Cars of Kutaisi

In 1999, the vehicles on the roads in Georgia were quite diverse. The most common car models were Lada Samara, Niva, Volga, O. Astra, VW Golf, H. Accent... The majority of cars on the road were old and damaged (described by some traveller as something straight out of 1975), with many spitting toxic fumes and probably many of these cars would not pass inspection in Europe.

ccording to the Georgia Department of Public Safety's 1999 Annual Report the motor vehicle travel continued to grow at a rate of 5% each year, and the data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia show that the number of registered vehicles increased from 762,200 units in 1999 to 1,490,200 units in 2021.

And one more observation. The policemen used whistles to stop the car and gather some pocket money to offset their extremely low wages. Locals said that the police only checked on in the morning, so the people who could not afford 'fines' would only drive in the afternoon.