Here's a sad sight.
When I spotted this Estelle I pulled my Yeti over to take a closer look. I was almost heartbroken.
Simply dumped beside a country lane. God knows in which year that was. Or even which decade.😢
Once, a Skoda 120 Estelle family car. The Czech people's car. And now... !
I almost didn't spot it, because I was driving through several villages on route to a pub for Christmas lunch.
Wikipedia says that Skoda Auto abandoned production of the Estelle in 1990
When someone heartlessly abandoned this Estelle is anyone's guess.
Cars rotting away in gardens and in barns etc. is nothing new. But this?
How much must you despise a car to take it out to the sticks and walk away from it?
Forever.
This was no 'insurance job'. And it wasn't stolen but never recovered either (it's beside a public lane).
The owner of this Estelle couldn't even be bothered to give it a slightly more dignified end by scrapping it in the correct manner.
It was discarded like trash - never to be touched by human hands again
How long does it take for a car to deteriorate like this?
Of course people are free to do what they like with their cars. But don't do this.
Even wrecks at scrap yards have got each other for company
This unfortunate Estelle knows only trees and termites for the remainder of its existence.
But nature won't be consuming it just yet - at least not all of it.
According to an article I read on AOL Autos, it's going to take between 50 and 80 years for its tyres to decompose.
Its engine block will still be around for about 500 years
And the glass in all its windows isn't going anywhere - at least not for the next million years, give or take a century or two.
The butt of countless 'rot box' jokes during its younger life, today, from this its final resting place beside this lane, where cars that are cherished and cared for pass by frequently, this uncherished and uncared for elderly Czechoslovakian lady, now too frail to ever grace a road again, defies the odds and is still in one piece.
Its abandonment has taken its toll, no doubt about it, but it's still standing
It endures the corrosive stings of the elements, blow by blow, year upon year, yet remains on its feet - asking not to be forgotten.
Well it ISN'T forgotten. Not by me.
Farewell, old girl.
