Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country where the vehicle fleet is among the oldest and most neglected in Europe.
Official statistics show that citizens of this country drive cars with an average age between 15 and 17 years, while the oldest registered cars are as much as 40 years old, local media in the country reported on Tuesday.
According to an analysis conducted by the Institute for Economic Engineering from Zenica for the needs of the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH, the average age of vehicles on the roads in the Federation of BiH is 16.99 years.
Almost 40 percent of passenger vehicles are older than 20 years, while those produced in 2008 and later, considered new on the road, account for only 6.72 percent.
The situation is not much better in the Republic of Srpska. According to data from the entity’s Statistical Institute, in 2012, there were 48.5 percent of vehicles older than 15 years, while 9.7 percent fall into the category of newer vehicles produced in the last five years.
The oldest registered cars in BiH were produced back in 1971, namely the Ford 17M, Volkswagen Beetle, and Peugeot 204.
The secretary of the consumer protection association of BiH, Mesud Lakota, reminded that immediately after the war, the average age of registered cars in BiH was 20 years. In his assessment, all collected data further illustrate the general picture of poverty in the country.
– In the Sarajevo Canton, there are 100 thousand vehicles, but their average value is around two thousand convertible marks (about a thousand euros). Is that wealth? – Lakota said in a statement to Nezavisne novine.
