        dead_elvis, inc.

        20 minutes should be more than enough, unless you’re more than a 12-pack deep of your preferred, regional, absolute cheapest bottom-shelf lager.

        Teenage rednecks shooting at stuff is damn near universal, but extended witness to such activity when one is not part of said demographic typically gets old quickly, barring cognitive impairment or severe emotional stunting. Or at least it would, in a better world than this.

      2. dead_elvis, inc. Avatar
        dead_elvis, inc.

        20 minutes should be more than enough, unless you’re more than a 12-pack deep of your preferred, regional, absolute cheapest bottom-shelf lager.

        Teenage rednecks shooting at stuff is damn near universal, but extended witness to such activity when one is not part of said demographic typically gets old quickly, barring cognitive impairment or severe emotional stunting. Or at least it would, in a better world than this.

    2. dead_elvis, inc. Avatar
      dead_elvis, inc.

      Could be regional, but “woodsing it” was the parlance in 1980s rural southern Vermont & New Hampshire as well, and frequently applied to old refrigerators just as often.

      Note: the above use of rural is not entirely redundant, as I’ve included NH there.