456 Coupe Abandoned for two years on London Street

No way that car would have lasted 2 years in Philly, not even 2 days!!!!!

 

I'd like to know why the owner did this. Why not just sell it?

Very strange to see an abandonment.

 

International jet set travelers...

Was reading today about the Red Bull heir..he could lose track of a car like this and not even notice!!

I would guess a Saudi connection, if I were throwing darts at a globe....

 

Ha! I'm sure there are some Saudis who have lost more cars than most of us have owned.

 

Maybe he died, and his family didn't know all his assets

 

This was discussed on Pistonheads last July: Classics left to die/rotting pics - Vol 2 - Page 30 - Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes - PistonHeads
(Starts with a post from Fun bus at the bottom of the page)


I added My thoughts here: Classics left to die/rotting pics - Vol 2 - Page 31 - Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes - PistonHeads

The story in the link is full of errors too:

1) Registrations in the UK do not "run out" because we don't have a time limited registration system.

In the UK, the cars registration document records who is the registered keeper of the car, and that document remains active for the life of the car, only being updated if the car gets a new owner, is exported to another Country or is destroyed in any manner.

What has expired is the MOT (UK annual safety inspection), that ran out in 19th April 2015, and the annual tax on the car ran out 1st January 2017.

For a car to be on the public highway in the UK, be it being driven or just parked, the car should have an MOT and it should be taxed. (Which raises the question as to how this car remained parked up on the public highway for almost two years with no MOT in place).

2) The door mirror has not been vandalised.

A search of the cars MOT history shows that there was an issue with the door mirrors, and so the owner had crudely taped on rectangular mirror glass onto the mirror casings (as shown in the pictures in the Pistonheads thread).

3) The residents parking permit had been renewed annually up until at least August 2016, so it's not a car that someone has parked and forgotten where they left it.


On the Pistonheads forum there were a few ideas as to why this 456 had been left parked up on the street for two years, but there was nothing conclusive decided.

What has happened now is, the tax has run out on the car and so now it has been clamped to prevent it being moved until the outstanding tax is paid.

The owner of the car will have 14 days from the date the wheel clamp was fitted to pay any outstanding tax, after which, the local authority have two options available:

1) The car can be taken away, sold at auction, and the owner will be forwarded any money raised from the sale minus any costs owing for the tax, applied fines, storage costs, transportation costs and auction fees.

2) The car can legally be destroyed.

As this is a Ferrari that could raise a reasonable sum of money that would cover the costs of recovering the tax owed and all other associated fees, it's most likely that it will go to auction.

Had it been a cheap wreck that would make little money at auction then it would be straight to the crusher.

(The only concern I would have is that there are plenty of local authorities in the UK who would take great delight in crushing a Ferrari and making a big public display of it, in order to demonstrate that no one is above the Law, regardless of the car involved. Hopefully that wont happen in this case though)

 

Cliff's notes on the few ideas why it was left there?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

 

Hi,

I would not call that car "abannoned", if every car that has an expired MOT would be considered that, there would be LOTS of them.

Also there is another UK RHD 456 that had been "neglected" due to a long and bitter divorce process, that can happen. Also sickness or death may occur in which cases some people have other priorities than cars. I know, if it was mine (I've got one) I would not leave it out even for one night! But I have different priorities. I wish good health to all of you.

Cheers,

Pekka T.
Fin.

 

Based on the area of London that it's located in (i.e not a poor part of town), and the fact that until recently the tax and the parking permit had been kept up to date (but not the MOT), the thinking was mainly that it was the property of someone who worked for a big company, who had been posted abroad for a long period of time and had left a secretary/assistant or such like to keep the car legal to park on the road (but eventually failed to do so)


The pictures below show that both doors have been sealed up with duct-tape, so it seems that whoever owns it knew they'd be away for a while, and didn't leave it in a hurry.

The p:censored:ss poor door mirror fix though would indicate that whoever owns it is either too poor, or too tight, to pay for replacement door mirrors, and not practical enough to make decent replacements themselves!

Here you go:
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Well, certainly once in seizure (impound) there would be an effort to locate and notify the owner of record??

The tape is on the windows because the owner missed the Recall! LOL!

This is a guy who does not "check his mail box"...that's not a crime, as I rarely look in mine, myself!!

I would agree this is probably someone charged with "keeping things handled" that has forgotten, run out of funds to do it, or otherwise dropped the ball.
Surely the Residence parking is traceable thru property management?

My apartment has ALMOST figured out, how many cars I have, on premise!!

 

There used to be an equally as bad looked after Mondial as shown in the photo attached parked nearby but that left around 2013 ish
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Car looks to be a manual. That makes it more valuable, no? Even in that shape.
T

 

It's a bit strange because in the UK it's illegal to park a car on the public highway if it doesn't have a valid MOT, and this 456 hasn't had a valid MOT since 2015, so it should have been noted a lot sooner and dealt with.

The registered keeper should have been traceable from the registration records held by the DVLA, by the resident parking permit, and via a simple insurance check.

Even if the exact owner could not be traced, there should have been a trace back to some company/organisation or whatever, in relation to the car, especially as the parking permit and tax were updated up until recently - There has to be a trail back to someone involved with the car.

As I say, the clock is now ticking pretty quickly for this car to either be crushed, or more likely end up being auctioned.

If it does end up at auction then it might be lucky timing as prices in the UK for the 456 are pretty strong at the moment so it might be worth someone restoring it to sell.

Three or four years ago good 456's were starting at @ £18K~£20K , so back then this would definitely have been a parts car. Now there is at least a possibility that it might be saved.

 

The Mondial comes up as:

TAX DUE: 1st APRIL 2016
MOT: EXPIRED 29th APRIL 2015

It's not been declared SORN and there's no export marker against it, so wherever it is, it could be at the same risk as the 456.

Looking at the MOT history, the Mondial has had a fair few issues over the recent years, including some severe structural corrosion issues in 2013:

Test date: 22 April 2013
Test Result: Fail
Odometer reading: 48,200 miles
MOT test number: 2196 6271 3472

Reason(s) for failure:

Nearside Rear Seat belt retracting mechanism defective (5.2.5b)

Nearside Front Vehicle structure has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings (6.1.B.2)

Offside Front Vehicle structure has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings (6.1.B.2)

Anti-lock braking system warning lamp indicates an ABS fault (3.4.1c)

Advisory notice item(s):

Nearside Rear Body has slight corrosion (6.1.B.2)

Offside Rear Body has slight corrosion (6.1.B.2)

Under-trays fitted obscuring some underside components

 

Looks like someone stole the steering wheel.

 

Nice 456 6 speed in our Ads for $65K USD.

Despite the 60k miles its a very nice example.

So values are trending back up...

 

LOL!

It's on the other side...

 

Should just be left there as a memorial to stick shift Ferraris.

 

It's on the correct side of the car as Ferrari intended for his cars from the very first he ever made (see below) - Hence why it's called right hand drive!

No can do! - The tax man demands his pound of flesh so the car will have to be sold at auction.





Ferrari always wanted his cars to be right hand drive :
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Shame really, not sure where it went but its no longer parked by Harrods, and I don't know anybody who has seen it since summer 2013, the 456 did go for a couple days before a few years ago and then came back to where its been left for some time just rotting away, I know of various notes people have left on the car asking for the owner to phone them up to sell the car, I also know of a couple people who tried to scam people out of money via the 456.

 

I spotted several filthy and dirt covered Ferraris in London when I was there for a few days. It's such a shame. Side note, Chelsea will ruin you to cars... So many exotics you eventually get tired of turning your head.