[gdrulia]

Disclaimer: I'm from Lithuania, little eastern Europe country.

There has been a lot of talk about eastern Europe being a junkyard for german cars (or old european cars in general) in recents times, not the least locally, especially by politicians trying to justify weird decisions. Most of the time one vital factor remains overlooked, people don't have money for anything else here. German cars are valued by most the people, whether that is deserved or not is a different question. There are plenty of mechanic shops for repairing those cars and cars itself are cheap. Public transport is mostly horrible, so a car is a must for most people. If a family has a budget of ~€1500 per month, how can you realistically choose anything else but an old imported car from western Europe (majority from germany).

[makomk]

There's a lot of controversy about eastern Europe becoming a junkyard for old German cars because those cars produce lots of pollution that affects the health of everyone in the country, which is the whole reason Germany and the other rich European countries don't want them anymore. Also, to add insult to injury, not only is the EU not allowing countries to block imports of those old polluting cars, they simultaneously expect all EU countries to meet stringent limits on how much of the pollutants they pump out is present in the air of their cities.

[jotm]

> those cars produce lots of pollution

They do tax it, that's why a 1000 Euro car from Germany costs twice that once registered (or more) :/