How Friendly Is Your City Toward Vintage Cars?

Inverness, Scotland verdict:
1: 10. Anywhere and everywhere except the A9. Don’t believe me? Come and try!
2: 7, although can be highly variable. Especially after frost damage in the last three years or so coupled with a council road budget of zero.
3: 9 What’s traffic? (the occasional exception from a blocked road which can result in a massive detour due to huge areas being free of anything but mountains. However, this can force an excursion to some fun new areas never seen before)
4: 7 People love unusual cars and bikes, coupled with semi regular meetings of both in the area.
5: 1 My nice stuff stays off the road from Oct to May-ish due to salty roads. Plus, we have a strictly regulated period of nice weather which crops up every decade or so 🙁
6: 5 99 Octane super unleaded is common if you need it, but bloody expensive at £1.40ish per litre in Napoleon units or over six quid a gallon in proper money! (about 9 dollars I think for the other side of the pond readers)
7: 5 Although my stuff is routine and I do most of it myself. Exotic owners would face a long drive I think
8: 8 I’m not complaining, road tax on fun cars is one of the best ways to burn your money.
9: 8 Not too applicable to my oldest, but tough on modern stuff.
10: 8 Why would you want to park in the Highlands when you can be driving in it instead??? However, a rest break spot is easy to find if needed, and town isn’t too bad if you know your way around

Total: 68. Not too impressive, but look at the allocation of marks to category 1 and smile.

Seoul, South Korea:
– fun road = 4 (not great, need to get out of town, just a couple of nice hills)
– quality = 4 (not good, maybe should rate it lower)
– driving = 3 (always pretty bad, except if you know what roads to avoid, if you drive after midnight, or on sunday)
– culture = 0 (no vintage car here at all)
– weather = 3 (abt 4 months a year you can take your hat off)
– gaz quality = 5 (not sure about this one)
– car maintenance = 6 (doable)
– tax = 8 (insurance and taxes are super cheap here)
– legislation = 6 (not sure either, but i know vintage cars can be exempted of some mandatory rules, if introduced before the law).
– parking = 6 (not easy to park if you don’t want a valet, but fines are cheap and you’re sure you won’t get your car vandalized)

conclusion: 46 pts. Seoul is not really a vintage car city. Ok for any other car tho.

Here’s my score for: Curitiba – Parana – Brazil (The score was kinda low, only 56 points)
1. 8 – There are many nice roads in the region;
2. 2 – I did give it a 4, but after reading in the comments people giving a 4 for California’s roads, I had to take the score down… haha;
3. 3 – Took score down from 5. Again, after seeing people complain about California’s traffic;
4. 7 – There are some meets, weekly, around the city, for vintage car collectors. Nothing fancy though;
5. 8 – It rains a lot and has gray skies more often than not. But temps. usually don’t reach 0°C (32F) and there’s no snow here since 1975, so you can enjoy driving all year long;
6. 3 – Regular gas is 87 oct. (mon+ron/2), premium gas is 91 oct. and the highest octane fuel you can get at the pumps is 95 oct. All have over 20\% ethanol mixed in, so if your carbs are not nickel treated they will corrode. And you have to be careful because some stations mix all kinds of solvents to the fuel.
Also, it’s expensive. The regular fuel costs R$ 2,90, premium costs R$ 3,20 and 95 octane R$ 3,60 per liter. (Bear in mind that the minimum wage here is R$ 678,00)
7. 7 – You can find skilled mechanics here if you are careful.
8. 9 – Cars with over 20 years don’t pay taxes. Only a mandatory insurance and annual licensing, adding up to less than R$ 200,00, no matter the price of the car.
9. 4 – Legislation is a mess. It makes it very difficult and expensive to import cars or parts. It doesn’t allow most modifications (although people do them anyway haha). It’s so absurd, that several years ago, there has been a case where a guy with an Audi RS2 was stopped by cops and they didn’t want to release the guy because the car had parts written “Porsche” on them, so they thought it was modified…
10. 5 – People don’t respect other people’s properties. You need to be very careful when choosing a parking spot and avoid, specially, SUVs and Pickup trucks.

South Wales UK
1.10 lots of fast coutry lanes and moutain passes. Used by loads of car mags.
2.4 The moutain roads are sweet. Ironically it’s the roads getting there that are awful.
3.4 Most have clocked on so bikers and caravaners (ugh) are everywhere.
4.2 unfortunately it just doesn’t exsist.
5.1 if you love rain you’ll love it here! We get sun for 10 minutes once a year.
6.7. Lots of shell v power stations popping up. If your not fussed your fine.
7.6 Theres an attitude of if its a car, a local garage will fix it. There’s plenty of mx5 specialists for me though.
8.3 Car tax can be a killer, so can fuel prices (£1.31 per litre) boooo
9.5 The police hide everywhere. Even hiding speed cameras in horse boxes! 🙁 No fun!
10. 9 Parking is really good.
Total 51. Over come the crap and enjoy the awesome twisty B roads.

Bucharest, Romania, Eastern Europe.
Fun to drive roads, i would give it an 8, because there are plenty of good roads, especially in the center and on the outskirts of the town. Crowded during the day, but acceptable on weekends or at night. An interesting landscape as well, a mixture between interwar architecture, a communist stamp and a modern influence provides something unique and interesting. There are numerous narrow streets which resemble the ones in France or Italy. But the wide boulevards are truly fantastic to cruise on. Plenty of traffic lights though.
Quality of roads, not far from Russia i would say. But there is a noticeable improvement and efforts are being made, so i guess it’s a matter of time until we can call it “Western Quality”. That being said, give it 20 more years and it should be fine, around 7 for that matter. But for now, it gets a 3.
Traffic problems. Well, as they say, if you can make it here you can make it anywhere. It’s not that bad, except for traffic jams, casual road rage, drivers that don’t know what they are doing and a couple of disoriented pedestrians crossing the road here and there. If you pay attention and if you are alert at all times, you should be fine. But it can be worse, check out the Russian dash cams for some examples. I would give it a 5.
Culture. There are various automotive clubs and associations in Bucharest. For example, there is the “ACR” as we call it, and it stands for “Romanian Automotive Club”. It can provide assistance and information, it has a large number of members and enthusiasts. There is also a club called “Retromobil Romania”, where you can find a lot of vintage cars, some of them are very rare. They can also help you if you own a classic car and want to join, because there are plenty of taxes to be paid, to register an old car. So by having it registered with them, as a certified classic, you don’t need to pay anything. As a historical background, i would mention this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ_4P7w92LI – Rally of the Danube (3 parts)
But of course, there is more to it. The automotive culture is divided in many ways. There are countless meetings, brand enthusiasts, maniacs and collectors. I will stick to the points and give it 9 for its culture.
Driving weather. Very hot during summer, not so cold during winter, it is truly ideal for driving. It has a little bit of everything, sun, rain, snow, wind (but not too often), so it’s quite pleasant. Definitely a 10.
Gas quality is poor. First of all, it is expensive. Second, there are plenty of gas stations cheating at the pumps. It’s a fact. And they don’t clean the tanks as often as they should. So the gas receives a 3 for that matter.
Car maintenance. I guess it depends on the car. For example, there are plenty of Bmw, VW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz mechanics and dealers, but if you own an Alfa Romeo or a MG things can get tricky. Car maintenance is pretty expensive if performed at certified dealers, but there is always the neighborhood mechanic that can do a proper maintenance for less. So i would give it a 7 for car maintenance.
Taxes and fees. The part that everybody hates doesn’t get any better here. Basically, you can import any car into Romania. That is, if you can afford it. Countless hours spent at various lines to pay for ever changing taxes. Registration taxes, emissions taxes, pollution taxes, license plate taxes, road taxes, parking taxes, insurance taxes and the beat goes on. Not more than 2 points on this one.
Legislation. Coming from politics, it is always ambiguous and prone to change, unfortunately not always in the good way. It gets 5 points for trying.
Parking. I once drove 45 minutes in a circle around the house to find a parking place. The city is overcrowded by cars and lacks parking lots. Drivers park their cars on corners, where they obstruct visibility, on pedestrian crossings and on sidewalks. It’s a parking hell. 3 points for that.
So, a total score of 55.

Rural Vermont gets an 80.

Long, cold winters, salty roads and (apparent) lack of specialty garages offset by amazing roads, no traffic, fall colors, great car culture (Hemmings is right down the road) and good old Yankee ingenuity.

(Scores: 10, 10, 10, 7, 4, 7, 6, 8, 9 10)

Atlanta GA
1. 9. North Georgia Mountains have some great roads. Avoid the leaf-peepers.
2. 6. City roads can be bad but in the country all is pretty good.
3. 6. Same as LA. Avoid the crowds and you are ok.
4. 3. There is an appreciation for vintage cars but not a culture like LA.
5. 7. We get some rain but not snow. Spring and Fall are great.
6. 8. Good gas is available but ethanol mix is a problem in the city.
7. 6. There are a few good shops.
8. 6. GA just passed a sales tax on private transactions. Registration is cheap though.
9. 9. No emissions for 25 years and older.
10. 8. Parking is cheap and mostly plentiful.
TOTAL 68 of 100

How friendly is your local code compliance unit when it comes to having project cars and vintage cars on your property?
How friendly are your neighbors when they see a few older cars on and around your property?
Mine are nazis!