Most Eastern European countries are actually doing well compared to the big wealthy countries in terms of CO2. (Not necessarily in terms of other air quality stuff.)

https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/greenhous... [see fig 4 about targets for 2020 and actual changes in emissions for 2017 and 2018]

CO2 is fine. The particles from the exhaust are the problem. Did you ever smell an intersection with 20-so diesel cars in it?

Yeah. :/ I can't wait for banning ICE vehicles from cities.

My country also buys used cars off Germany, because people here kind of can't afford brand new ones.

Same thing in Finland. There are new cars here and there but if you take a stroll around a dealership's lot, there are lots of cars shipped from Germany that have been used for a few years.

I think the average age of a registered vehicle here is around 10 years; it's not uncommon at all to see >20yo cars in local traffic and parking lots.

Really depends on their condition when purchased, but 15+ year old cars is pushing it. Not worth buying imo, but I guess as long as they're allowed people will buy them. I think the taxes are higher on really old cars?

There are people who simply can't afford or don't want to put any more than a few thousand eur into a car. The other thing is that you can buy a 10-year-old car that is in good condition, and drive it as long as its lasts.. which can be many many years. (My first car was about 20 years old when I got it for free, and my current car was more than 10 years old when I bought it -- now about 13 years, and still feels almost like brand new to me :P)

Taxes are higher depending on emissions, but it's rarely enough to offset the purchase price. For example, if you buy a stinky 90s car that emits 200gCO2/100km, tax would be around 300 eur/year today. A new car that emits 120g/100km is going to be somewhere around 150 eur.

Also, first cars. The usual advice for new drivers is "get a cheap used car and drive it for a while, instead of dumping (equivalent of) a couple thousand EUR into a newer (used) one, and then crashing it into a gate".

Yeah they need to have stricter emissions tests. To be fair, I've seen plenty of surprisingly old cars in the UK, which literally billowed smoke and were visibly rusted... So it's not only Eastern Europe with these problems.

Personally I prefer used imported cars, as well haha. It's just, if it passes technical inspection and emission tests, why not? An 8 year old VW or Toyota with all the options that's been well kept for 7000 Euros seems better to me than a 16,000 Euro new base model.

For getting around a city, public transport is good enough, though.

Another problem is just the number of cars - many cities have more cars than they can handle. Hopefully more cities will ban diesel cars or all cars in some parts...

Things are changing, slowly.

Most likely a coal problem than cars. At least in Poland and most likely Czech Republic and Slovakia where lignite coal is abundant.

Romania or Bulgaria?