Our cars being shipped over to Romania

[CoolHands]

Over about the last 2 years, I have seen a constant stream of lorries in a couple of places near me that are Romanian, (from the plates) and are loaded up with second-hand (uk) cars. All sorts - Mondeos; Land rovers; Nissans; anything really. Mostly slightly older stuff, guess in the £1000 - £10,000 second hand price bracket, not brand new models.

So, is there a thriving market in Romania for UK cars? Are they even right-hand drive over there?

Just seems a little odd to my suspicious mind, but they're not exactly covert - so I'm not suggesting they are stolen for example.

[TheHeretic]

Spare parts are expensive over here in E. Europe. They go to Germany, Italy and the Uk for spares, as well as sell UK cars here.

[DuncsGTi]

I live in germany and commute on the A7, there isn't a day goes past that I don't pass a car transporter on romanian/polish plates loaded with british cars.

[Getragdogleg]

Are we selling them the huge scrappage stockpiles or are those cars not sold complete ?

[to3m]

"Our" cars? But nobody in the UK seems to want them.

I was under the impression that second-hand cars are cheap in the UK. I always figured nobody else nearby would buy our stupid wrong-way-round things. But if you're only going to take them apart, perhaps it could make sense...

BTW, for all your which-side-of-the-road questions, you can check out the official wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_...

[CoolHands]

Getragdogleg said:

Are we selling them the huge scrappage stockpiles or are those cars not sold complete ?

they aways look like complete runners to me, not accident damaged etc

[DuncsGTi]

Most of the ones I see are accident damaged.

[blueST]

Last few times I've been on the Dover-Dunkirk ferry I've seen eastern european registered vans pulling trailer with old executive cars on. BMW 7 series, Audi A8s etc. I did wonder what that was about at the time. Maybe there's some profit in picking one up and taking it back to sell if you happen to be heading that way anyway?...

[benzito]

Many UK-based performance cars are sold to european traders, the used ones go for good money in mainland europe

[Nickyboy]

A 10 year old Beemer or similar in this country is seen as pretty much past it, to an Eastern European its the ultimate car, age is irrelavent. A guy i work with is Lithuanian, he recently bought a 6 year old 5 series, basic cloth trim, 220k, knocks and scrapes all over it. I wouldn't look twice at it but to him and his family back home he is driving an top executive car.

[bozmandb9]

As above, they love big Beemers, a couple of years ago they were buying up E38s!

[shovelheadrob]

They must be doing something illegal right, only yesterday I was filling up alongside a Lithuanian registered 745i BMW driven by a guy who couldn't have been more than 24.

[bazbiker]

They travel round the uk scrap yards buying up anything half decent and ship that out too, every 4 to 6 weeks frequenting my local scrap yard with wads of cash, a couple of trucks and cutting gear to chop the cars in half that they want

[davepoth]

Cars are massively expensive over there, labour's cheap. So an accident damaged 10 year old car here, worth maybe £1000 and needing £500 of work, is a writeoff. Over there it's worth three times as much and the work only costs £200.

[anonymous-user]

Bloke at work recently sold a diesel estate Mondeo which was experiencing an engine problem (can't remember the specifics) which none of the local garages could solve.
He stuck it on ebay, and it was bought by a guy in Poland for £350. He drove all the way over with a trailer, and trailered it back - apparently to break for parts.

[Oli.]

I recently sold a 52 plate 320td with a knackered engine, on eBay for nearly £1400, to a couple of romanians who turned up on a car transporter with an E36 M3 on the ack. They were on the next ferry back over!

[Waynester]

I'm currently in Hungary & noticed a few British plated cars. Apparently its mainly Albanians that do this...cheap to buy here so they bring them over, plates an all.

[redgriff500]

I've sold a few old vans for mates - sub £1000 all have been bought for export.

Search "for export" on Ebay and you'll see how common it is.

[Crombers]

I was in Bucharest in October on business and was surprised at the number of UK cars up for sale at the side of the road. Nothing particularly fancy, Vectras, Mondeos and the odd 406.

Not quite sure what the story is but I do know some of the guys from the Romanian office had previously worked in the UK and chose to drive home at the end of their secondment. May be a popular move!

[S8QUATTRO]

I sold a BMW 530 sport recently to an Eastern European, it was in good condition, once he negotiated and paid me he told me it would be worth at least double back home, good luck