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: