How many of these can you identify?
Today’s festive teaser requires no explanation. Simply identify the seventeen numbered cars in the image above. The answers will be published in a few days. Good luck!
Scrapyard Challenge 2022
How many of these can you identify?
Today’s festive teaser requires no explanation. Simply identify the seventeen numbered cars in the image above. The answers will be published in a few days. Good luck!
Driven To Write 
Good morning, Daniel.
1) Renault Megane Scenic
2) Nissan Micra
3) Renault Clio
4) Opel Astra
5) Ford Probe
6) Ford Cougar
7) Mitsubishi Colt CZT
9) Mercedes Benz C-class W202
13) Peugeot 306 sw
15) Nissan Maxima
1. Renault Megane Scenic 1, 2. Nissan Micra K12, 3. Renault Clio Mk2 Phase 2, 4. Opel/Vauxhall Astra ‘G’, 5. Ford Probe Mk2, 6.Nissan Sylvia S15, 7. Mitsubishi Colt CZC, 8. VW Polo Mk 4, 9. Mercedes Benz W202 ‘C’ Class, 10. ? ?, 11. ? ?,12. Lexus IS/Toyota Altezza XE10, 13. Peugeot 406 Wagon/Estate, 14. Ford Focus C170 3 door, 15. Lexus GS/Toyota Aristo S140, 16. ? ? 17. ? ?
10. Toyota Corolla Liftback E110?
16) Meriva?
17) Alfa 156?
11 has me stumped – RAV4?
So, here’s my pre snooping-on-others take:
1 – Mégane Scénic gen 1
2 – Nissan Micra K12
3 – Renault Clio gen 2 Phase 2
4 – Opel Astra G
5 – Ford Probe
6 – Ford Cougar
7 – Mitsubishi Colt CZ2 Cabrio
8 – VW Polo Mk4
9 – Mercedes C-class Mk1 (W202)
10 – Toyota Avensis Mk1 liftback
11 – Not a clue
12 – Lexus IS Mk1 (?)
13 – Peugeot 306 Estate
14 – Ford Focus Mk1
15 – Lexus GS Mk1
16 – Somehow I’m reminded of the Opel Meriva
17 – Alfa 156?
Good day all. Some excellent spotting going on! It took me some time to identify the most obscure of the cars featured in this photo, and there’s one I’m still not 100% sure about, so keep the suggestions coming. 👍
As an American petrol-head who hasn’t been back to Europe since the big 1997 celebration of “100 years of Tatra”, and having a basic disdain for most cars post-1975, I figure I’ve got about zero chance of solving this challenge, so I’m going to sit this one out.
Hi Bill and season’s greetings to you. I’m afraid the selection is pretty Euro-centric, so that certainly puts you at a disadvantage. I thought about doing a US version, but the problem is that I have to identify all the cars from the same photo and I wouldn’t have a hope of doing so if the photo was taken in an American junkyard.
I’ll be glad to help you with identifying vehicles in a North American scrapyard if you like. Email me at billmccoskey [at] aol.com
Thanks, Bill, I’ll certainly keep your kind offer in mind. 👍
Thank you Daniel!
1 blue Scenic 2 red Micra 3 blue Clio 4 difficult 5 Ford 6 silver Mégane 7 blue mitsubishi 8 black Polo 9 silver c class 10 japanese 11 difficult 12 japanese 13 Peugeot 14 Focus 15 difficult 16 Opel 17 difficult. Left many unanswered.
Come on now guys ! Christmas quizzes are all very well, but after all the egg-nog and brandy and mice pies, I’m just not able for the degree of difficulty of DTW quizzes…
Ah c’mon now Mervyn, there are lots of easy ones to identify! Obligingly, the scrap yard owner stacked them roughly in order of difficulty…
Excellent quiz!
The tailgate cutout of 4 looks wrong for the Astra G to me, I think it’s the 2000-2007 Mondeo hatchback.
The wheel design of 11 looks familiar, but I can’t quite place it…
Joel & gpant – 11 is bugging me, too. It’s like trying to remember the name of a song, when you know the tune. I would have said Nissan, but I don’t think that’s right.
Re 4, I think it’s a Mondeo. My reasoning is that the steel wheel has 5 lug holes and Astra G steel wheels only have 4 (and have slightly fewer vent holes, too).
It also struck me that 14 is quite an early Focus, due to the position of the indicators.
It’s sad to see all these vehicles at the end of their lives; that said, the fact that they’re being disposed of properly gives them some dignity.
The 4 seems easy, Opel Astra 5door but, The layout of the rear lights is not correct, the rear corner of the side door doesn’t help, the wheel shown is big for this car size. The 11 can be judged by the colour, a strange green grey? Guess Peugeot? The 12 seems to be Japanese from the shape of the lights. The opened doors make recognition difficult.
Merry Christmas to all, from rural Australia. Cool at the moment, but heading for 37C. No snow!
Interesting! This puzzle underlines just how different one country’s automotive scene is from another’s. I recognize the Micra (could it be anything else!), Probe, and the Cougar; the others are probably Euro car I’ve never seen in my little town. In an Aussie wreckers you would have a lot more Japanese cars and very, very few Renaults, Peugeots, or Opels.
A different world.
Hello again all. Time for me to admit that no. 11 is the one with which I had most difficulty and, unlike all the others, I’m still not entirely sure I have the right answer.
A few clues:
1. Ignore anything behind the wheel arch as the rear bumper is missing.
2. It’s a five-spoke alloy wheel on a five-stud hub.
3. Given the apparently short rear overhang, it’s a hatchback with an upright tailgate.
4. Note the unusual position of the horizontal shut-line at the base of the doors. The door skin kicks out at its base to form the upper half of the (vertical) curvature of the sill and the shut-line is at the centre and widest point of this curvature. This is quite unusual.
5. Most of cars featured are 1990s vintage, so this one is likely to be of a similar age.
Here’s a detail from a different photo of the car I think it is, showing the door and sill treatment:
I’d noticed the unusual sill treatment on 11. I tried a number of models to see of they had those sills, but they are rare. Prompted by your extra clues, a little more searching resulted in the most unlikely of models to feature such a unique treatment:
Like you, I’m not fully sure it actually is that car. The wheels don’t make sense to me: they look like Opel wheels to me.
4 might well be a Mondeo, not an Astra, as several others have commented. That Ford Probe is a handsome (if unfortunately named) car, I think.
That’s the one. (I think!)
Unless it’s something else, of course…
Hmm. That’s tricky – there are several things which make me doubt it’s a Golf. The wheel arch doesn’t look to be curved enough, there should be a black vent panel under the bumper which appears to be missing and the colour would be odd for a mk 4.
I think it’s a Touran on these wheels:
https://www.sbazar.cz/originalwheels/detail/161928626-originalni-kola-vw-touran-golf-r16-zimni-5×112
Good morning Charles. I took a close look at the Touran but eliminated it because, on the car in question, the upward facing surface at the base of the door skins, which catches the light, extends behind the door shut-line onto the base of the wheel arch. It can be seen to do so on Tom’s photo of the Golf Mk4 above, but stops short on the Touran:
I agree that the colour and wheels are a puzzle. The wheels look familiar, but I cannot find a match online.
Those wheels look right to me, Charles, nice find. But I agree with Daniel that for the reasons he mentions, the Golf is still the most likely candidate. It’s the only car I can find (not that that’s saying much per se – either about me or my efforts) that has that sill treatment. VW continued to use similar designs, like on this Golf Plus, but here it’s already more rounded:
On other cars, the door apertures always end above the sills, a more formal solution if you will, with only the Jag X-type having similar (but different) curvature ‘down there’:
The Alfa 156 is the only other modern car that springs to mind as having unique sill treatment. As can be seen in the photo at 16, it has ‘hidden’ sills (although for me, the wheels were more of a giveaway). Again, though, my research has been anything but exhaustive.
I think the wheels on 11 are a Honda design, I can’t put my finger on the model, though. I think HR-Vs used to ride on those.
The wheel and the rounded bodyside of 17 is definitely Alfa 156 and then I think 10 might actually be the 2nd generation Avensis and not the bug-eyed Corolla.
Sorry, meant the 1st gen Avensis liftback, of course
Good morning all. The answers will be published tomorrow. In the meantime, any further thoughts, especially on no. 11, will be most welcome!
This might be a miss, but I can’t help but think of the mid-2000s small Honda SUVs. The angular wheelarch treatment, the colour, the wheel.
4 is probably a 2nd gen Mondeo, but it’s smashed in a way that visually shortens the rear deck – the thin rubbing strip and the fuel tank position right behind the rear lamp match.
Hi Kajetan. I looked at both the Honda CR-V and HR-V, but neither seems to have the same quarter-circle sill profile as the car in the picture.
I think number 11 is a Volkswagen Bora in Wheat Beige Metallic (LD1W) on the wheels pointed out by Charles.
You might be onto something, Max!
Yeah, looked at the Hondas as well, no joy : )
11, Toyota Avensis
My goodness, Kevin, you’re right!
We were all on the wrong track with VW Group cars, but the wheels are clearly the same as in the example above. Chapeau!
I have amended the answers piece, with due acknowledgement to you.