These are not old cars, but high end German cars a lot of them, Range Rovers seem to be popular.

Obviously insurance is cheap in Romania.

The average age of cars in Romania is 16.5 years - I assume they are economically still recovering from being behind the iron curtain.

The average age at which cars are scrapped in the UK is 13 years. I can only think that you would be considered one of the privileged few if you had a 15 year old Ford Focus!

The Eastern Europeans love the old technology and in particular anything with a VAG PD engine.

I have an old A4 130 and the only people who take any interest in it are Eastern Europeans.

They love the long life uncomplicated engines and integral strength of the bodywork which seems to resist rust quite well.

Most spares on eBay seem to come from Latvia.

I worked in Romania a few years ago and many of my colleagues would buy secondhand cars in Germany, ex-company Audis, BMWs and so on, at three years old and 100km on the clock. They were cheap to buy and still had a lot of life in them.

The people were professional engineers and could have afforded a new one, but they chose these cars as they could seel them on again in Romania after a few years with very little depreciation.

I used to hire a car there regularly and some of the local hire companies would be doing the same. Although the cars weren't new, they were well maintained and just as good as a nearly new one you would expect from a hire company.