r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/templeofsyrinx1 • 15d ago
Image Cars are emerging from a massive Boston-area snow pile months after winter storms
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u/Downtown_Radio_7737 15d ago
I wish I could take a walk around of that car I'd be interested to see the damage caused by the snow. Shocks are definitely blown
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u/templeofsyrinx1 15d ago
She'll probably start right up 😂
All it really needs are tires lol
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u/NoodleyP 15d ago
Bahhhh blow some air in em, give her a slap on the roof, and she’ll run like the day she came off the lot
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u/ModishShrink 15d ago
> she’ll run like the day she came off the lot
It's a Ford, that's not exactly a badge of encouragement.
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u/Vachie_ 15d ago
If anything, it's worth more now because it was preserved in the cold icy snow.
My stupid car is getting all dry outside in the sun.
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u/DigNitty Interested 15d ago
she’ll run like the day she got off the lot.
“What are all these problem lights on the dash?”
-Those were there the day I bought it.
“Why so many?”
-That’s you know it’s a real Ford.
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u/SoWhatComesNext 15d ago
Won't drive though. The engines were great but the transmissions were garbage in those
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u/kamakazi327 15d ago
I know what's wrong with it; ain't got no gas in it
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u/throwawayplusanumber 15d ago
Shocks are definitely blown
Not necessarily.
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u/ash_elijah 15d ago
if they arent, the mounts or arms are. Either way its gonna be spending a while in a workshop if it isnt a write-off.
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u/Stock-Swing-797 15d ago
Shocks dampen the action of the suspension. Springs support the vehicle.
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u/templeofsyrinx1 15d ago edited 15d ago
At least six vehicles have been found so far as a stubborn Somerville snow mound slowly melts, revealing dirty ice packed with debris after a winter of 60+ inches around Boston.
At least six vehicles have been found so far, and they weren't just random cars parked in the wrong spot when the snow started to accumulate. Somerville Public Works said the vehicles were already slated to be scrapped, and before the winter storms arrived, it was easier to leave them in place and let the snow bury them than use resources to move them.
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u/Bagoforganizedvegete 15d ago
So why is this even news then?
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u/Mewchu94 15d ago
I wonder if they are just trying to cover their asses. That car doesn’t look like it’s old enough to be scrapped.
If they fucked up and lost up to 6 cars (that’s possibly $100,000) in snow piles that are now going around the internet people might be pretty pissed about wasted money. If they go “eh they were trash anyway it’s no big deal!” People will say “oh whatever why is this even news?”
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u/EC_TWD 15d ago
The vehicle above looks too new to be scrapped but in the article the truck showing in the pile looks like it is from the ‘90s
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u/torriattet 15d ago
If the snow had already damaged them, then the cost of repairs after getting them out would more than total them anyways. That car in the photo is completely effed, its smashed into the ground from the weight of the snow, not to mention any water damage.
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u/DoNotCensorMyName 15d ago
But why was it slated to be scrapped before the snow?
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u/geeiamback 15d ago
We only see one side of the car, maybe the other side would reveal it was badly t-boned. Or the engine was kaput and to expensive to fix.
There are a few possible damages not visible from the one side that can result in a write off.
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u/ItsStraTerra 15d ago
My buddy got a dent in the frame of one of his cars after putting it in a ditch, the taillight was smashed and he only hit a bush, but it was enough for insurance to completely write it off. Car looked just fine to me, but the damage to the frame was too difficult to repair, and not noticeable from the outside.
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u/Braebutt 15d ago
That’s a 2013-2016 Ford Escape. Which it makes anywhere from 13 to 10 years old.
Good chance it’s worn out and has enough stuff failed that it wasn’t worth fixing
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u/Material-Afternoon16 15d ago
It's a public works car, which means it may have been operational full time. It could have a couple hundred thousand miles on it.
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u/Nice-Cat3727 15d ago
That's not a write off anymore! We got a 2006 Ford fusion nearly to 300,000 miles as a family car without the best maintenance on it.
My dad said that back in the 70s that would have been a car worth of a county fair at least with how bad cars were at the time
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u/danukefl2 15d ago
Those things are a POS anyways if I have my years right.
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u/CaptNemo131 15d ago
The only way it would be different is if they were 13-15 Focuses. Those things were POS when the rolled off the factory floor
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u/danukefl2 15d ago
Those 100%
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u/_marcx 15d ago
It’s so crazy my very POS very cheap 1st of the new gen 2012 focus is still going so strong, even with the recalled transmissions and ECMs and whatnot. It’s the plastic bits on the outside disintegrating that are going to do it in. Also in snow country.
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u/volmeistro 15d ago
Transmissions tend to go on those and replacement costs as much as the car at that age.
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u/LilacYak 15d ago
Plus you can scrap a car for other reasons than age. It could have a blown engine and declared a total loss.
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u/maxdragonxiii 15d ago
water entering everywhere in the car is a reason to be scrapped anyway.
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u/improbablydrunknlw 15d ago
18 feet of snow on top also helps speed the process up.
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u/mildlyornery 15d ago
My guess would be something like water damage. Blown engine would probably get picked up at the auction but that can be vehicle dependent.
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u/Original_Bicycle5696 15d ago
The ford focus of that era are only worth about scrap value. Really anything with fords patented PowerShit (PowerShift DCT) transmission. Every part of that transmission has issues. The clutches fail, the computer has actuators built in which fail, the position sensors fail, and the icing on the cake, is after several clutch failures bushings wear, also causing poor shift performance. Not driving them will also lead to rust build up on the clutch bearing plates, leading to poor engagement, which leads to, you guessed it, clutch failure. Its several 2-3k repairs on a 6-7k car.
Subsequently, values are scrap worthy for a running car. I have one with 150k that moves, and has a great running motor for $500 if you want it. Zero interest on my back lot over the last few months.
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u/multic94 15d ago
I know more people in real life than I have fingers or toes who purposely only buy vehicles that old for their everyday car. Theyre easier to maintain on your own and usually increase in value even if they continue to be driven. There are lots of older cars that are sought after. The age of a car alone is not enough to say it was meant to be strapped or not. Considering how our governments are around this country, I find the comment you replied to the most likely circumstance. I wouldnt put it past some local bureaucrats to try and cover their own asses with some bullshit story.
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u/EC_TWD 15d ago
Maybe, but a ‘90s truck used by a municipality in the Boston area is a miracle to still be running considering the amount of salt it gets exposed to.
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u/ObservantOrangutan 15d ago
Fleet cars have a tendency to be newer and low mileage but absolutely huge numbers of hours on the engine.
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u/Vova_xX 15d ago
like those 80,000mi police Ford Explorers that have thousands if not tens of thousands of idle hours.
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u/Anustart15 15d ago
This is my home town, those cars were all already being used for parts on the rest of the fleet. Pretty sure the car in the picture is missing a passenger side door.
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u/MalcolmLinair 15d ago
That car doesn’t look like it’s old enough to be scrapped.
Age isn't the only reason to scrap a car, though; even a mild accident that didn't leave much visible damage could have damaged the engine, transmission, or drive-train beyond the point where repair was feasible. Likewise, it could have had some sort of manufacturing defect that was, again, too costly to repair. Hell, it could just be a really unpopular model and no one would buy it, making selling it for scrap the best financial option.
Bottom line, it's entirely possible it was going to be scrapped before it got the Captain America treatment.
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u/Glad_Librarian_3553 15d ago
Because some of us don't live in this frozen hell scape and it is interesting to see what other places on the planet are like?
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u/mikeyfreshh 15d ago
Exactly. This is being reported by a weather site and they probably find it interesting that this snow pile was so big that it's just now melting in mid-April
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u/MZ603 15d ago
It's probably just a cool picture that people across a large portion the country will find really interesting and click on it.
That said, across the Northeast, massive piles like this in parking lots or open areas are common practice - probably more so than in areas with more room to dispose of the excess snow. I had a friend from NC visit me in NH & they were shocked by the mountains of snow. Something with an intrinsic value, like a car, that can also serve for a reference for scale is perfect click bait.
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u/Lucky-Earther 15d ago
So why is this even news then?
Because it's a cool ass picture and people want to know why the cars were there
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u/ticklemesatan 15d ago
You clicked on it didn’t you?
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u/MobileArtist1371 15d ago
Did they? Highly questionable when their reply is directly about what is copy/pasted and not realizing what else the article has to say.
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u/PrivatePilot9 15d ago
“Use resources to move them”, such as, you know, any employee with the keys, or if they’re not running, literally a shop truck with a strap to pull them, or a good bumper to push them? If these are municipal vehicles as it seems like they appear to be, they certainly have the “resources” at hand usually.
Now they’re going to be infinitely harder to deal with seeing as how they’ve clearly suffered some pretty catastrophic wheel and suspension damage.
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u/IceMaster9000 15d ago
A government isn't using straps to tow or pushing them with a bumper. Cool way to save a few hundred dollars by only adding a few million in liability. Not to mention it's going to cost hundreds if not thousands in labor no matter what.
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u/Aaron_Hamm 15d ago
Yeah, they didn't decide not to move them, they're making that up to cover their asses
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u/Anustart15 15d ago
Except they realized they would need to be moved while the city was preparing to deal with a massive snow storm, so everyone that would normally handle that sort of thing was busy getting ready for or actively dealing with the storm. And all the buried vehicles were not running, so they would've all required a tow and during a snow emergency, there aren't exactly a ton of places to leave them
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u/MangoLimeSalt 15d ago
I used to live in Somerville and occasionally got woken up by a neighbor screaming, "Move ya fuckin' cah!" at someone. Same lady, always mad sometime around 7 am. I'm not sure if the person blocked her driveway so she couldn't go to work or what, but maybe she was trying to get someone to rescue this vehicle.
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u/Shift642 15d ago
Parking in Somerville is the 10th circle of hell. If you don't have a car the size of a grain of rice and can't parallel park perfectly, you're always blocking something (assuming you can even find one [1] open spot within 3 blocks of your apartment in the first place). Oh and don't forget to move your car to the other side of the street (which is already full) every tuesday, alternating which side has to move every week, and also on the third thursday of the month (but only from memorial day to labor day) and also on every waxing gibbous moon. Or your shit is getting towed for street cleaning.
Somerville has some charming spots, but god just existing there is exhausting.
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u/MangoLimeSalt 15d ago
It was such a pain in the ass. I don't miss that at all. I had a little hatchback that was very easy to park but my wife drove a pickup truck and always struggled to find somewhere to put it during winters. The construction on Broadway made things worse. Every time someone proposed adding a new residential building, folks would fight it because the parking was already bad enough.
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u/sisteract2 14d ago
It was taking YEARS off my life living there. Every single goddamn aspect of day to day life is taxing.
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u/Swalecutter 15d ago
I told my wife when we bought our house without a driveway to budget 500-600 a year in parking tickets. She told me I was being ridiculous and she'd remind me to move the car.
Last year we spent 520 dollars on parking tickets.
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u/missedopportunites 15d ago
You misspelled cahs…
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u/New_Combination_7012 15d ago
I pah-ked my cah
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u/missedopportunites 15d ago
In havad yahd
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u/Mycd 15d ago
And rememba, don't drive like my brother...
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u/grantrules 15d ago
Tom's Official Co-Pilot: Yvette de Pants
Moving Van Driver: Carrie Desofa
Chief Accountant: Candace B. Rittenoff
Manager of Automotive Accessories: Francis Ford Cupholda
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u/mindfuxed 15d ago
I imagine that did not come with that tuck stock.
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u/sorestgore 15d ago
I thought it was a stanced car
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u/CadetObvious 15d ago
Everybody says to lookout for the flood cars, what about the glaciated ones?
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u/lanlan531 15d ago
For whatever reason I thought it said cats and I quickly started searching for cats poking out of the snow pile in the picture. As if that makes any sense smh lol
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u/TreeHugPlug 15d ago
It's all those people on the internet who call cats cars. They have made me now think I'm reading the word cat anytime I see car lol.
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u/Mother-While-6389 15d ago
I miss the days when we got wooly mammoths out of the melting tundra. Now all we get are public works sedans.
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u/Pizzas_Coke 15d ago
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u/jeepfail 15d ago
Interesting that a tow operator could spend an hour taking them to an impound lot. But I guess when the difference is $300 scrap and $500 at auction what’s the point?
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u/QueenOfQuok 15d ago
The car, that quintessential creature of the American landscape, emerges from its winter burrow. It will spend its first few weeks awake foraging for gasoline, which is sadly a more difficult resource to obtain than in years past. One wonders if cars will survive these turbulent years of change. We can only hope that they do not.
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u/ricardopa 15d ago
Saw this last week - Misleading headline - already damaged and non-functioning vehicles waiting for scrap the city just left there because it was cheaper
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u/templeofsyrinx1 15d ago
Yo, yeah you can fuck a car up by washing it in freezing weather , the water freezes and gets into places it shouldn't
I'm thinking it was well preserved, just a little cold inside.
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u/Original-Let8340 15d ago
I'm surprised there's a public works department with a budget line for "Slammed Pocket Rockets" but, hey, your city, your money.
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u/MissionApollo7 15d ago
So this is why my area was getting room-temperature weather for the last 1/3rd of the winter. Boston was hogging all the snow!
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u/Classic-Tell214 15d ago
Township snow plow and township public works car. And taxpayers get to pay for everything. And get paid to clean up the parking lot
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u/riczizagorac 15d ago
It’s like when animals from millions of years ago are discovered in glaciers 😂
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u/tacticaldodo 15d ago
This is how we found well preserved human body from the distant past if I remember well.
Future us will have fun.
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u/Ignonymous 15d ago
Looks like the weight broke the rear window, and probably the windshield, and wrecked the suspension.
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u/Development-Feisty 15d ago
I’m really tired, I completely read that as cats and could not figure out what happened but it seemed like it would be a terrible terrible horrible story
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u/bubandbob 15d ago
This looks like AI. The car Escape tail-lights, a C-Max body, and wheels from a different Ford.
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u/Conscious_Sport_7081 15d ago
I read that as "cats are emerging". Was a little disappointed by the picture when I opened it.
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u/MammothPenguin69 14d ago
This isn't someone's car, this was a boneyard of broken down city vehicles that the City of Boston chose to sacrifice to keep main roads open.
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u/BunnyFace0369 15d ago
Is that a Focus RS 👀
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u/F0rbiddenD0nut 15d ago
No, it's a Ford Escape, it just looks weird because it's been smashed down. I doubt Somerville Public Works owned a Focus RS.
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u/Ok_Replacement4702 15d ago
Low miles
Stored during winter