Saturday, May 23, 2009

Overflow Parking



This is the Camarillo airport. They've run out of space at the Port of Hueneme. And the South Oxnard processing facilities are full and the leased space at the closed industrial parks nearby so now they are filling up the tarmac in Camarillo.

The future is brand new 2009 BMWs sold in 2012.

20 comments:

averagerainfall said...

The Walrus won't leave California until he's carried out feet FIRST™.

incessant_din said...

Well, if those cars are empty inside, how will the punchline to the joke go?

"What's the difference between a BMW and a porcupine?"

Lou Minatti said...

I know that auto sales have collapsed, yet I still don't see any massive bargains on new cars and trucks.

I'll have been driving my Rav4 for 10 years in December and so far it's still running great. Best vehicle I've ever bought. The A/C works, the power windows and locks work, it's reliable and it's been paid off for 7 years. So why should I get a new car?

sm_landlord said...

There's a lot of open space at the airport - I wonder what they're paying the county for the space? How long does it make sense to store those cars?

It's as if the auto dealers are betting on a quick recovery. They should at least be storing them well inland in a dry locale, haven't they seen what happens to cars that live by the ocean? There's gonna be some massive bargains on those cars once the trim is rusty and the paint is oxidized.

TJandTheBear said...

They've got to be running out places to put them, since the top dealers stashed them everywhere in good times.

Back in '91 I bought from UC Nissan and we hit five or six off-site lots in North Hollywood before finding the right one. A few years later my BIL bought a Ford and Galpin had'em spread all over Van Nuys airport.

H Simpson said...

Every jerkwater airport charges me a rental fee for storing a car I have driven away with.

Does the airport pay BMW a fee to keep their cars at the airport?

Can I sublet my parking space to BMW to keep my expenses down?

Logic is upside down lately..

h.

w said...

Does anyone else see green shoots in the foreground of that picture?

My first thought when I saw the picture was that somebody planted cars instead of lima beans this year at the airport. Used to be they had the lima beans each summer. Maybe they shut that down after 9/11.

Mark from Michigan said...

The paint won't oxidize, that's what the plastic is for. However, I'd expect to see some lumpy tires and bad batteries.

Are these foreign automakers not smart enough to know that the new car market died in the US about a year ago? Are they aware of the fact that leasing is effectively gone from the market?

This scene suggests that they are "out of touch" with consumers, making bad decisions, and cars, "that nobody wants".

OHH, wait... forgot that we are only allowed to bash American carmakers... Even though the union labor that made these vehicles has a 32 hour workweek.

sk said...

Have they parked on the ultra-light aircraft runway strip too ? Tell me it ain't so. I learnt there! Its always been under threat - way back when for airport expansion then for property development. But if its by solidly on the ground unsold vehicles ? The irony of it.

-K

sm_landlord said...

sk;

The picture that Rob posted looks like it was taken from Las Posas Road on the south/east end of the runway. I think that plane in the background is parked there. The ultralights are at the other end as I recall.

I imagine that a lot of airplanes are for sale as well. I'm going to be in the area next week, so I'll report if I see anything else.

Rob Dawg said...

Just returning from Writhtwood. It is unbelieveable. Hundreds of houses not on the MLS. Pocket listings galore. So many yard sales. For Rent on dozens of empties. Capitulation Summer

Northern Renter said...

Well call me a nerd but those cars make me think of the Imperial Storm Troopers from Star Wars. Your nostalgia may vary.

NR

Lost Cause said...

SoCal air is bad for the rubber seals. The ozone will ruin it all in no time.

segfault said...

Baking in the sun isn't good for the tires or interior, either.

Lost Cause said...

So begins the post-automobile era.

cheeze_doodles said...

you do know Casey is back in action, having nice lunches again and not paying his bills.
http://www.myshortsaleangel.com/2009/05/angel-lynn-team-lunch-at-ink-restaraunt.html

Bob said...

C'mon, it's not all doom-and-gloom in the auto industry. Evidence that the President's new "trickle-down" economic plan is working:

Rolls Royce is hiring The M3 that's not made by BMWand the prospects are good for a return to normalcy

Unknown said...

When 2012 arrives, will we really want a bunch of expensive, outdated, car-platform SUVs?

H Simpson said...

Mark

sure those are German made?

The X5 is built in South Carolina


This reminds me of a sail yesterday. Light onshore breeze hitting a off shore wind from the land heating up. In the middle nothing.

The economy continues to slow down while the government stokes the boilers shoveling hundred dollar bills. No answer of which is going to win. But the debt piles up.

Mark from Michigan said...

H Simpson - quote

"sure those are german made? The X5 is built in South Carolina"

True, but I'd expect overflow from Alabama to be stored somewhere other than a port. The X3 is made in Austria, and under a heavy plastic cover, who but a bmw fanboy could tell the difference.

My point remains, regardless of origin, the subject company making loads of cars people don't want is not american. All of the foreign automakers are bleeding bad too, but the press is focused on painting US autoworkers as "overpaid".

I saw a diatribe on cnbc friday talking about how the UAW owns a $33 million dollar golf course.

Big whoop, that's what, one wall-street bonus? But it's much more fun to demonize union workers than to go after the real fraudsters.

http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/12/merrills-mer-john-thain-asked-for-40-million