Ukrainians and Cars

Hello everyone! We made it through the first half of 2020! At this point, I feel like ordering myself a T-shirt saying "I SURVIVED 2020" at the end of the year. I planned to proceed with my blog earlier this year but too many things have happened and my head was somewhere else. Yesterday I checked the statistics for my blog and was surprised to learn that people keep reading it and even leave comments. That was very inspiring, therefore I will continue and bore you with more stories from my past and, hopefully, from my present as well.

  The first story of this year will be about cars. Tell me true: What's your relationship with your car? Do you have only one? Does it have a name? Do you remember the day you bought it? Do you attentively listen to its engine every morning you start it? Do you come to your garage to say "good night" every evening? I remember I was utterly shocked when I googled how many cars glide the roads of the US. The number is staggering, 272.48 million cars. Of course, this number includes all kind of them, buses, trucks, and motorcycles. But the number is shocking anyways. An average American family owns 2.28 cars. When you read the statistics it says that owning a car does not reflect the financial status rather location and proximity. That's what shocked me when I first got to the US, the number of cars around me. And then I tried to figure out how I can get to places if I don't have a car. And guess what! My options were either a very long walk (if you feel like walking 10 miles and still not get anywhere) or a pretty long bicycle ride. If you don't live in a big city in the proximity of the public transport network, you must have a car. I have a confession to make. It might sound shocking but in my 38 years, I have never had a car. I do have a driving license, I did drive a car for a very short while. But... I never had a car and I'm not sure I will ever buy a car just for myself when I am back to Ukraine. Don't get me wrong, my husband has a car and we use it for his work and long trips. But the "proximity" allows me to walk to the stores and ride my bike to work and it feels great just like it used to be when I lived in Kyiv.
So how did it happen that a 38-year-old woman never had a car of her own? I will have to remind you of my background again. And it's not like I'm complaining, but I was born in the USSR. A country where everyone was equal, rather say equally poor. So in order to have a car, my dad, for instance, had to be on a waitlist for a number of years. And only in 1990, he was able to buy a car. So you might wonder what kind of car did he buy? A Ford? A Chevi? Or maybe something European, a Fiat or a Peugeot? And... you didn't guess. He was able to buy a Moskvich! What??? You have never heard of Moskvich??? Really? How come??? Ok, ok. Don't worry, I will show you a photo of this miraculous creation of the finest car designers. Here it is.

Appetizing, right? Well, we were happy. Actually, a car fulfilled my biggest childhood dream and it was a DOG!! My parents promised that as soon as they got a car I would get a dog. And it did happen ))) The car gave us relative freedom since we were not tied to trains and buses anymore, so once in a while, we could take small trips to the mountains or go to some historic site. The only and biggest problem connected to the car was gas. As you know cars need gas, and during the 90s it was pretty impossible to buy gas by simply going to a gas station. I know it's hard to imagine but it's true. When Ukraine became independent our stores and other businesses were just trying to figure out where to get goods and other commodities. You needed to know people who knew people that knew where to get gas. My father used to keep an oil drum in his friend's garage where he stored gas for our trips. So hopping into the car in order to go get a loaf of bread from the store was out of the question. We walked to stores, to market, to school. The only short trips within the town were made in case of extremely bad weather and on Tuesday and Friday when I attended music school in the afternoon. 

The funny thing about all soviet cars is that either their design or engines of most of them at some point were "stolen" from other countries. For instance, my father's first car had an engine that was a copy of the BMW M10. At first, we thought that it was some kind of "legend" but when our friend from Germany looked under the hood and shouted "BMW Three!" we were speechless. 

When Ukraine became independent the car market started developing but in a weird way. For a long time, famous brands were nervous coming to Ukraine, so used cars market turned into a huge business with its own mafia and criminal conflicts. However, the lack of official dealerships and car workshops encouraged a lot of very skilful mechanics to study foreign cars really well and in result, they were able not just stay very busy but created workplaces for others. At some point, living conditions of Ukrainians improved and people started buying more cars. I can single out three categories of car owners in Ukraine: used cars owners, new cars owners and Ukrainian cars owners. There is also one more category - carless people )) New car owners are a privileged cast of people and their number is not very big. We don't have generally accessible car loans like in the US or an opportunity to trade-in our old model. The cast of used cars owners is huge and I would say that the majority of cars in Ukraine were brought from Europe. You have to be very vigilant when buying a used car since they are not sold in dealerships but at the car markets and nobody will provide you with the results of a mechanical check or you can get in touch with a seller via an online ad and then set up a meeting to see the car. I've heard a couple of stories from my friends about their experience buying a car and the circumstances were pretty sketchy. The lowest cast is the owners of Ukrainian cars. I remember when my dad bought his latest car a lot of his acquaintances were mocking at him for he bought a Ukrainian car. I don't think you've ever heard the name of the brand Tavria Slavuta. 

Not a Ferrari but it does fulfil its function - it has 4 wheels and a steering wheel and can take you from point A to point B! 

I won't deny, young people in Ukraine dream about Lexuses and Mercedeses. A lot of people buy cars mainly to underline their status. A big number of people can't afford a car at all. It definitely limits their trips to only necessary ones and doesn't benefit local national tourism. If in most countries it is believed that a car is a means of transportation rather than a luxury. In Ukraine, unfortunately, it is on the contrary. As I've mentioned before I've never had a car and never felt need in it. I travelled by trains and buses most of the time or joined my parents on their car trips. This fact shaped my lifestyle in a certain way. I would walk to the supermarket and never buy the whole cart of food rather as much as I could effortlessly carry home. So I wouldn't buy anything I didn't need. Consequently, my food was always fresh and I would throw things out very rarely. Though I lived in the capital city I would take very long walks from work home in warm sunny evenings easily covering 20-30 thousand steps. Sometimes I would walk from the right bank of the Dnipro river to the left sipping a milkshake with favorite music in my headphones. 

Of course, there are people that can't imagine their life without a car and they find ways to get one at any cost. So if you are a car owner in Ukraine you will have to prepare yourself for a couple of issues you will have to deal with on a regular basis. Firstly, be morally ready that when oil prices in the world will drop to their historical minimum the prices of gas in Ukraine will remain the same or even slightly go up. In the US I've several times witnessed the lowering of gas prices substantially but have never seen it happen in Ukraine. Secondly, you will have problems with the parking spot, especially in big cities. When our cities were developed the number of cars was way way smaller. Nowadays such cities like Kyiv or Lviv are literally choking with the number of cars. You will see cars parked in very unexpected places and sometimes even blocking pedestrian zones. It's very frustrating and nothing is being done at this point. Thirdly, you'd better have a good mechanic among your acquaintances because official workshops are extremely expensive. And one more thing to keep in mind, unfortunately, we don't have any road trip infrastructure. I mean you won't see rest stops with toilets and vending machines in Ukraine. There is a bunch of old rest stops back from soviet times, but they are just an asphalted pockets on the side of the road without any amenities. So if you need to visit a restroom you will have to do it at the gas station and maybe even buy something there so that they let you use it. Oh! I almost forgot! Quality of roads! Well, I don't want to talk derogatorily about m own country but sometimes the waysides are better quality than the main road itself. Sometimes we joke and say that "There is no road but just a direction". It's sad because Ukraine has many unique places and it gets very challenging to see them. But we do hope that bit by bit this situation will change for the better. 

Anyways, appreciate your ability to buy a car and the freedom it gives you, but don't overdo it by driving it everywhere especially when you need to go one block down to get a bottle of water. We have two feet not for just for brake and accelerator pedals, they can take us places and keep us fit!

Stay safe and explore the world!