JEDDAH, 7 January 2003 — Take a ride around Jeddah and you will quickly see that it has become a graveyard for trashed vehicles.
In parking lots, on main roads and along the narrow streets that wind their way through residential districts, the sight of rusting, abandoned cars has become commonplace.
“That Camry has been outside my apartment block for a week now,” said Abdul Aziz, who lives in the Al-Hamra area of the city.
“He didn’t even have the courtesy to park it right,” he added sarcastically, alluding to the fact that its former owner had left it with the rear end crudely jutting out into the main part of the road.
There are a number of reasons why greater numbers of cars are abandoned in the Kingdom than in most other countries.
The main one is the lack of a resale market for secondhand cars, especially if they are old or have been discontinued by their manufacturers.
The recently introduced leasing system has made the option of getting a new car even more attractive, because with the last payment the car becomes the property of the leaser.
Who wants to buy an old car when they could get a new one for as little as SR1,000 a month?
According to a senior traffic policeman in Jeddah, who wanted to be identified only as Ahmed, there is another explanation.
“A lot of the car owners are illegal residents,” he told Arab News.
“If they are going to report their car as having been in an accident or just having broken down, they risk drawing attention to their illegal status. So they often choose instead to abandon the vehicle.”
Then there is the prohibitive cost and laborious procedures involved in getting the car towed to a scrap merchant.
Even before it can be towed, the police have to be informed of the fact that it is being scrapped and the vehicle’s registration then undergoes a thorough background check.
If the registration is found to have expired, the owner of the vehicle has to settle the full amount still due. All outstanding tickets for traffic violations must be settled as well.
Only when all this is done — it may take days and even weeks — the local municipality finally tows the car and gives the owner SR500 in compensation.
Since it took hundreds of riyals to get it towed in the first place, it is little surprise that many choose instead to just leave it where it broke down — and hop in the next taxi that comes along.
