@wickey: shall we look on scrapyards for Volvo-stuff or shall be buy things on oldtimer-markets, too? If yes, please let us know, what stuff is worth to pay money for, and how much they shall cost as maximum.

in the junkyard I go to, the badges are $3 each. I can probaly get a couple, if you are looking for certain ones.

well I can post a list of badges I already have I make it tomorrow.

You are only looking for badges or for other Volvo-stuff like PR-goodies, press-information-folders or so, too?
I can look for that stuff, too, but I must admit, then actually I don't have any "hot contacts" to Volvo-enthusiasts.

Found this lot all in the same location:

volvo related discussion continues here: http://forum.imcdb.org/forum_topic-5723-37179.html

@ ingo - basically yes, check the answer in the new topic.

Scanned from a 1989 old newspaper

Renault 6


Abandoned in the airport parking.

Nice pic - but it's a R16, not a R6

Here is my contribution to this topic. First, Citroen GS/GA/GSA wrecks video (some pictures were shot in Serbia and ex-YU countries by me or my friends, and some were taken from the net):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m11xj3zWBfc

Last March I managed to enter abandoned car lot, where abandoned cars from the streets are kept. When abandoned car is brought there, owner can claim it back. It the car isn't claimed after some period of time, it is sold as scrap metal to recycling center in Železnik, located on southern edge of Belgrade. Due to legal barriers, it's almost impossible to boy a car from this lot, unless you find it's actual owner who would claim the car (and pay some fine, usually 4000-5000 serbian Dinars (approx. 40-50 euros)), and then you buy the car from him. You can also go to recycling center and try to buy a car, but cars are often severly damaged during transport, prices are high and cars can only be used as donors (since legally car isn't yours). That's real shame, since many rare cars were destroyed in that way. Due to economic crisis(low steel demand) and "old for new" action (old cars are recycled for 1000 euro discount if you buy Fiat Punto produced in old Zastava factory, now Fiat) trough which a lot of cars are given to recycling center for free, this lot is now full and another one is opened. I'll try to enter these two lots again soon, but I first have to deal with a lot of jerk-bosses that don't allow enterance. Also on these lots cars from "heavy" accidents can be found (when you see a car that survived a collision on this lot, that's first sure sign that driver probbably got killed in the accident ).
I photographed only the cars I consider interesting, since for taking photos of all cars being there could take a day, and I only had 3 hours to take the photos (I wanted to stay more, but they made me go away).

Let's start with the cars:

Citroen GA:





Austin Allegro:





Volvo 244:



Various Trabants (a lot of abandoned Trabants can be found in Serbia nowdays):


















Volkswagen Bettle:







Wartburg Tourist:




Opel Kadett City:




Mercedes W123:











Peugeot 305:






Ford Escort Mk2:




Zastava 750:

It would be interesting to know the story behind the (British) LDV 400 van, lettered (in German)Notdienst Tag und Nacht, next to the first Beetle. Maybe from Austria?

Some Chrysler - american cars are very rare in ex-YU countries, so seeing this was a surprise for me (as well as one Pontiac that I will show):




Peugeot 104:









Zastava 1300/1500 - very rare nowdays:





Mitsubishi Colt:




Volvo 740:




Citroen GS Pallas, GD Super and GSX:

(this one was occupied by a juknie)




While it was on the street:




Mr Bean No.1:



While it was on the street:






Ford Mondeo:




Another surprise - Pontiac Grand Prix. This one has plates on, I tried to find the owner but it turned out that plates are from another car (that's why "непозната адреса", unknown adress, is written on the windshield):






Citroen BX:











Ford Granada:





Opel Senator 3.0 (that 3.0 engine is probably the reason why it is abandoned):




Ford Fiesta Mk.1:

Polski Fiat 126 and Yugo:



Mazda 626 (ingo's favourite ):



Fiat 850:





Opel Kadett D:



SAAB:



Zastava 101 Mediteran:



Škoda 120 LS:





Volkswagen Transporter T2:



Another Austin Allegro:




Polski Fiat 125p:




IMV 1600(very rare nowdays):



Mr Bean No.2 :


Renault 14 TL:




Opel Manta B:



It was for sale before picked up:



Lancia Delta:



Citroen Visa:




My friend took some pics white it was heading to the lot:



Austin Mini:




Škoda 105L:




Peugeot 505:






Wartburg 353 - older version :







Another Mini - was reclaimed by owner, it's on a parking near my garage now (unfortunatelly, owner is "not alone in his head"):



Mercedes W115:





Fiat Miafiori:






Simca Horizon:



Morris Marina:





And for the end, some cars from collisions:

Lada Samara:



Zastava 101 Mediteran:



Yugo:





Lada Riva:



Volkswagen Golf Mk.1:

I haven't taken a photo of that van, sorry.
It was imported for sure, probabbly as a donor car. Importing cars that aren't satisfying Euro 3 to Serbia is a strange (and not so nice and commendable) story, I'll write it later.

I was interested because in 1999, in Skopje, Macedonia, I saw a similar van - still in red Royal Mail Parcelforce livery(!) but carrying a Skopje registration. Presumably it had been brought back by a local who had been working in the UK who had a use for a high-roof van with a roller-shutter at the back and an elaborate lock.

@DonSergio: for me the BX is a bit uglier than the 626.

Nice pics, over here you mostly cannot see any more cars from the 80ies or older on junkyards...

P.S. The Granada is a 1980+ Ford Taunus [TC3]

If you would have the chance to pick up the license plates, you could have a chance to get money at eBay. YU-plates are not really common and the collectors are paying money for it. Ca.16 years ago I had the luck and have found a pair from TG, Titograd at our local junkyard. One I've swapped for an old German one (I'm collecting plates, but I've reduced it on German ones from disappeared counties), the other I've sold many years later at eBay for a real good price.


@chris40: isn't it possible to buy former Royal Mail- and other former authority-cars? In Germany we have many auctions here: www.vebeg.de and other, local ones for former police-cars and post-service-cars.
So at the VEBEG me and my wife have bought our cars, both in 2004.

Many of these former authority-cars and -trucks were bought en bloc by export-dealers and shipped away. So I've seen really many former delivery cars from the Deutsche Post and DHL in Russia. The import-dealer is nearby to the way to the Lomonossov-University, close to the stadium, as I've seen from the sightseeing-tour in 2003.


A propos Royal Mail: I'm irritating the people here very much with one of my Christmas-presents - an original "Royal Mail"-raincoat. My wife has bought it at a dealer for worker- and military clothings (btw. the Royal Mail is wearing raincoats "Made in Bavaria" ).
I've seen this jacket, worn by a German tourist on the Faroe-Islands and have thought, that it's a freaky thing. He has bought it on a fleamarket in Amsterdam, as he told me.
Sure I know, that I'm not allowed to wear it in the UK. So I need annother raincoat for our next Scotland-trip. You need every time a raincoat there...

As I wrote somewhere, during 90s a lot of "scrap" entered ex-YU republics. You can't imagine what was imported! I saw even Yugos and one Florida imported from Germany! So I think that van you saw came to Macedonia (or Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, to be correct, not to offend members from Greece) trough one of these "actions". From January 1st 2010 Macedonia allows all vehicles to be imported, no matter how old, since their cars are much older than ones in Serbia, not to mention Croatia or Slovenia (when I took my last trip to Greece, 90% of cars with MK plates I saw on highway were Zastavas and late 80's cars - Kadett, Golf 2, Passat B2, Lada Samara...). On the other hand, in Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro you can import all cars that satisfy Euro 3 norms, with one difference about Croatia and Serbia - you can't import damaged car(if the car you want to import is damaged it can be seized by customs). Also, in a few months importing and registrating (I think that's the word, situation when you pay taxes in order to get license plates for the car) cars with steering wheel on the right to Serbia will be banned, like in some other european countries, with some exceptions (history vehicles etc).




That's the Citroen, either you adore it or hate it !



Main reason for that are wars and sanctions during the 90's. In late 80's and early 90's, cars that were driven in Yugoslavia were approx. 3-5 years older than ones in western Europe, and many of them were from the west or from Japan - japanese cars invaded Yugoslavia in late 80's, especially Toyota Corolla, Mazda 323F (thousands of people, and I literally mean - 1000s of people were buying it), Mazda 626 and Mitsubishi Lancer(also great hit among YU buyers). After war started in 1991., Serbia started to lag behind. Nowdays, average car in Serbia is 14,7 years old (!!!), and in Macedonia even more (Macedonia was always poor region of ex-Yugoslavia, as well as south parts of Serbia). In Croatia situation is much better (their "crisis" ended wen war ended in 1995., and in Serbia it lasted until 2000 + airstrikes in 1999). In Croatia many cars were changed in early 2000's, due to government subventions (like in Greece in 2004/2005) - average car in Zagreb is only 2 years old. In that time many, many old and valuable and rare cars in Croatia were destroyed (even some cars that are not just rare in ex-YU countries, but in the Europe and entire world). Nowdays something similar is happening in Serbia, but in smaller volume - some of us are also trying to save those cars or at least save parts from cars that are already waiting to be scrapped. In August last year, we have had the action to save usable parts from 2 Citroen GS's (Pallas and Club S1 from 1976) that were waiting to be scrapped trough "old for new" action. Cars couldn't be saved as a whole, we were allowed just to take parts we needed:





But this is only one out of 15 recycling lots in Serbia, and we can't manage to visit them all (because of one small, stinky thing that is called money ). Generally, Zastava's cars are endangered the most with those actions - cars in great shape are thrown away. In 5-6 years, it will be hard to see 101 and Yugo on the street (750 is even now very rare)



I'm not into Fords, they all look same to me! (if my friend with 12M would known I wrote this, he would kill me )



These plates are still in use in Serbia, and they can't be taken. After some time they are removed from the cars and returned to police stations in order to be destroyed as outdated. Changing plates in Serbia (we are the last, Montenegrians finished changing plates year ago, and we still have old ones - shame on us ) will start from June this year, and after that it could be posibble to take these ones(with the flag) from junkyards. The one you took with TG written on (Titograd, now Podgorica, capital of Montenegro) is with small red star between letters(city mark) and numbers is from former-Yugoslavia(SFRJ) period, and those plates were changed in 1998. in Serbia and Montenegro (Yugoslavia(SRJ) at the time), 1994/'95 in Croatia, and after 1992 in Slovenia. In Bosnia and Hercegovina various plates were in use after war started:

Republika Srpska - serbian part of Bosnia, written in cyrilic:


From Croatia - part of Croatia that was called "Republika Srpska Krajina", part where Serbs used to live:


(KNN - stays for Knin, only plate that had 3 letters as town mark instead of 2)

Croatian part of Bosnia:



Old Yugoslav plates (with star, last three):


(I have 1 pair of these - my neighbour gave them to me when he throw away his 1979 R4)

"New" Yugoslav plates - introduced in 1998. in Serbia and Montenegro, still in use in Serbia:



New Serbian plates - from June 2010:



1st - "normal" plate;
2nd - truck trailer plate;
3rd - embassy plate;
4th - economy plate;
5th - another "normal" plate;
6th - police plate

(there will be some variations in shape, for example shorter and taller plates for SUV's that have smaller plate-place etc.)

New serbian military plate - already used:



And for the end, cars that were brought to recycling center on July 11th, 2009. in period from 9am to 9:30 am:




And one more pic I found - dying Mini in one of Belgrade's peripheral area:

If you ever found find something for my special interest, please let me know.

Oh, so in Serbia there was also a wrecking bonus-system, as we had in Germany last year "Abwrackprämie" and in the USA, too "Cash for Clunkers".
As I've heard, it was something similar in Greece and soem years ago in France and Sweden.

Don't be upset, that the others have new plates and you still the old style. For a nostalgy- and old-car-freak it's very nice!
I'm really pissed, that the most old-style plates in Germany were disappeared. They are still valid, but when you move or -which is really bad for the originality of old cars, you want to have a special registration for historic cars (cheaper tax and insurance), you must get a new plates.
F*cking German bureaucracy!! :mad:

2-3 years ago there was old beat-up BMW 520 from early 80's in my neighbourhood, and it had some very, very old german plates - I can't remember what exactly was written on them, but they looked different than old german plates I used to see (especially during summer holidays in Greece in mid 90's). If something like that comes up I'll let you know. I also like old plates, and I'm seeking for Republika Srpska cyrilic plates, since they are very, very rare. On one junkyard they have one with "МД" written on it (stands for Modriča, Republic of Srpska now), but junkyard owner doesn't want to sell them ("it's illegal, what if police comes" ans similar things ). Funny thing is that they are standing on one Porsche 944! But since new environment-protect law is voted last summer, 90% of junkyards will be closed and cars will be scrapped, so maybe owner of the junkyard will change it's opinion soon (he also has about 20 cars with old Yugoslav license plates, one with star, but he doesn't want to sell them because he is afraid of police, altough selling old plates that are not in use isn't illegal ). Fortunately, in a "military shop" (or as we call it - military junkyard) old military plates can be found from time to time.



Oh yes, this is forst action of that kind in Serbia, but 1000 euro bonus can be used only for buying domestic Fiat Punto . Government wants to put domestic industry on it's feet, and since Serbia is poor country they gave these subventions only for Punto, since it is only car produced in Serbia (for now). Also domestic tractors, trucks and buses can be bought in the same way.



Thing with currently used plates is that nobody wants to be nostalgic about time when they were introduced - that was 1 year before NATO bombing, there were terrorist attacks on Kosovo and you could see that war was about to start, image of Serbia in the world was very bad (and still is, we have "tails" from that time ), GDP was going down like crazy (and after 1995. everything looked much better), 1000 documents were needed to get a visa to go anywhere, salaries were low, corruption and crime everywhere (just seek for the movie "Vidimo se u čitulji", where actual criminals were talking about their acts, on TV )... Very bad time for both Serbs and Montenegrians, no one wants to remember "third Yugoslavia". But if we are speaking of "second Yugoslavia"(1944-1992) - hell yeah, there are a lots of things to be nostalgic about ! That's the reason why I got "second Yugoslavia" plates - to put them on my GS on next GS-iade we are organising, since GS was also one of car-icons in ex-YU.


F*cking German bureaucracy!! :mad:[/quote]

I completely know how you feel - I have to add f*cking Serbian bureaucracy!

With "special interest" I've meant not my plate-collection, here (sure, that old German plates are available at best over here), I thought about my favourite car...

Excellent post Don Sergio!! really really interesting, I've read it entirely, thanks for all the information