Law / Buying a car in Poland for export [48]


A Nysa is out of the question, for the price. They stopped production a long before the Zuk, so there's nowhere near as many around.

A ZiL is also not an option, and while you might find an UAZ for that money, it will not be an enjoyable drive; they sound like a tank, and are thirstier.

But a Trabant 601, a Skoda 105 or 135, or even a Warburg 353 (especially the kombi) would be cheap, economical and easy to fix cars with plenty of, ahem, personality.

Law / Buying a car in Poland for export [48]

Bamboosel, the two words you need to look for in any advert are "OC" and "Przeglad"; they mean insurance and technical safety certificate. If you see the words "nie ma" next to them, then the car doesn't have those two things, so don't buy it.

Zuk would be a real hero's car.

Law / Buying a car in Poland for export [48]

Mikrus is rare. A working Syrena is rare. A 125p is not rare at all, and you can find clean, working examples on allegro for 1500zl.


125p is a lot more than a rebodied 124. No, it's not a modern car but many Fiat 132 owners upgrade their cars with 125p parts.

Either way, bickering isn't what this thread needs. These Finnish guys want to have an adventure, and you don't have adventures in reasonably-priced well-equipped diesel Passats.

Bamboosel, I think you should buy a Zuk

Law / Buying a car in Poland for export [48]

I've had an old Mercedes W123; you really want the petrol version or the 300D - DON'T buy a 200D or 240D, the power is so pathetic you will not make it out of Poland.

The Zhiguli is known as the Lada 2103, but Poland had its own superior version, the Fiat 125p. You will find thousands of these very cheaply, and they outperform the Lada (just) while being very easy to fix at the same time. You won't find old American cars here, but there's plenty of communist rubbish around, including the FSO Polonez. the Lada Samara, the ZAZ Tavria and Poland's Baby, the Fiat 126p.

You will find all of these cars just rusting by the side of the street in Poland, so they're very cheap:

sticksout.blogspot.com/2010/04/vaz-2104-lada-riva-estate.html

Law / Buying a car in Poland for export [48]

Poland doesn't have anything like that.

Cars are registered to an address, and all car registration documents are processed by the Town Hall in that area. This means that the capital has a dozen offices for processing car data, and none of them agree on how to do it. There's no one office that stores all the car details in Poland.

When the car is sold, the new owner drives the car to the town hall in HIS town, removes the plates of the car, and takes them inside. If he's lucky, the plates are replaced with new local plates, and he will receive a new driver's book (with the car details) in 28 days or less. At the same time, the seller takes the sale contract to HIS town office, and de-registers his ownership of the car.

So the plates stay on the car when it's sold (unlike Germany). They only come off when the new owner registers his ownership of the car in Poland. You won't be doing that, because you don't have an official Polish address. And when you consider how many Lith, Lat and Estonians buy used cars from Poland and cross the border with them, you won't be doing anything new, special or dangerous. Stop worrying.

Love / More loveless sex of Poles living in the regained lands [73]

There's a difference between being "mostly Catholic" and "staunchly Catholic". Most people I know will say they're Catholic But.

"I'm Catholic, but I haven't been to church for ages."

"I'm Catholic, but I hate priests."

"I'm Catholic, but not a very good one."

Hardly staunch, devout, practising Catholics at all. And if there hadn't been a Polish resident of the Vatican for 28 years, I doubt even 5% of Poles would say they were Catholic at all now.

Law / Buying a car in Poland for export [48]

Basically, the only people who can do things legally in Poland are people who legally live in Poland. If you don't have Polish paperwork, then you're breaking one of Poland's million "laws".

But don't worry about it. Just come over, buy the car and take it out of the country ASAP. You won't have any problems.

If you want to do things 100% legally, it will take you MONTHS.

Law / Buying a car in Poland for export [48]


I have done so, many times. They're more confused by the language than anything else. I don't advocate breaking the law, of course, but if you have the umowa then you are the owner; the crime is not registering the car at your address (which you don't have anyway).

I did all this six years ago for the Mongol Rally, and I helped another team do the same thing. The cars were eventually destroyed in the country of their final resting place...

Law / Buying a car in Poland for export [48]

You'd be in a grey area of the law. You can buy the car under an umowa kupno-sprzedaz (buy-sell contract) and legally become the car owner. All cars in Poland must be insured at all times, so any car you buy must have insurance, and any policy is continued for 30 days upon sale to the new owner, so as long as you bought the car close to your trip to Talinn, that would be ok too.

The ex owner would de-register himself as the owner of the car, and that's where the grey area comes in. You're legally obliged to register yourself as the new car owner, but without all the Polish paperwork you need (residency, registered address, PESEL) you won't be able to do that. However, if your passport number is on the umowa, and you're stopped by the police, and you have the old owner's copy of the car docs, then you'll be fine with the Police - I drove my first car around like that for two years while I tried to get all the paperwork arranged legally, and the police didn't have any problems with it.

Just make sure the contract has a sale price of less than 900zl, so there's no tax due to the Polish authorities, and make sure the car is properly destroyed in Talinn; if you leave it on the side of the road, the police WILL come after you.

If you want an old piece of junk, your one and only website is allegro.pl:

allegro.pl/listing.php/search?sg=0&string=lada&category=149

Life / Supermarket culture rules in Poland? [18]


I had forgotten that place, but it's only been open for about six months, hasn't it? I didn't know they had ovens in there too.

Life / Supermarket culture rules in Poland? [18]

I've lost the local bakery and butchers since I moved to my osiedle 5 years ago, but it's no great loss. They weren't "local" places; just small stores that accepted bread and meat deliveries from a bigger supplier, just like the supermarkets do.

I don't think I've ever seen a place make and sell its own bread in Warsaw, except in a supermarket...

Love / More loveless sex of Poles living in the regained lands [73]


Much like the Polish diaspora living in the States then.

Life / The major religion of Poland? [33]


I live close to an Orthodox cemetery, and there's plenty of visitors every weekend. And I work alongside a Lutheran, who loves pointing out the extra holidays he has.


I saw an FSM badge, complete with spaghetti tendrils, on a car a few years ago. Unsurprisingly it was a Maluch, so I'm not sure the owner knew both meanings of the FSM acronym. I do spread the word of His Noodly Goodness as much as I can though, and no-one is offended by it.

Law / Take my CAR of Road (Statutory Notification) in Warsaw, Poland - how to get rid of an unwanted vehicle? [7]

Scrap it then. It won't yield anything in terms of spare parts.

Law / Take my CAR of Road (Statutory Notification) in Warsaw, Poland - how to get rid of an unwanted vehicle? [7]

Completely depends what sort of car it is. If it's a German brand, sell it on allegro "Na czesci". If it's French or Italian, take it to your nearest zlomowisko.

Study / Shocking! Test standards in Polish schools. [165]

When I think back to what I could do in French at the age of 15, after 4 years of studying, I'm pretty sure I'd have been able to say " I go yesterday cinema. Film was good. It funny. Then I go home". Anything more than that would have been too taxing.

Sure, these efforts aren't going to pass FCE, but if you've actually tried to teach a class of twenty-five 13-15 year olds, you'll appreciate how much of an achievement the teacher has made getting them to write that much.

Work / Teaching English in Krakow - where to start looking and the process? [21]

And "It's English, not english", not "It's English not english". Don't initiate Muphry's Law.

Life / Restoring old Polish cars [12]

I haven't had vintage for a long time; the last ones were a 1968 Peugeot 404 and a 1968 Ford Cortina Mk II. In Poland I stick to Youngtimers; 70s and 80s cars, and I'm currently mid-way through a complete strip-down rebuild of a BMW E30.

For parts for your car, you'd best sign up for a few forums; the Nekla forum is primarily about Syrenas but they do support the Warszawa as well: syrena.gminanekla.pl/forum/

Parts occasionally turn up on Allegro.pl too. Zderzaki are what you need, but I don't know if parts from the Warszawa 223 will be compatible with your model.

Plenty of rallies around though. Try to get your hands on the magazines Automobilista or ClassicAuto (who I used to write for) and you'll get a calender of events as well as lists of Owners Clubs, who will help you more than I could.

UK, Ireland / Can i get insurance for a British car in Poland? [16]


It was only curiosity; I'm not moving back to the UK so I have no real interest in it. But 500 quid is nowhere near 200 quid, which is what I pay in Poland for a car registered in the centre of Warsaw.

UK, Ireland / Can i get insurance for a British car in Poland? [16]

I've got a 1988 2-litre BMW; hardly an object of value. I stuck my details into the website of the insurer I used back in the UK, using all the data I have in Poland (so 5 years no claims, no points, over 26, garaged overnight blah blah blah) and got a quoted price of just under 1000 pounds. And this is just for TPFT or OC as it's called in Poland; no 24/7 callout repair engine transplant insurance, just your basic package.

From what I hear from my English colleagues, UK insurance is a massive joke these days, with prices just going up and up and up.

Life / Restoring old Polish cars [12]


I plan on staying as far away from the football as possible; hopefully in my garage, under my own car with my ear defenders on, trying to pretend none of it is happening.

Czestochowa to Warszawa will be no problem for you though, and you'll get many people flashing their lights and giving you thumbs up on the way. You don't see those old beasts on the road any more except for classic events.

And it'll only take you 8 gallons each way; 250km will hardly hardly breaking the bank! I drove my Syrena a lot further before she irreparably broke down...

UK, Ireland / Can i get insurance for a British car in Poland? [16]


Huh? My UK insurer quotes me five times as much as my Polish insurer - 900zl vs 900 pounds, for exactly the same vehicle.

Life / Restoring old Polish cars [12]

Good luck with it then! Just make sure before you start the trip that you carry a chest of spare parts. If there's anything specific you need help with, just ask.

Where are you driving from?

UK, Ireland / Can i get insurance for a British car in Poland? [16]

By English, do you mean RHD, or on English plates?

Life / Restoring old Polish cars [12]

If you want a full refurb, as in stripped back to the shell, engine out and rebuilt, all put back together, then that is going to be very very hard to do between now and July.

If it's not having bodywork, then I would expect at least a serious overhaul of the engine, suspension and braking components if you want to take it on that sort of trip. These machines weren't that rugged to start with, and 50 years later they really ought to be treated lightly.

And as for fuel economy, they're shockingly bad, but that's half the fun :D Expect between 18-22 mpg (imperial).

Love / Unmarried couples in Poland = pathology [310]


That's a false dichotomy if ever there was one. I don't want to marry so I must be scared of commitment; bravo.

So is the commitment I've made to my partner somehow less valid than one that's been stamped by a clerk in an office somewhere? How so?

Is it your idea of "higher" commitment? If so, that is delusional, if you want to throw that word around as some sort of answer to your argument. Some of us don't believe in "higher" things; it doesn't make us any more or less "moral". My relationship is a commitment between myself and my partner, no-one else. And the idea that a government may promote another relationship as higher, or more beneficial, just because it's been stamped by a clerk in an office, is to do an injustice to all other forms of relationship and therefore commitment.

Now please stop using the word for "delusional" to mean "things you don't like".

Love / Unmarried couples in Poland = pathology [310]


I mean that what seems morally good from your perspective is not necessarily morally good from mine. There isn't a standard or benchmark of morality that everyone agrees with, and there aren't even any basic statements that can be understood as "morally good" - like murder, for example. If killing people is morally wrong, then why do armies and death sentences exist?

So the idea that a government should be able to decide where the moral line is; that marriage is morally good and co-habitation is morally bad, is disgusting from my perspective.

On what criteria is marriage more moral? And under what twisted concept of "common sense" can you punish someone for falling in love with someone else, such as you said here:

Love / Unmarried couples in Poland = pathology [310]

Murder and theft are illegal from a personal rights perspective, not a moral one; of course, there's a moral one too, but some societies circumvent it, such as America's death penalty.

But if two people want to sleep with eachother, but they're married, are you advocating a law to punish those people? Under what authority? Who decides what is and isn't moral?

For me, the fact that two people can sign a piece of paper and effectively cheat their taxes for the rest of their lives (commuting earnings to your space to stay below the high-tax threshold, for example) is morally wrong; you use those streetlights and hospitals and policemen just as much as I do, you should f*cking well pay for them as much as I do.

The idea that the state, in any way, should be able to dictate THIS is morally good and THAT is morally bad for you is morally abhorrent, whatever your views on marriage.

I also support the idea that marriage is detrimental, but not for f stop's reasons. My commitment to my partner is my own choice, between me and him/her. Putting an external pressure on that relationship, some sort of artificial bind or contract to trap two people together is both unfeasible and unfair. It may have been "morally noble" in the dark ages when women were denied all the other basic human rights and had to look to their man for support, but not any more.

And the final concept, of loading children with the fantasy that the only happy future they can have is a married one, with little girls flooded with images of pretty dresses and dream weddings in fairytale castles, is the most damaging of all.

Love / Unmarried couples in Poland = pathology [310]


This is a staggering statement. The problem is that who are you to decide whether my relationship with my partner is any more or less moral than anyone else's?

Travel / Driving through Poland and across Europe [17]

You can't use snow chains to traverse Poland, absolutely. You can use them to get you a few kilometres in a freak blizzard, but as a system they were never designed for serious driving.

Winter tyres are not the same as Snow tyres. Snow tyres are the ones with rubber or steel studs to bite into the compressed ice. Winter tyres are a different compound that is still soft at sub-zero temperatures to provide good grip on cold tarmac; your usual summer tyres will feel like solid plastic in comparison, and you'll have trouble cornering at even the lowest speeds.

For the worst conditions, keep some old t-shirts with you that you can stretch over the tyres if you're caught in the snow; that's a cheap traction system.

You'll get a friendly welcome anywhere you choose to stop, but don't take winter lightly here. February is the harshest month of all, and even though this one's been mild, it could turn nasty at any time. But pace yourself, don't plan to go anywhere at more than 50km/h, and you'll have an awesome trip; it's beautiful terrain you'll be going through.