131's In Bucharest

[Rob 131]

I am in Romania with work for a week. Having had an extensive tour of Bucharest yesterday, I expected to see at least 1 Mirafiori. But no, in fact the only old Fiat that I saw was an 80's Uno. 

In fact I saw very few Italian cars (odd 156 and 159). What also surprised me was the lack of old cars. 70% of cars appeared to be under 5 years old.  I expected to see many old cars and Fiat's here. Anyone know of any explanation why Fiats appear to be rare here??

 In similar trips to Bulgaria I have seen many old Fiats.

I am going out into the Romanian countryside tomorrow. Maybe different.

[mirafiori76]

Rob,

That's not just in Romania or Bulgaria. It's all over the world in general. In countries behind the former iron curtain people had to drive their cars to the end. Maybe fix them with every possible part to find. In "rich" countries people drove old cars for fun. Owners of old cars now keep (restored) cars mostly stored in their garage and take them out on sunny days. That's why you don't see cars older then approximately 5 years or older that much anymore.

[simon131]

I worked in Romania back in the year 2000, up in Brasov, north of Bucharesti, building a new antibiotics production plant for Europharm, part of Glaxo-SmithKline and I didn't see many modern cars at all. Most of them were 'well used' Dacias and the occasional Mercedes (mafia?), but the Daewoo Esperro I was collected from the airport in was considered a 'Prestige Car'! Don't think I saw a single Fiat even back then. The most common vehicle back then was the horse drawn cart - and I'm not joking!

I loved my time in Romania. A very surprising country both in terms of varied countryside, food (I ate deep fried sheep's brain one night!) and the people. I'd very much like to return some day.

[djape1977]

romania was among last true stalinist countries of eastern europe. remember nikolae ceausescu? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceau%C5%9Fescu
people used to swim over danube to cross into then "free" yugoslavia, and couple thousand per year for decades. now just imagine how bad it was if people swam across biggest river in europe, 2 kilometers wide there, to get away from romania. imports were impossible for ordinary people and those few who could import something didn't really care about anything less than mercedes or a cadilac. domestic auto industry consisted of "dacia". one factory producing one model (renault 12), couple thousand cars per year. most went to police and other goverment needs. private cars were pretty much non-existing. after they got rid of their dictator in 1990 most romanians had no money to buy even used cars from europe.

[mirafiori76]

Well, there you have it. Three reasons already why there are so little old cars in the east-block 

[djape1977]

depends a lot where you go. romania is extreme example, as well as albania and eastern germany.
in hungary, chechoslovakia, poland people could buy mostly eastern block cars. waiting lists were long, you usually had to pay and wait for couple years to get your lada or skoda. there are old cars still running around but mostly of eastern origins.
in ex-yugoslavia, before the wars of 90's, there was plenty cars of all origins. european, eastern block, even quite a few american cars. although it was communist ruled country imports were allowed and most people could afford cars.
later, after fall of comunism in eastern europe, romania and albania fared worse than others because deep poverty. others imported all kinds of european used cars but they simply had no money.

[Rob 131]

Simon

I am glad that the Daewoo Esperro is no longer considered a Prestige Car As apparantly we have a long journey tomorrow 

Thus far I was taken from the Aiport in a Jaguar XJ  (the new long one that looks slightly like a Citroen C6) and we have subsequently been driven around in a new 7 Series  Very Nice.

[Rob 131]

Mirafiori 76 and djape1977

I remember being in Bulgaria (Varna, by Black Sea) for a week in the winter of 2000, and seeing many Fiats most noteably Uno's and Tipo's. However there were a number of Croma's and Argenta's I also saw a few Series 3 Supermirafiori's 

At this time in addtion to the Communist Cars, there were a number of older cars that had clearly been imported from Holland, Belgium and Germany. The Renault 21 (typically 10-13 years old at the time) always stuck in my mind as the standard family car  .

I remember from where I was staying watching a guy down below taking the Engine out of his Series 1 Fiat Ritmo (Strada) over the course of a few days the engine was back in and he was driving it  It was freezing conditions to be doing such work. This clearly shows that they would keep anything going at the time. A good thing in my opinion.

Bucharest now has many VW's, Audi's and most commonly the Skoda Octavia a car that I really like 

[mirafiori76]

There are still lots of imports nowadays. Take even Poland for example. There's not a day going by or i see Mercedes vans with empty trailers coming into Holland and leaving again with any kind of car. I remember the late 80's and the first years of the 90's when i was looking for parts in scrapyards. Almost everytime i went there was a 131 waiting to be shipped to Egypt, Turkey or Saoudi Arabia. Mostly to be driven as a taxi to the very end.
Funny story: i resceued a Racing in 1991,originally  from Belgium. Bought it for 1400 Gulden which was then 500 Euro's (now it would be 1400 Euro's). Took it apart for restoration and then i noticed the sills...anyway, i had a lot of spare parts then  :

[djape1977]

bulgarians have imported many used cars from europe since 2000 when they started process if joining EU. imports were customs free and truckloads of used cars passed tru serbia on their way to bulgaria. they imported everything, cheaper the better. therefore plenty unos, tipos, ritmos, renaults and other cheap used cars can be seen there.

vw's, audis and other german cars are seen in  most of eastern europe as status symbols, being more expensive than other cars and also because ex communist elites used to be very fond of big mercs, audis and bmw's. if you grew up behind iron curtain, your idea of luxury car is BIG and GERMAN.

skodas are pure crap. i worked for a while in skoda dealer's service and first thing that comes to my mind is regular silent block failures at 18-20k kms on EVERY model. skoda octavia coming in for it's second regular service on 20k kms? ok, prepare filters, oil and front suspension arms...
seats are hard as a park bench and ride is so firm that fillings from your teeth will fall out.

[djape1977]

The Renault 21 (typically 10-13 years old at the time) always stuck in my mind as the standard family car  .

it's a big improvement over  a lada or a moskvitch

[mirafiori76]

Speaking of mercs. I was told that every 1 on 10 persons in Albania doesn't own a Mercedes. How is that in Serbia? Or other ex-east block countries? I also have a Mercedes, but it seems i can't even sell to the rats  

[djape1977]

no, we have evolved past mercs   now the show off norm is SUV's   bmw x6 being the latest hit. there seems to be more of those lately in belgrade than yugo's   .
most of them have to stay within borders of serbia though because of non matching numbers, interpol wanted cars and such.

what model merc do you have?

it's true to albania though. what you saw in topgear couple weeks ago is true. about 70% of registered cars there are mercs of all vintages and origins. try to find some albanians, they migh want your merc, there's plenty of them in holland, but mind your wallet  

[mirafiori76]

Guess i missed that episode of Topgear. Great progrem, btw. No, i heard it somewhere else 

I have a W123 280TE 1981 from Switzerland. Very luxerious car. First with ABS. Just got it back on the road again. Untill i can drive my 131 Racing WR. Can't wait 

[djape1977]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZufepYH_3U top gear in albania, merc part from around 8:20