Car Buffs' Dream

If you are a car buff, Karaganda is the place to be. So far, we have spotted various models of:

• Audis
• BMWs
• Chevrolets
• Ladas (both really old and quite new)
• Mercedes
• Mitsubishis
• Trabants (former East German cars made of cardboard, with sewing machine motors)
• Toyotas (including Camrys, Corollas, Pradas, and others, some right-hand drive)
• Zils (old Russian "luxury" cars)

The thing we notice is that, just like in the stores, there are really two classes of cars around. The older, less expensive class consists of Ladas and Trabants, along with the Zils. Most of the old cars are Ladas with weird names consisting of letters and numbers, like a B406D (or something like that, the letters are in Cyrillic).

Many of the new cars are quite snappy. Those trying to show off their conspicuous consumption drive in Toyota Prada or Mercedes SUVs. The most common model of new car seems to be Mitsubishi, with many regular cars as well as SUVs. Every taxi we've taken has been either an Audi or a Mercedes, likely because they are quite well built.

We are trying to take pictures of models of cars and trucks that we don't see at home. We'll try to post a few of the more interesting ones.

We'll also post about the intriguing bus system in Karaganda. The price is right, at 30 tenge per trip. That's about 22 cents.