Estate cars and Eastern Europeans

flahers

has anyone else noticed that a lot of Eastern Europeans drive estate cars. Wonder why ?

TestTransmission

No,not really

bladebrew

what a strange thing to notice

Our man in Havana

I don't like where this is going.

phill106

Didnt notice that, but did notice that nearly all foreigners are from outside ireland!

Irish_polizei

No, but i do notice they dont bother getting their cars registered in ireland.....:mad:

GTE

We do suffer from a culture that would consider estates undesirable, or at least we still have the tail end of it here. Sure look at the way Top Gear used to go on about estates. I never got the impression they liked them, unless it was a magnificant British Jag or crazy powerful Mercs and BMWs.

It is like a thread we had at some point "Are Skoda's now socially acceptable?".

Anyway, I just wrote a lot of words about something really insignificant

flahers

Why would it be a strange thing to notice ? I like cars in general and notice a lot of Polish registered cars are estates.

GTE

flahers wrote: »

Why would it be a strange thing to notice ? I like cars in general and notice a lot of Polish registered cars are estates.

A lot of Irish reg cars are not. Its just either a culture that has developed over time or they needed the space.

A lot of US cars are big petrols because, in comparison, fuel was or is much cheaper then diesel and I think I read that they are so used to petrol the thought of diesel doesnt really seem necessary. Loads of reasons like that.

Abelloid

Don't know. I've never been to Eastern Europe.

Eric Cartman

flahers wrote: »

Why would it be a strange thing to notice ? I like cars in general and notice a lot of Polish registered cars are estates.

what would be the use in carting all their stuff over in a saloon ?

phelixoflaherty

Would you drive across Europe to live or visit somewhere with a small suitcase in a tiny car. Thought not

bryaner

Iv'e noticed that they drive like lunatics.

Berty

Haddockman wrote: »

I don't like where this is going.

phelixoflaherty wrote: »

Would you drive across Europe to live or visit somewhere with a small suitcase in a tiny car. Thought not

bryaner wrote: »

Iv'e noticed that they drive like lunatics.

There you go. It just......................went!

keithclancy

flahers wrote: »

has anyone else noticed that a lot of Eastern Europeans drive estate cars. Wonder why ?

Eastern Europeans ???
I think everywhere in Europe they're popular... Irelands the wierd exception.

Mr Benevolent

Simple answer - because estates are more practical cars.

franksm

Ireland loves 'SUVs', the rest of Europe loves estate cars. Just head north of the border here and see.

Pity they're not popular here - the 5-series estate always looks good, same with the Mondeo, Vectra, Passat etc

When I had my 520i touring a few folks joked I looked Polish in it, but many folks (even Polish folk) reckon I look Eastern European.

pelisor2000

i carry a couch once in my estate car..... now you have your answer:)

Mr Benevolent

franksm wrote: »

Ireland loves 'SUVs', the rest of Europe loves estate cars. Just head north of the border here and see.

Pity they're not popular here - the 5-series estate always looks good, same with the Mondeo, Vectra, Passat etc

+1, the E39 estate is a lovely looking car, but it needs to be a 540i (to give the boy racers a heart attack).

TomMc

flahers wrote: »

has anyone else noticed that a lot of Eastern Europeans drive estate cars. Wonder why ?

No, in fact the opposite.

Where mass market cars are concerned, Irish folk have a thing for saloons (even frumpy ones at that), where as in the UK its hatchbacks that are the preferred choice. Continental Europeans (been more open minded and pragmatic) were always more partial to estate cars though still in limited enough numbers.

Matt Simis

keithclancy wrote: »

Eastern Europeans ???
I think everywhere in Europe they're popular... Irelands the wierd exception.

Yes this, travel to any other EU country and you see estates are a sizable proportion of cars. Mind you, seems to be a lot more estates here than there used to be though, once Audi and BMW started making them look better than the saloons.

mondeo

I see Eastern Europeans driving 90's MPV's, not so much estate cars.
The old Previas and spacewagons seem a popular choice.

Senna

Ever consider they just have better taste than us? I love estates.

johnos1984

Agree with what had been said, Irish drivers are the exception in loving saloons.

Estates are great. I'd love an MG ZT-T but they are VERY rare here. I test drove one in KC agrages ages ago, a 2.5L but they wanted an arm and a leg for it as it was an original Irish one :eek:

CiniO

flahers wrote: »

has anyone else noticed that a lot of Eastern Europeans drive estate cars. Wonder why ?

Heh, I went through all the answers, and no one answered correctly.
The old saying comes into place here: if we don't know what's it about, it must be about money.

And also here's the case.
It's obvious that eastern europeans are not allowed to drive their cars registered at home, if they are resident in Ireland. But in every system there's a loop-hole.
If the car belongs to the foreign company, for which company an Irish resident works, he is allowed to drive a car registered in other country.
And that's exactly the way many Polish people try to keep their Polish registered cars here. They have them registered in the name of some company, for which they work for. In some cases they really do. In some cases, this might be only fictional employment. It's not up to me, to judge them.

Now there's another thing.
In Poland, you can register a car in the name of the company, without paying VAT for it. Only requirement is, that is has to be commercial vehicle. Commercials can be vans, or just regular passenger car, with luggage area separated from cabin area with metal cage. This is in 99% cases done only in estate cars. And because vans are not really popular in Poland, and as someone mentioned before, estate cars are popular enough all over Europe (except from Ireland), most of the Polish commercial vehicles are estates.

I thing this answers OP's question.

CiniO

bbk wrote: »

It is like a thread we had at some point "Are Skoda's now socially acceptable?".

Of course thay are not !!! :P

Gary ITR

Brutal thread, I'm going to do us all a favour and lock it