The Abandoned Car Problem in Japan

We visit a supposedly abandoned coin car park in Japan only to find that it's still operational and full of abandoned cars. It's so wild to see the bamboo & vines take over these cars.
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[@alanhall5648]

Austin rover was a British car company and the symbol is a Viking long boat 🇬🇧

[@jimmystransportmarvels8815]

Yep, a good old rover. The fam had one, but I'm really surprised that someone bought one over to Japan from the UK!

[@chriswimbledon6804]

If I can remember they had partnership with Honda at some point

[@pain-kw9zk]

Who remembers the rover metro?

[@harrybarwell7433]

Rover 416 estate some have d series Honda engines

[@jimmystransportmarvels8815]

@@pain-kw9zk ohh yea, great car!

[@socaly]

Sammit "you like ghosts" Daiki "yeah I like girls" 😂

[@SaltyMcBoatFace]

that old rover 400 would be a VERY rare sight in england in 2024 , to see one in japan is mind blowing , it must have been imported from england in the 90's , shame someone destroyed it

[@rogueshadow7801]

I have a Rover 416 Si. It's basically a Honda Civic with a Rover body on top. Still a few here and there. Even saw a few 75 up and about.

[@xd_nightmareYT]

I've seen a couple rover 400 in my country (Portugal) including one in my city that's abandoned.

[@jackrichards1863]

They were made in Japan by Honda.

[@person.X.]

@@jackrichards1863 The Rover 200/400 was made in the UK unless Honda also assembled them in Japan. It amazes me that any Rover was sold in Japan at all. That 400 must be as rare as hens teeth.

[@jackrichards1863]

@@person.X. yeah no surprise as that's the domestic market but they will be CKD imports that need assembling from Honda Japan. We got a few in new zealend and there's no timing mark on the crank pulleys. PMO.

[@Thunderbolt857]

That 560 benz is rare, worth rescuing

[@jamiereddy6128]

he probably would but that japan rules ah

[@thomassabia5750]

And it is a AMG a hot rod benz

[@lazylion1421]

I like that SLC from the 70s or 80s more.

[@FalscherName-z9t]

It's a pre merger AMG is very rare and is worth crazy money if restored

[@scottloersch555]

All 4 of them are valuable cars restored

[@themadmallard]

it seems so strange a country with such strong documentational behavior culture that abandoned cars would be tolerated to this degree, compared to other places

[@idleterror909]

I think seeing that rover 400 tourer is even more painful as i have been looking for one for a couple of years now. They are just beautiful cars

[@that_camo_bronco_guy]

Ah it's a 400, I thought it was a 200, did the 400 have Honda engines too?

[@rogueshadow7801]

@@that_camo_bronco_guy A few of them. I've got a 416 Si and it came with a Honda D16A engine.

[@JasonRayShute]

I had a Rover 600 as a donor car for my 96 Honda accord lxi manual. Rover had a nicer interior and was a straight bolt in.

[@idleterror909]

@@that_camo_bronco_guy they did come with the Honda engine as well

[@VadGTI]

The headlights on those Mercedes R107 coupes are worth $2k in the US. The small Euro bumpers another $1-2k. That's $6-8k USD in parts alone between just those two. The headlights on the W108/109 sedan are probably $500-800.

[@marcelleblanc1991]

I’m surprised Sam hasn’t heard of Rover. It was one of the best known British manufacturers for almost 150 years. Originally making bicycles but then moved into motorcycles and automobiles. Eventually becoming Rover, Land Rover and the short lived Alvis brand. Later merged into British Layland and eventually purchased and absorbed into BMW.

[@kylepytlarz541]

That very first Mercedes is not only a Mercedes. It is a 6.0L AMG V8 also very rare car .

[@mrfunkymuir]

I literally got a PS1 when friends got a PS2. Found out later in life my older siblings bought me it because my parents couldn't afford it. Love the nostalgia Sam!!!

[@slashhamby4663]

I'm 39..same for me... I got a PS2 when PS3s were coming out... didn't get a PS3 till a couple years after PS4 came out..and just got a PS4 off of offer up a few weeks ago.....

[@badrott8028]

You got good siblings, I was using a Nintendo 64 when the Xbox 360 came out and I switched to that after saving up for half the consoles lifespan.

[@pageonejournalist]

Rovers in that era were from when they had a tie up with Honda. Basically the cars were Honda Civics and Accords mechanicals but with their own K series engines.

[@padorukurumi6572]

At first I thought you were talking about Honda's K series of engines but then I remembered Rover's own K series of engines 😅

[@lukegadd4988]

And it was the k-series that made it it’s own downfall 🤦🏼‍♂️

[@that_camo_bronco_guy]

Some had Honda engines too, even apparently a d16 dohc which I didn't even know about

[@VezzyWezzy]

i love it when sammit does abandoned cars videos, i rewatch them all the time

[@simondowley2483]

Rover are an old English car the one you've seen is basically a Honda from when they owned Rover

[@artoodiitoo]

I wonder how it ended in Japan, weren´t they built in the UK

[@lloydshondabordello]

​@@artoodiitoomakes sense to me they'd have Rover's, as they had early Rovers in Australia.

[@MTFT_atomicgarage]

@@artoodiitoomaybe it was an early import

[@sawyernewman1591]

that Mercedes 560S AMG Coupe was insanely rare. probably a 100K car current market

[@79adventures]

It's actually pretty common for cars to be left with houses of the previously deceased in Japan; usually papers are stored in a safe somewhere in a deposit box or the first of kin/immediate family doesnt want to reregister the car anymore and do not want to spend any money for storage fees. Cars are usually dumped this way because of the peculair law they have

[@skylinefever]

I heard the registration fee on older cars is sky high. It keeps up sales of new cars and leads to the end of perfectly good ones.

[@ShantalhaitianPrincess]

@@skylinefever cant imagine the number of classic rare cars like that AMG that are left to rott

[@kennethcole8360]

As an Aussie, it is hard to believe that Sammit wasn't aware of the Rover brand!

[@jonty3000]

and scared of spiders and bugs!

[@villelipponen923]

There's couple of pretty expensive mercedes there. Might been some yakuza cars and the owner "went missing"

[@willhendersondigital]

Sam, you may not have had the coolest computer back in school, but you definitely have the coolest cars now.

[@travisthompson2166]

For them people that are selling cars without paperwork if it's not stolen. Could you just drift it legally and keep it off the roadway?

[@5KpGD]

Paris had a huge abandoned car issue in the 80's and 90's where old people had passed on but their cars would remain parked where they last been moved for eons. Usually you need the owners permission to move a vehicle, and you cannot sell a vehicle without owner permission and title documents. Thats hard to do when the original owner is no longer around, and the vehicles can sit derelict for as long as 20 years. Eventually the local municipalities removed these vehicles that sit for a very long time to free up parking and mail a notice to the owners to pick up their car. If a certain amount of time passes, they assume the car is unwanted and is given to a salvage yard.

[@Jon64scale]

Sammit enjoy these vids of you and Daiki exploring your guys excitement gets me excited but it's a shame to see all these priceless cars going to waste though 😢

[@Heisenberg-Rules]

Sammit, you are correct. Japan needs to fix some laws so these cars can be disposed of or "adopted" if abandoned. I cannot pay the automobile tax on behalf of a friend's vehicle unless I have the actual tax bill slip. I call the tax office and they say the actual owner needs to appear. They didn't even want to accept a power of attorney.

[@LaSouthernGemini]

Thank you for explaining WHY the abandoned car issue is even an issue. From my view, not a difficult problem to solve if the gov't makes the effort.

[@LeslieJones_RSTRCTD]

Hey @Sammit, Rover used to be an English brand, back in the end of the nineties they were OEM rebranding Honda Civics and Accords. (Before Tatra took over, and it been rebranded to Rowe when a Chinese brand took over) The 560 Mercedes was indeed a gem. It would mean that it was a 5.6 liter engines. What was more interesting though, was that it was AMG badged. This more or less is the Mercedes version of BMW M sports.

[@markhetherington6964]

The Rover Sam is British made and were very popular on the roads in the 80's. So strange to find one in Japan. So sad to car's just abandoned like this.

[@young_gurbr206]

Another sad thing everyone of those cars has a long complicated and likely very sad story attached to all of them 😢

[@ark9951]

Thanks for the free Windows 98 product key lol 😂 Edit: Hey it's working!

[@iacopotuttino5515]

That 560 doesn’t need a JZ swap, it’s a v8. You put a pair of turbos and it’s perfect

[@katywalker8322]

The Rover 200 / 400 was a joint venture between Honda and Rover. Honda badged ones were called Concerto (and very early ones were built by Austin Rover for Honda). 200 was the hatchback, 400 the saloon. The estate version there was a later development of the 400 (there was a coupe version of the 200). Some used Rover engines (up to a 2L turbo) and some Honda engines. Part of the Rover influence to the design was that it had strut front suspension rather than a full wishbone setup - this was done so Rover could fit in the larger engines.

[@allseeingotto2912]

I used to live in Osaka and there was a patch of land where there was some very old vintage cool trucks and vans rotting away , they got all moved and scrapped eventually.

[@larssmith6780]

theres a mk4 supra in this kind of condition in my home town in New Zealand. overgrown and abandoned

[@MikeyAware]

The Kei van is a Subaru Sambar. it was sold in Europe as a Subaru Libero. a friend here in the Netherlands owned 3 at some point.

[@MikeyAware]

the album sleeve is from the Freestyle Fellowship an early 90's LA hiphop collective.

[@thatdriftboy_4619]

The SL looks like a amg, if its a genuine amg its extremelly rare and worth a lot, its so sad seeing It like that

[@dionelr]

The laws in the US are very different. With a knowledgeable lawyer, you can basically possess a car that has parked on your property for long enough. I almost had to do this when I bought a house that someone left a car on, but legally, I believe they have to inform them, and in my case the owner came within a couple days and rolled the car away.

[@H3XME]

similar in the UK. If you find an "abandoned" car you can apply for the logbook, the DVLA (DMV) will try to get in touch with the last registered keeper and if nobody gets back to them within a certain time frame, you'll get a new logbook sent and you can do whatever you want with it. You don't even need any bs lawyers for anything.

[@themadmallard]

probably dont even need the lawyer if you instead have it towed off by a recovery company.

[@dionelr]

@@themadmallard Oh yes, depending on where you live. But in this case, it was an Audi that would have made a decent project car.

[@user-kc1tf7zm3b]

These American and British abandoned car laws do not exist in Australia. An Australian property owner is within his rights to move the car to a nearby public street, at which point the car becomes the problem of the local council, who are in turn are legally entitled to seize the car and sell the car off. Unlike Japan, abandoned cars are not really an issue in Australia as our population is increasing. A lot of these abandoned Japanese cars are the former property of deceased Japanese citizens who have no surviving relatives to take care of their estate. These estate issues are similar to Japanese abandoned homes.

[@thy_crabbo]

That AE100 is actually a dream spec for me. So sad to see one absolutely destroyed

[@J27M]

Corolla sedan? There were two, one in the bush and one with its doors hanging off. As an ae101 owner I felt sad too. Would come in handy having two parts cars.

[@Synthetic-Chicken]

Ooof seeing that Cedric hurt, NZ got lots of them as well as the Laurels/Cefiros/Luces but the 90s gobbled most of them up.

[@htimsid]

"...it's just kids being kids". It's just kids who haven't been brought up properly!

[@scottloersch555]

Picked the cedric straight up from the front badge another one that would be awesome to rebuild but as mentioned its near impossible unfortunately

[@frred686ify]

the 2 tones s13 makes me so sad, im glad I have mine in the garage

[@skylinefever]

I think about how much people pay for a 240sx in the USA. Then there is A Silvia turbo that could be brought back to life.

[@L0RDLUK]

The weird mirror on the wheelarch instead of on the door is actually a factory solution for the A pillar blocking the mirror on the passenger side when they tried putting it on the door.

[@d902price]

Someone please Save the mercs, that pre merger amg is a rare bird in any part of the world the rover wagon isn’t something you see everyday especially on that market an that poor old sil CA I mean c’mon 🙌🏽💯

[@5ifty6ixmediauk]

Mate, in the UK those Rovers are sought after

[@Bostonbrecash15]

Could possibly something along the lines of people abandoning their project cars at a dealership or car repair shop, then the shop catching on and eventually just dropping it in this random lot? That kind of sounds like the only logical explanation in my mind. Then again, when you talked about the laws regarding other people's cars and how they can't be moved after they are abandoned I don't know why a dealership would dump a car here randomly.

[@eliasjdm976]

Those words at the end of the video is like my reality. We love you Sammit. Also, rover is an English manufacturer that made luxurious family cars and sedans back in the day. Here in Greece we have some of them. Also, the most popular ones are those that came after the honda collab with the mb civics and some integras and accords. Those may be the only reliable rovers tho, they had d16 engines and stuff

[@JasonRayShute]

My 96 Honda accord lxi manual has a rover 600 interior because that and the engine bay is exactly the same. The parts are interchangeable. Rover was a British company that no longer exists. Alot of vehicle manufacturers outsourced parts which is my Mazda Eunos presso mx3 v6 had so many Ford and Mitsubishi parts on it. The Ford suspension components were the same but of a higher quality and the Ecu and distributor from Mitsubishi were alot more efficient and reliable. That's the beautiful thing about cars, not one is exactly the same especially as they get older.

[@BiGJefe167]

Those mercedes had to be someone's collection that had been dumped.

[@OutofluckpikerMJK]

Thats a real rare Merc.. Ive havent even seen one in real life here in Sweden. Thats a proper lixury coupe worth plenty of money.

[@steventopping106]

Them Mercedes need saving, what a crying shame.

[@watchmelivenstuff]

Broooo I'm dead you're like The Steve Erwin of finding cars in the wild

[@CapeFilms]

Natsuki will tell ya that all older Japanese men love Mercedes Benz cars

[@LeftOversTTV]

Is that a Seafoam S13? mega sad

[@ghamsterroff6215]

That album cover is FREESTYLE FELLOWSHIP old rap group from the early 90s so that definitely belongs to that toyota

[@thatgoddamnpotato3367]

It was a record jacket, so unless there was a record player in the corolla.

[@jaynvius1]

It's sad to see these cars just rotting away

[@8888k]

It baffles me how someone can make car content for a living but has never heard of a Rover before.

[@KODAKJACK47]

As an American I had no clue what it was and just guessed it was Land Rover just like this guy. I wouldn’t say many ppl know it

[@ShantalhaitianPrincess]

@@KODAKJACK47 just people in Europe or people rally into European cars i think

[@davidyarbrough2197]

I was born in 81. Begged my parents for the og NES. They got me an Atari 2600 instead. I was sad. Now I wish I still had it. 25:22

[@philtowle4683]

I was born in 76. My dad bought me and my brother a zx spectrum, I wanted a bmx.

[@shangrilai1990]

Did the financial crisis, Tsunamis and Earthquakes make it to this area? It unforunately could be what you said with the owners no longer being with us for any number of reasons. It's the only thing I can think of for those vehicles to be in such a state and left for so long other than just being stolen.

[@geraldsmith9540]

Sammit, see if you can locate the owner and do a deal on the cars you want. I don’t know how it is in Japan with titles, but you should be able to run the vin numbers off them and see which ones are stolen or not and also see if your allowed to do rebuilt title like in the US. It’s a shame that cars are abandoned all over the world!!!

[@clichegaming3160]

No, who would do that to the little Red K11 Micra ;.; absolute gem of a Kei Car as a Daily

[@Not-Great-at-Gaming]

Looks like the album said "freestyle fellowship"

[@linox2054]

That sl560 is worth a house today. And it doesnt even look that bad

[@worxbydre]

New drinking game... take a shot everytime Sammit says "CRAZY".

[@robertobuenrostro2781]

This looks like a job for Daniel O'Grady. 🚗🧑‍🔧🚐

[@manlybanda6156]

Yes it is a corolla & the chassis code is AE. Fun fact, there's a variant of that AE100 that came with a 4A-GE 20 valve motor. Also, Rover is a British motor company. At one point, they bought and made Minis under their name i.e Rover Mini

[@J27M]

Silvertop, GT badge I believe!

[@manlybanda6156]

@@J27M yes sir

[@1jzs13]

I need so many parts off that s13 😭

[@Kitaota]

i saw on instagram an abandoned red evo 4 somewhere in shibuya, but i havent found it yet

[@HarlemNeeson-Welch]

Hey Sam even tho they are non paper titles are you still able to take them and turn them into drift builds?

[@qisyaizzia5045]

That Merc Pagoda cost a fortune. So sad to see like that.

[@akmalazlan5729]

7:18 beautiful car R107 merc 560sl, it got 5.6l v8, it’s the biggest displacement for the car, if the chassis not rusting, worth to saving it, but it’s a bummed bcs we know that car like a ghost car now, don’t know who own it😢

[@badrott8028]

Sam, I agree theft is wrong, but if the car has sat on public property long enough to rust into the dirt and have trees grow around it, I’d assume the owner would have come back before it got to that shape, if not they must be either deceased, or moved out of the country. I try to get vins ran before I do anything to make sure there not stolen, having said that, I’ve found old trucks off in the woods and retrieved, heads, trim, headlights, tails, etc…

[@J.Tomesz]

the first benz that you showed is worth a LOT i mean A LOT of money ,i know it hard but you gotta get that car

[@piffnoodles672]

had to check out that innercity record and its is pretty fire if you into old school hiphop!

[@rhyalstanley1583]

7:21 Bob marley used to own one of those cars, which is now owned by his son Ziggy marley

[@al_dente4777]

I still have a PC that's running Windows 2000 for off-line use only. It'll do tasks of which XP and up have been set up to not do. XP and up also won't recognize my scanner

[@seamus054]

Is that a pre-merger AMG? The rims sure look it.

[@The_7_8_9_Auto_Motive]

Rover is a British automotive brand that was used for over a century, from 1904 to 2005. It was launched as a bicycle maker called Rover Company in 1878, before starting to manufacture autocars in 1904. The brand used the Viking longship as its logo.

[@spacegarnaal]

It's a Rover, the engine wont turn over. It's a Rover

[@Mercmad]

560SL with AMG body kit .....I'd love that but I knew a long time ago about the hassles of exporting non paper cars. A mate was a diplomat in a embassy there and told me about a caddillac left in a street for years by the yanks. It got covered in adverts.

[@ShantalhaitianPrincess]

That AMG merc is worth maybe $20k to $50k in the condition it is in this video. Here in America people would pay that just to restore it its a very rare car worth about $100k to $300k depending on condition

[@Mr.Unacceptable]

A real shame. Have ships and a port to ship all those abandoned cars that would pay to take them. The government wouldn't have to pay a penny for the clean up of all those cars.

[@skylinefever]

I can just imagine how easily they could sell the abandoned Silvias here. Many drift guys pay a high price for a 240sx that is falling apart.

[@spen1ghe]

Sooooo.....no one was hyped when they seen that Freestyle Fellowship record at 20:34 !? That was sick!

[@eddiemarsh6256]

The older the car the more tax you have to pay to drive them on the the road in Japan, people don't want to pay and they dump them instead of paying to get them recycled

[@skylinefever]

It is my understanding that the cool Japanese cars from 6 years ago end up in New Zeland and Australia.

[@cmorea]

@@skylinefeveror Africa

[@waregraham8335]

Impossible to scrap is the problem or re-register without paperwork

[@memereview9598]

Sam when are you going to work on the abandoned S15

[@baza7400]

20:40 we have a lot of these corolla's in south africa

[@Clapz_euu]

That 560 Merc has the 20 INCH AMG RIMS which js worth a lot alone

[@kurona]

5:07 my dad had a corolla in that exact same colour and rear light style years ago. It pains me to see one abandoned like this

[@__kran__]

its funny how unfamiliar sammit is to a lot of cars especially when hes australian and does this stuff for a living lmao especially that corolla and rover

[@user-kc1tf7zm3b]

Get bloody real. Most Australians are not familiar with the former British Rover car marque at all, and have much less seen a Rover in the wild in Australia. Australia is not Great Britain.

[@__kran__]

@@user-kc1tf7zm3b yes but what about the corolla...

[@user-kc1tf7zm3b]

@@__kran__ I recognised the Toyota Corolla straight away as the E100 series was popular in Australia back in the 1990s and was manufactured locally.

[@user-kc1tf7zm3b]

@@__kran__ Most Australians could not recognise the Toyota Corolla E100 as the 1990 launch year was a bloody long time ago. Many drivers were not even alive back then. Everything is relative.

[@todd_macdonald]

S13 needs saving for sure ! CA18 and all

[@skylinefever]

Abandoned Silvias make me sad because of how much Americans pay for a barely functional 240sx.

[@christopherharris6005]

Awesome video as always Sammit. The only ghosts that Daiki likes are ghost girls.

[@interloperdrones1172]

Rover 216 estate!!!! Rare AF! Did you not notice that its the same as an early civic sam... same car

[@al_dente4777]

It seems to me that it would be easy enough just to load them onto a towing vehicle, using a forklift, and then taking these into a garage for disassembly, prior to shipping bits out for export, without anybody taking notice

[@Filipe_Alexandre_]

That 560 is super rare, in the UK they sell between 20 and 50K

[@Filipe_Alexandre_]

That 280s is not so rare, but it's still worth 20k too

[@Filipe_Alexandre_]

The third mercedes looks is an SL, depending on the year spec and condition, they can go from 10k to 300k here in the uk

[@johng8050]

original ownership of rover car brand ( the one in your video ) was bmw ( germany ) SAIC (china) and Tata motors which was later broken up in 2000 when ford aquired the land rover devisision with the rover and MG devisions which continued until 2005.

[@BenExell]

I live in Longbridge, Birmingham, UK. The old Rover plant was down my road. The later 90s minis were made by them, I have one :)

[@kanenstuff]

The black 190E near the exit at Retro Havoc was very nice, pld mercs and bmw's are cheap here in KL, thats why I drive a 94 manual E36.

[@allseeingotto2912]

That cute little camper is sad to see going to ruin . Those old mercs are a tragedy too .

[@JustSomeExpat]

Mate that old tech was great. You could abuse them till kingdom come and they kept running. Also the diamond viper v330 I had would run Dark Forces 2, Mech Warrior 3 and Heavy Gear 2 in 1024x768. Bits boxes were the best.

[@user-Another-collecter21]

Odd seeing a British 🇬🇧 Rover in Japan must be rare

[@Satsanwastaken]

1:45 I dont get it, how is it stolen tail lights if the car is literally abandoned. If i adopt an abandoned dog on the street, did i steal it? The tail lights got adopted by someone :)

[@Fah-Qbitch]

What a stupid comment.

[@toyotacorollaaltis8613]

Maybe it was stolen and dumped in which case yea the taillights were stolen

[@badrott8028]

@@toyotacorollaaltis8613if that’s the case I feel for the previous owner, however if it was dumped by said owner I would have no guilt removing parts.

[@skylinefever]

If the price to register is too high, perhaps people remove the remaining good auto parts and abandon the car.

[@differentgroove1]

The Mercedes Have the AMG performance package . The wheels are the AMG Hammers w style which is one of the wheel styles you could get for this performance package . The Rover wagon is from Land Rover . Yes Land Rover did make cars too !