In just one year, the number of such vehicles increased by about 400,000. This trend shows that fleet renewal programs (such as "Rabla") have not delivered the expected results, writes the Romanian profit.ro.
The main reason for this situation is the massive import of used cars from Western Europe. Many of these cars were already old at the time of registration in Romania, and the market liberalization after joining the EU further facilitated their arrival.
Additionally, vehicles purchased during the economic boom before the 2008 crisis are now outdated but are still being used on the roads. However, a concerning factor is that Romanians are importing from Western Europe even older vehicles below the Euro 3 standard, which the government there will soon ban.
The share of cars older than 20 years has reached about 39 percent of the total fleet. A total of about 8.77 million vehicles are registered, with more than 50 percent being diesel, further contributing to concerns about pollution and environmental impact.
Although Romania is a much larger country and has almost seven times more cars on its roads than Bosnia and Herzegovina, the average age of the fleet is nearly 17 years, roughly the same as in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Interestingly, although Romanians have a domestic brand and local production of Dacia, Volkswagen is the most represented brand.
The most popular car in Romania is still the Dacia Logan, which leads the registration list with 510,000 units over 22 years of production. The Romanian sedan is followed by the Volkswagen Golf with 463,000 registered units. In the case of the German compact car, more than half are older than 20 years, and almost the same number are equipped with diesel engines.