Such vehicles can be found in large numbers on roads close to workshops and industrial areas. Most of them are abandoned in workshops as their owner cannot pay the repair cost or they are write-offs.

“Some people do not pay the repair charges and then we just leave them on roads and later parts are removed or sold as scrap,” Muhammad Arshad, an expatriate automobile mechanic in the industrial area in Madinah, told Arab News.

Khaled Al-Lehaibi, a Saudi workshop owner, said car owners do not claim their cars after they are repaired at workshops in the city.

He added most workshops do not have the space to store all the cars left behind, so they are forced to shift them to public roads.

However, Al-Lehaibi added most of the abandoned cars have been seriously damaged in accidents. Some are left on the roads because of the delay in getting the right spare parts. The long delay in obtaining spare parts leads to other components in the car eventually getting damaged and therefore sometimes the owner refuses to claim his car because of the additional repair costs, he said.

Local resident Ahmad Al-Sheikh said workshop workers used to leave a repaired car on nearby roads if the car owner delayed payment for the repair for whatever reason. He also accused workshop employees of selling cars to junkyards.

Abdullah Obaid, another local resident, said workshop owners are the only people to blame for the large number of abandoned cars on public roads.

He said some time ago he took his car to a workshop and the mechanic said it would take a week to repair it. He came back after the specified time to find his car outside on the street and unrepaired. The workshop employee said he did it because the garage did not have sufficient space.

Ali Al-Sahli said the municipality, motorists and workshop owners were equally responsible for the practice. “If municipal officials firmly punish workshop and vehicle owners when they leave any car on public roads this practice will end.”

It has also been reported lately that abandoned cars were being used by illegal hawkers to store their wares.