Kiev car life

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Wed 18 Apr 2007 13:10
Kiev car life - kievclive
Thought I would finally write something with a 'local flavour'

Just enjoying a post lunchtime cigarette, on the office balcony and lo and behold 5 tow away trucks pulled up across the road - ensueing flurry of car owners saw all but one remonstrate succesfully (exchange of folding noticed) and one taken away. The local rate is $100 to get your car back - the local authority recieves $120k per month from this per month.

In truth, with the growth in car ownership the city centre is becoming very jammed up however, the local cure has been to allow parking on the broad pavements which seems to have provided a short term solution.

In principal, parking costs around 50 pence an hour during the working day for supervised areas falling to 10 pence outside the centre.

BTW I got my car back from the garage last week after having one side repainted due to vandalism (got compensation paid promptly, too) the cost of the bodywork was $150 - mind you, its a white American convertible of 17 years and only the size of a 3 series BMW so it was a bit of a blow over.

I am gathering energy to write about the flourishing Chinese imported car market which has seen some grandly (funnily) named models hit the market if anyone is interested.

Spring is definately in the air here and the aged part of the population are wheeling out their Zaparozets from hibernation - think NZU Prinz without the reliability so break downs will shortly abound. In fact, whilst walking the dog on sunday morning I watched one old boy servicing his 25+year old Lada estate after its winter sajourn under a balcony - never knew a hammer had so many uses!
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Wed 18 Apr 2007 13:53
Kiev car life - Group B
A while back I saw with surprise that Lada still build not only the Samara but also what was UK badged as the Riva.. So people must still buy those things over there. Do you see new ones in Kiev or is it only farmers in the sticks that buy them?
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Wed 18 Apr 2007 14:09
Kiev car life - kievclive
Lada's abound but with Bosch fuel injection of late plus some newer models you probably dont get in blighty. The main appeal is price and ease of maintenance - the alternatives are the Chevrolet badged Lanos and Sens assembled in-country but less appealing to provincial owners who tend to be more conservative and understand the tried and tested Ladas. I would comment that new car registrations rose last year by 25+% to around 370,000 and much of this was fuelled by a rise on credit - this is also affecting a change in car ownership with credit buyers taking a short term view against the traditional buy for life mentality. This should also see a change in used car prices start to filter through as trade ins grow.
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Wed 18 Apr 2007 19:48
Kiev car life - AlastairW
There are some more Modern Lada's about. Have a look at the 15 April entry in Keith Adams blog on www.austin-rover.co.uk/
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