Lyndsay Read, of Queenstown Towing, is contracted by the Queenstown Lakes District Council to remove the vehicles and says the January and February dumpings happen as a result of pre-Christmas property inspections.
With rental properties coming up for pre-peak season inspection, many tenants pushed old, broken down, or unroadworthy cars out on to the street.
Dumped vehicles - some of which have been torched - were found in "all sorts of places", from riverbeds to clumps of trees, Mr Read said.
As winter approached, the process tended to be repeated as out of town home owners returned to their rental properties for the ski season.
Although most were recyclable, he said the vast majority of abandoned vehicles were unsaleable.
"There's a reason why they're out there," he saidCars were often registered to owners who gave addresses at backpacker hostels in Auckland and Wellington.
Mr Read said 99% of vehicles were registered outside the district and the bulk of culprits were "transients and backpackers".
"Most of the people I try to locate aren't from here," he said.
He said Wakatipu residents wanting to get rid of unwanted vehicles would usually contact him and ask for disposal advice.
Council network operations engineer Michael Wardill said vehicles suspected of being abandoned were marked and monitored for two weeks before the towing company was called in.
After a 48-hour notice period, the vehicles were impounded at Industrial Pl.
If still not claimed within 10 days they were taken to a Margaret Pl yard and stripped for parts.
Mr Wardill said it was impossible to gauge the percentage of vehicles dumped by tourists.
"But there's obviously an element of abandonment by tourists - and locals," he said.
Of the 67 vehicles identified in January and February, 40 were moved by their owners during the 48-hour notice period, two were collected after being impounded and the remaining 20 were unclaimed and scrapped.
Mr Wardill said processing each abandoned vehicle cost the council about $350. In a report to the council infrastructure committee on Tuesday, he recommended an "ongoing investigation and discussion with Lakes Environmental to determine if there is potential to reduce the apparent dumping of vehicles and subsequent removal costs".
So far this year 198 vehicles have been processed at a cost of $65,683. The abandoned vehicle budget for 2010-11 is $82,000. In 2009-10 the cost was $48,843, although this was based on a partial year of eight months because the salvage contract began in October 2009.
