Abandoned car in Japan

[Dan Willis]

Interesting convo over on Pistonheads..

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topi ... rn+Find%21

[Chris Williams]

Amazing we have a couple of members over in Japan, wonder if it's anywhere near them?? I will send them a link to this post and see if we can find out any more.
Chris

[Guinney1971]

usual BTTF/Asthmatic engine/crap to drive comments....... ah, and I wonder
why I've not been on PH for ages :roll:

[Chris Williams]

According to Osamu who is a club member in Japan there are about 60 good running DeLoreans over there and amazingly a similar number of decaying/abandoned ones. They are aware of this particular one. Incredible to think there are that many abandoned cars in one country makes you wonder just how many there must be in the US?
Chris

[Chris P]

Very interesting ...

its not good that the louvers are missing, as they tend to channel the rain to the rear and stop most of it going direct onto the engine. (and then to the chassis and mounts underneath) . My louvers had done such a good job, that one of the 2 large thick brackets that bolt the rear end on, had completely rotted through, as the rain was channeled over it for nearly a decade.

Does it rain as much in Japan as it does in Wales?

Still, i'd buy it ..........if someone could sort out the ownership and get it to the docks... Can't resist a challenge, already had one from France, USA, Australia , the IOM, Jersey, plus my current one from Wales. I must be mad.

[Dan Willis]

Yep, mad

I think given the rest of the car, it'd be okay - but without chassis information it's just a wild guess. It's been there a decade by the looks of the satellite data.

[Guinney1971]

Chris Williams Wrote:According to Osamu who is a club member in Japan there are about 60 good running DeLoreans over there and amazingly a similar number of decaying/abandoned ones. They are aware of this particular one. Incredible to think there are that many abandoned cars in one country makes you wonder just how many there must be in the US?
Chris

thats bonkers, but then again if you think how stringent the Japanese 'MOT' is, it makes you wonder
if the cars have failed, and then just been laid up - I read somewhere ages ago that the reason so
many Jap cars around 3yrs old get shipped to the UK is because the owners dont want to go to the
expense of putting them in for MOT and then doing any repairs. Its pretty much cheaper for them to
just buy another car. Not sure if thats still the case these days though.

[Chris Williams]

Quote:thats bonkers, but then again if you think how stringent the Japanese 'MOT' is, it makes you wonder
if the cars have failed, and then just been laid up

Thats one of the reasons, also according to Osamu when a car has been abandoned it's nearly impossible to get the documentation to legally drive the car/get it registered, that combined with the very high cost of repairs and importing parts as well as the very high cost of legally disposing of cars ends up with lots just being abandond!
Chris

[Reinsch]

Little refresh to the topic .

Car was still there in May 2015 according to google maps.


some older photos:
October 2012


September 2012



photos from pistonheads are from 2013.

Chris, are you able to confirm again if that DeLorean is still there? or get some more information who is the owner or what is status of it?

I might have chance to be in that area as my company has HQ in Yokohama which is 30minutes away, so I might volunteer for some business trip to Japan if there is a chance to save that DeLorean. Got some guys also at work that imported cars from Japan as they were living there for few years...


cheers,
Marek

[Horsebox]

I don't know anything about this car but if you need any translation work doing let me know and I'll forward it to my wife.

My gut tells me you'll need a native Japanese to deal with this, if you can track the owner and they want to sell.

I'd imagine trying to keep a D on the roads in Japan is next to impossible. Hard enough in the uk :-)

Good luck with it,

Mark

[Chris Williams]

Quote:Chris, are you able to confirm again if that DeLorean is still there? or get some more information who is the owner or what is status of it?

I will email Osamu and ask him about it. Will post his reply.
Chris

[Reinsch]

Hi Chris, any chance you got a reply ?
Cheers

[Martyn]

I must say as an ex owner of 6064 i'm really interested in another one (the bug has returned) but need to sell some assets first but this would be right up my street.

[Chris Williams]

Quote:Hi Chris, any chance you got a reply ?

To be honest I had forgot, but have emailed Osamu just now
Chris

[Chris Williams]

Osamu's reply:

Dear Chris,
 
Yes, we know the car in the photos. I think it has been reported about
over 15 years ago.
 
We have heard that some people tried to look for the owner of this car
but never found out.
 
I think it was owned by a company not person and the company is no longer
exist so we can’t do paper works of this car anymore.
 
We can take this car out but it is illegal to do so without owners agree and
if there is no paper work, we can’t register it or can’t get the license plate
that means we can’t drive this car although it will be restored here in Japan.
 
I think it is worth for parts car but still illegal to take it out without permission
from the owner.
 
We know the car is there but we can’t do anything with it. So we do not do
anything and the topic like this is raise every time, but we Japanese
DeLorean owners or funs can do nothing.
 
These are all I know now.
 
I hope you can understand what I want to say, again I am sorry for my bad
English.
 
Regards,
 
Osamu.