- My ride
For the purposes of my research, I have acquired a 1990 Dacia 1310. Romanian-made, with all the power and reliably that you would expect from a car manufactured in the second poorest country in Europe. This car is the ultimate disposable car. It’s built to die young. But Romanians can’t afford to buy a new car every 18 months, so everyone that owns a Dacia is forced to become an accomplished mechanic. The good news is that, unlike virtually all other modern cars, Dacias are simple and built so that any idiot with a screwdriver and no fear of grease can get to any part of the engine and fix it. There’s no micro-processors, no motherboards and no digital anything. It’s only equipped with the bare minimum of parts to make it go and that’s it.
Why did I buy this piece of shit? For several reasons. First and foremost, it looks exactly like the 20 million other Dacias in Romania. These cars are cheap and low-profile, meaning that not even the most desperate thief would consider wasting their time breaking into the thing to steal my backpack, the combined contents of which are more valuable than four 1990 Dacia 1310s. Also, as I mentioned, any dough-head can fix it. Not necessarily me mind you, but everyone else. Moreover, the parts and labor will be a pittance. Finally, being the most popular car in Romania will work in my favor when it comes time to sell it. There won’t be any need to put an ad in the paper or list it on the Internet. All I need to do is drive it around town with a ‘for sale’ sign in the window for a few hours and I’ll have plenty of offers. Sorted.
That said, this car needs more care and attention than a newborn baby. I have to pop the hood and fiddle with the engine virtually every single day. There’s always a thingy to clean, or a loose wire to wiggle or a smell to investigate. There’s no just starting it and zipping to the store real quick. Every trip requires anywhere from 10-20 minutes prep time. To start, you have to give it a good once over before something as intense as starting it up can happen. You begin by walking a slow, full circle around the thing to see what fell off during the night, or what is leaking from where, or which wheel deflated, and so forth. Once you’ve completed this loop, making all due repairs, then you can get in the car. Particularly in the winter, there is a complex ritual for starting a Dacia. If it is particularly cold or you haven’t started the car for a few days, your first step is not to put the key in the ignition, but, yes, pop the hood and lean way in there to finger-pump the primer. Three pumps is recommended. Then you get back in the car, pull the choke out all the way - that’s right, I said “choke” – stab the key into the ignition, make sure it’s in neutral, pump the gas pedal three times, say the Lord’s prayer and turn the key.
If you’re lucky the car will make a quiet, pathetic noise (“uuuuuhhhhggg”), at which point you stomp on the gas and it will roar to life. You must keep you foot on the gas for 10 minutes or so for it to warm up enough so that it will keep running when you lift your foot off the gas, burning a litre of fuel in the process. After that you’re off. There are a dozen “unlucky” scenarios, but I’ll spare you those details. Suffice to say that it’s just best to expect the unexpected.
- The (Lack of) Rules of the Road
I’ve done a decent amount of driving in Romania now and I’d like to impart some valuable lessons to you. Until recently, it wasn’t uncommon for drivers in Romania to acquire their license with a small bribe, a bottle of cognac and a wink, rather than training and testing. Seeing their driving skills, I often wonder if anyone was trained. There isn’t a single driver in Romania who has any sense of their own mortality. All driving is done at a frenetic, almost maniacal pace, even just to go to church. Though the speed limit on the motorways is 100-110KPH, anyone going slower than 130 draws the ire of all but the horse-drawn carts and the older, ailing Dacias (like mine). Even a few seconds behind a slower car is enough to drive a Romanian driver into a frothing rage. With the horn blaring, high-beams flashing and middle finger at high salute, they will execute violent, high-risk passes on blind curves in bad weather, coming within inches of clipping other cars, horse carts and people (Romanians have this strange compulsion to walk in the road, even in the city where sidewalks are plentiful) in order to get past you and your sorry excuse for a car. Essentially, the mentality of the Romanian driver is this: If you’re not the fastest vehicle on the road, you’re not really trying. According to my own Lonely Planet, driving regulations are officially this: “In Romania, there is a 0% blood-alcohol tolerance limit, seat belts are compulsory in the front and back seats (if fitted), and children under 12 are forbidden to sit in the front seat. Speed limits are indicated, but are usually 90km/h on major roads, 100-110km/h on motorways, and 50km/h inside cities. Having a standard first-aid kit is also compulsory. Honking unnecessarily is prohibited, and headlights need not be turned on in the daytime.”
Unofficially, there is no law. I am the only person that I’ve ever seen wear a seat belt, and indeed, if you strap yourself in while in someone else’s car, the driver will be deeply offended, even if you pathetically try to explain that if you are involved in a car accident and you are not wearing your seatbelt, your insurance will not cover you by evacuating you to a reputable hospital in Germany. Speed limits and stop lights are ritually ignored and those who try to adhere to basic road conventions are considered a menace. The average Romanian driver uses the horn more than the brakes, whether it’s to signal that you are in his way or the red light is taking too long for his liking or your shoe is untied or he has arrived outside your apartment block at 2:30AM and that you should come out to speak with him. Drunk driving is a matter of course on the weekends in the city and all winter long in the countryside.
In recent years, as nicer cars have made their way into Romania due to the advent of personal bank loans and television teaching Romanians to live beyond their means, an ugly, unwritten road hierarchy has developed. That being, the person with the nicer car has the right-of-way. This applies to stop sign intersections, passing slow trucks, snatching parking spots and line-jumping at the car wash. Example, if there is a slow truck, followed by three Dacias and then a BMW, the BMW driver will take the first opportunity to pass the entire parade in one swoop (or weave in and out of the line to avoid oncoming cars, wholly expecting the Dacias to slow and make space for him) and if one of the leading Dacias should attempt to pass the truck during this interval, there’ll be hell to pay. A warning to all Romanian drivers visiting America: If you exhibit this behavior while driving anywhere in the US, particularly Los Angeles or Texas, you will involved in gun-play within the hour of your arrival.
I’ve heard a bit of hearsay about police targeting expensive cars and, in particular, cars with non-Romanian license plates for bribe shakedowns. Whether or not this is true, I imagine this type of thing will become more and more rare as anti-corruption pressure bears down and more locals start driving Mercedes. As is more and more common, once an individual has sunk his life savings into the expensive car, there’s literally no money left to appease opportunist cops (or even to eat a reasonable meal), and the authorities have already figured this out. Whatever the case, as a foreigner, being on your best driving behavior is advised, even if it means being the goat to every other vehicle on the road.
By the way, if an oncoming car flashes its high-beams at you, there’s a cop up ahead and you should immediately move to the far right of the road and slow to an appropriate groveling crawl, so as not to give him any excuse to pull you over and torment you for arbitrary offences (“Your car is too dirty”).
- Winter Driving
Take the white-knuckle, lawless nature described above, quadruple it and that’s driving in Romania in the winter. While there is small fleet of plows with a passing dedication for clearing the roads, there is no countermeasure in place for dealing with ice. No sand or salt and certainly no adjustment on the part of Romanian drivers to account for the conditions. Accidents are frequent. And it’s not just the maniacs taking high speed, blind turns on black ice. Within four days of acquiring my car, I was involved in two minor, yet alarming super-slow, ice related accidents. Once drifting into a bank of ice and snow during a U-turn, shattering my front-right turn signal (repaired in six minutes for US$3) and once downhill and backwards, with foot and parking brakes applied, into a parked earthmover. Whether it be a dangerously steep street or a busy national road, ice is left to sit and cause havoc until it melts in the spring.
While Romania’s roads are normally a heart-quickening moonscape of potholes and ruptures, requiring total vigilance at all times, winter adds to the excitement with snow camouflaging these impediments. You don’t know they’re there until the car bottoms out in a hole the size of a cow, which you’re helpless to avoid anyway as a quick evasive swerve would send you spinning off into a corn field. It’s because of these conditions/accidents that I have suspended the bulk of my driving-related research until March.
March 10th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
ye ain’t seen nufin’ mate !!! & your comments are fit for a nunnery prep school ..instead of being polite with your audience ( what audience ??? I hear you say .. ) you should have given the facts of life in an uncompromising manner … like : mates , do not assume that driving drunk like a sconk will land you in any trouble & such like as long as a few $ bills or Euros will sort you out in a giffy… see what I mean ??? - mind you I am born & bred in Bucharest & I know what I am talking about !!! At Your service , allways , Winnie Bucur ( shipwrecked in Israel … )
May 2nd, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Spot on to the main article writer. Just done 1,800km in 4 days in Romania and witnessed all of the above! Thankfully it wasn’t in a 1310 but not in a good enough car to skip the overtaking line - we were certainly outcarred a number of times… Having survived 4 days of crazy drivers, bulls, sheep, horses, geese, cement mixers etc in the roads… and a road that literally just ended with a drop of 2m off the end of the tarmac and a number of off-roading dacias looking for another way round… the irony was that 20m from the car hire drop off, we contrived to hit a tram (the last thing we were looking for whilst looking out for all the above!!!)
May 30th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
I’m heading there in 2 weeks- now I know what good times I have to look forward to… ;)
June 2nd, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Thank you I am taking on this ordeal in August!!Can anyone give me some information on obtaining auto insurance in Romania.
Thank You.
Tom.
June 3rd, 2007 at 10:00 am
Tom - check out the Romania transport page at http://www.romaniaandmoldova.com
July 20th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
I am an American living in Romania and you are very accurate. The liability insurance on a rental car (3 day minimum rental) is whopping $5,000 coverage. A Romanian friend yesterday was involved in an accident when his brakes failed (Dacia 1310) and he has insurance. He had to agree to pay the doctor in advance before the guy can have his operation; which is under the table since it is socialized medicine here. He will also have to sign a 5 year agreement as to how he will help this guy financially. And he has insurance. This is Romania; skip it for another 10 years if you can. Even Dracula left.
July 30th, 2007 at 12:49 am
The roads in Romania are more dangerous than the drivers. From Holland the last 500 km to our destination in Transylvania take as long as the first 1500 km. The lack of highways is making every driver crazy. There were more than enough funds for at least 2 highways since 1990. The money disapeared into the holes of the old roads. In 17 years the Romanian government could only realize 1 cm of highway for each Romanian car. Without safer roads there will never be safe driving.
August 28th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Excellent article, made me (an owner of Dacia 1310) laugh so hard). All my friends reading the article laughed too :)
So accurate.
September 5th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
wow, well written witty and factually ACCURATE article!!! My father in law has the same car as yours and you have accurately described every journey we make starts with these checks, he goes out 20minutes ahead to check and warm up the car, I now know why! I am often in Cluj and Bistrita and life in Romania is exactly as you describe it. I really am too scared to drive there. Well done mate. DRUM BUN!!!!
October 8th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
i’ve read your article,recommended by my boyfriend…everything you say is true but you have omitted the women drivers that have no idea they have the high beam on and that you’re struggling to see ahead because you’re dazzled…or the fact that they don’t use the signal and just suddenly turn before you …that’s why you have to keep a “safety” distance up to the car in front,because with romanian drivers,you never know what to expect…i’m thankful that all the drivers i ride with (my sis,dad,friends) do not frame in this category…good luck and try not to get killed by any psychopath driver
October 15th, 2007 at 10:11 am
the so called ritual of starting the car is 100% true … only in the summer when it’s warmer you could actually leave the place with your Dacia in about 10 to 15 minutes :) … in the winter -> no comment :D … about the driving capabilities of the romanian horde :) -> we were born F1 drivers and we don’t know it :)) … , … the part about ”acquire their license with a small bribe, a bottle of cognac and a wink” is true only about 15% …,… what can i say … you have to love Romania …
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:24 pm
In the Romania i saw the nicest cars in the whole Europe, the romanian people interest are in good quality cars and they do buy allot of them you need to visit Bucharest to see the difference …
April 4th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Hi,
How’s the situation with drivers licenses now?
I am moving to Romania and have a Canadian license.
Can I use it indefinitely or do I have to get a romanian license? And for getting the romanian license, can I exchange my canadian license or do I have to take exams, etc ?
thanks!
April 4th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Robert – driving has unimaginably improved in Rom. Both the roads and the care that people take in traversing them. It’s still high speed chaos at times, but it’s improving due to crackdowns on crazy driving and drunken driving. If Canadian laws are like American laws in the EU, your home country license will work (officially) for 30 days. Beyond that, you’ll need an International Drivers License, issued by Canada.
How long are you planning to stay? If it’s longer than a year, I’m not sure how that works. I may be wrong, but in order to get an actual Romanian drivers license, I think you may have to be a legal resident, if not a citizen. Not sure. An International Drivers License will take you through the first year, after that, you’ll have to ask around on the ground. For the record, I drove in Rom for 18 months and never got an International License. Whenever I was stopped, I pulled out my passport, the officer took one look at it and waved me on. I don’t think most of them are aware of the 30-day home country license rule. But if you’re ever involved in an accident, that little subterfuge may not last. If you’re gonna be there long term, you might as well pursue official avenues, assuming those avenues will comply without months of bureaucracy and bribery! In places like Romania, it’s often easier and cheaper to just go the illegal route rather than spend the rest of your life trying to satisfying whimsically set bureaucratic tasks and paying “fees” to every crooked clerk in the city.
April 4th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Thank you Leif for your answer.
I am planning to be more than 12 months and during and after this 12 months also drive in other EU countries.
So I figured that it would be worthwhile to get EU licence (since IDP only lasts for 12 months outside of Canada). And if I could easily get that in Romania (i.e. by exchanging my canadian licence) that would be great. I definitely wouldn’t want to go to romanian language drivers’ school there or whatever the “long route” approach there is.
April 5th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I subscribe 90% of what this article said..beeing romanian..I also want to mention that if you ever had the chance todrive in florida..you will find diving in Romania a luxuriant way to go from A to B…
The floridians are the worst drivers in the world…in top with womens drivers..and of course with seniors between 80 and 120 years old…and I’m not kidding…
90% of them don’t use the signal when they changing lanes..more than that ..they don/t even know from where to do that…Stop signs are where you have 100% visibility and you should have a yield..The people are so stupid that the police officer needs to write on a yield sign in bold letters “YIELD” and so forth..Don’t even try of think to cross the street where a cross sign is mark on the road..nobody will stop..that is just to create some diversity for the drivers to not sleep in the car..Dont try to also to to drive faster than some black persons with 80′90′ Cadillacs..A family was shoot this month on I4..because of that…
Talking about 90’s american cars…Think you kidding me..ALL the american cars, except 60′ 70′ are piece of crap..they are design to go exact 18 months with of course 10-12 mpg..
So kiddo..give me a break with this article.All over the world will be stupid drivers, people who doesn’t respect rules..You wanna have a luxiriand drive with a 16 years old car???!!!! Do this in america if you can
April 6th, 2008 at 6:37 am
I lived the first 30 years of my life in Romania, the next 28 in California and a large part of the last 2 in Romania again.
Driving all over, I have opinions.
The article is quite factual and funny at places. It misses some facts that I’ll try to add, and it makes
a few errors that I’ll try to correct.
In 2007 I’ve been living in Romania 8 months out of 12. I am driving a 2001 Peugeot 306. It’s a spacious
station wagon that has plenty of power, plenty of room, cost me about $10,000 new and burns 5-6 liters
per 100 km, or 30 to 40 mpg. (Try buying something similat in the US!)
My California Driver License seems to be just fine. I’ve been stopped a few times, involved in a small
fender-bender once. Never was I asked something about my Drivers License, not even when I had to fill-up
the accident report.
I believe drunk driving is almost non-existent in Romania. Penalties are just too steep for the Romanian Driver.
If somebody nicks your fender at a traffic light, you will have to go to the police station and be tested for blood
alcohol. Even if you are 100% not guilty, if you have more than 0% blood alcohol at a minimum you will
loose you license for a few months. If some people drive like they seem to be drunk, that’s another story.
I take the liberty to have a glass of wine with dinner before driving, but almost all of my Romanian friends
who drive have a zero tolerance for alcohol. Some of them, even after moving to California, carry over the
same concept
Although rude beyond description, most Romanian drivers have driving skills way over the skills of my
driving companions in California. Maybe there are too many Asian and Mexican drivers where I live,
but driving in Romania is a survival test, while driving in California is a tango. People develop skils
when they have to survive.
A few years ago Romania passed a law making it illegal for a policeman to stop you without a reason.
After living 30 years under communism, I can really appreciate this law. Every time I was stopped in Romania
in the last 18 years there was a very good reason for it, and the policeman was quick to explain it.
Corruption is present and I do not believe I’ll see it disapear in my lifetime (I am 56). You can buy your
way out of a traffic ticket, you just have to know the proper language. You can almost never accomplish
something in society without bribing everybody on the way. The choice is pretty simple, you either play
by the local rules or you don’t play.
April 7th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
A pretty funny and fairly accurate description. It’s a good warning to any North American unfamiliar to fast paced driving, who plans driving in Romania. A bit exaggerated, but that’s what makes it funny.
I drove for about 6 years in Romania. I’d like to add that the description only applies to 30% of the drivers (or maybe 60% in Bucharest and 15% in the rest of the country).
1. You shouldn’t expect compassion or understanding regarding situations where right of way is involved. Let me give you a quick example so you can understand what I mean.
(((ex: My wife, when learning to drive, took a too wide U-turn and ended up hitting the sidewalk in an intersection. All the cars stopped and waited for me and my wife to switch places and clear the road/ be safe. This happened in southern California. If this would have happened in Bucharest, cars wouldn’t have stopped, and even the ones that were stopped would start moving, always finding a way around you, some of the hastier ones even bumping and scratching your car blinded by rage, rage that overcomes any material damage to their car, only so that they can proceed to the next intersection. Occasionally, some would slow down or stop, but only to curse you or mock you ))). The Bucharest situation is taken a bit towards the extreme to make it funny, but it’s based on things that I’ve experienced myself. It doesn’t apply to the rest of the country.
2. Try to stay in the car if you are involved in an accident. You’ll be avoiding being hit by cars or the other driver involved in the accident, especially if the other driver has an Audi, BMW or Mercedes - cars typically driven by thugs or people that share their culture.
As for women drivers and high beams, I’d happily take the high beam of the Dacia over the low beam of a truck or HID light. They are plentiful around SoCal, and I’m seriously considering avoiding driving at night now. And although traffic is pretty calm around here (I’ve been driving in SoCal for a little over a year), I’ve had my share of good scares from people who never signal and/or rarely check mirrors/look over the shoulder. Come to think of it, if it weren’t for the driving skills developed in Romania, who knows what might have happened… That and Asian/Mexican drivers…
Winter driving. This is where you got it wrong.
First, your description of road conditions is wrong. They don’t let the ice sit until it melts, they do spread sand and salt, it’s just that they are not so quick about it :) Same goes for snow.
As for your little snow incidents, it’s only you to blame there.
In SoCal, when those kind of road conditions occur (rarely and locally), they close the road and you’ll be spending hours and hours stuck in your car and getting ever more snowed in. Which one would you choose? And when they re-open the road, you should really see SoCal drivers in the snow, that makes for some additional hours… My record is 8 hours. I would have driven across Romania in that time.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Hi there, Could anyone tell me how easy it would be to buy a drivers licence in Romania. And do you know where and who?. But not a fake one, it would have to be official. Thank you
April 12th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Driving from Hungary into Romania is like driving from the U.S. into Mexico. The driving, the garbage, the lack of infrastructure. It’s a combination of it all that makes driving so difficult in RO.
Maybe I’m being unfair. It’s not ALL Romanian drivers. It’s probably more like 5%. 5% that KNOW how to drive. The other 95% are hopeless.
If the roads were better (paved not patched) that would help.
If there were reflectors and lights (reflectors covered in mud do not count) that would help.
If there were lines on the road (lines covered in mud do not count) that would help.
If the SCOALA’s actually taught people to drive (going 2km/hr does not count) that would help.
If Romanain drivers had to spend a week driving in a real European country (and no - Romania does not count - Europe is a mindset, not a geography) that would help with the attitude and blind selfishness.
April 20th, 2008 at 9:25 am
The article is a little bit too ironic and not fair enough. It’s no one’s fault that 10 million people cannot afford anything but a Dacia 1300!!Driving in Romania has improved dramatically in the last years. Just follow up the rules and the speed limits and you won’t have any problems.The article fits for driving in Bucharest but the rest of the country I think is quite ok. Obtaining your driving license by bribing is also quite a story! I don’t know if this could apply to more than 0.5% of the drivers. I even know a couple of police officers who are in jail now for such things
The real problem comes out of the lack of infrastructure: no highways, no markings,etc. This can get you nuts sometimes. So you really have no time to make sightseeing.You have to constantly keep your eyes open to the road and traffic. I wouldn’t advice anybody for night-time driving.
Most of the roads marked as “european roads” are in quite good shape but they cross through villages and cities . That makes difficult to have an average speed over 65kph. Getting directions can be an adventure so a GPS would be a good option. It’ now easy to find good maping for Romania, too.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I’ve not read all of this thread but will study it later….I was really looking forward to driving through Slovakia, Ukraine and then down to Bucharest in summer, now am not so sure :-)
I’ll be alone - am I mad as a fish or will I be safe travelling this way….?
April 27th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
People please, keep in mind the date that this article was posted. I agree, a lot has changed/improved since I wrote this, but I stand firmly behind everything that I said as of winter 2006.
I failed to give a frame of reference in the article, but I was living and driving mostly in the north and east of Romania (Iaşi, etc) for much of the time I lived there.
Sure, snow removal was attempted, but rarely as successful as you would hope. Driving in Moldavia and Maramures in February and March was the most treacherous driving I have ever done. Ice and snow was NOT satisfactorily removed from the countryside roads, even many of the so-called “European roads” were still pretty bad. We literally could not go more than 50 KPH most of the time without risking our lives. And of course the potholes and crumbling roads made it all worse. But I know road repairs have been going at a frantic pace, so hopefully this has already been fixed, or it will be soon.
Marika – I can’t speak on driving in Ukraine or Slovakia, but, as has been said above, driving in Rom in summer shouldn’t be too bad. Defensive driving, obviously. Don’t try to compete with the Romanians who have no sense of their mortality. You will die, or at least wreck your car with one of those lunatics and be blamed for everything at the police station. Just like driving in Mexico, the tourist is almost always wrong. And never leave anything that’s valuable in the car. Break-ins are still common.
May 11th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I’ve just come back from Timisoara in Western Romania, I did a bit of driving over 2 days, and on the same route. I had a Scoda the first day that smelt of cabbage, and drove like a dog, and a Dacia Logan the second day - yes it was basic, but I found it easier to drive than the Scoda, and I didn’t have the start up problems mentioned by others in this thread.
Town drivers aren’t too bad in my opinion, just as good/bad as French or Italian drivers, and pedestrians at crossings in Timisoara are wierdly well behaved - generally they will not cross, even if there is no on-coming traffic) until the walk/don’t walk green man shows Even odder is that drivers stop at crossings to allow pedestrians to cross!
Outside of town, some roads are good, others are very bad. There are horse and carts and tractors to overtake, and holes in the road so big that you can bathe in (if you wanted to). Romanian drivers, as stated by another contributor to this thread WILL overtake you - whether it’s a straight road with fast oncoming traffic, on the brow of a hill, on a blind corner, or double hairpin bend.
While I was there, My G/f said that in the local paper, it was reported that 4 were killed in a car crash, because the driver overtook a tractor on a railway crossing, while talking on his mobile via a Bluetooth earpiece, he lost control, skidded and crashed.
It seems that EU cash is coming through to improve the roads and general infrastructure, but it’s going to take time to filter through.
A handy hint for country driving is that one must slow to 40kph in villiages, and put dipped headlights on - this is to avoid the cows, geese, ducks, and any other livestock that wanders onto the road. In town, you only need to watchout for the native mad drivers, some pedestrians, trolly buses, buses, trams - my town doesn’t have trams so it’s something I needed to keep very much in mind.
I haven’t driven in Bucharest, but the advice I’ve had is: “only drive there if you really really cannot avoid it”
Rick