When cars simply disappear
07/14/2021
As classic car enthusiasts, we are used to the fact that even the oldest cars survive. However, vehicles that were often visible just a few years ago are disappearing from our roads practically every day.
The British insurance company Uswitch has analyzed this disappearance and compiled some astonishing data. It compared the number of vehicles on the road in 1995 and 2020, 25 years later. Of the 205,283 registered Austin Montego cars (pictured above), 34 were still in existence last year, while the stock of 14,549 Fiat Regata cars had been reduced to 3 within 25 years. In both cases, by the way, these are notchback versions of popular hatchbacks. The Lada Samara, of which there were still 11 in the UK in 2020, takes third place in the list of disappearing cars.
It is also interesting to note that just 16 Vauxhall Belmont were still registered in 2020. This is the notchback version of the British Opel Kadett E-Pendent.
Even cars sold in their millions have a modest survival rate. Just 289 of the 572,974 Austin Metros still on the road in 1995 had survived to 2020. The top 20 all had a survival rate of less than 0.1 percent.
This is unlikely to be much different here, at least as far as bread-and-butter cars are concerned. Of course, there are always exceptions, but the less popular cars have a miserable survival rate. At the same time, manufacturers such as Porsche talk about over 70% of the cars they have ever produced still being on the road. Of course, this is impressive!
Here are the top 20 disappearing cars in the UK:
