driven

Yesterday I was out with a client looking at a site that is on the outskirts of town. On the way back, the client stops the car, gets out and hands me the keys. He then has me drive to his factory. After going around his factory for a bit, he has me drive us back to the office. So I got to drive a Matiz! Not just any Matiz mind you, it was one given to him by none other than the President himself. I almost got pulled over on the way back to the office because I was driving a bit fast as I passed a few militsia. He tells me, 'Don't worry, the President gave me the car." I've now driven in 4 countries: USA, Spain, Emirates and Uzbekistan.

For those who haven't visited Uzbekistan (what are you waiting for?), the country is populated by Daewoo cars. There is a Daewoo factory in the Ferghana Valley that supplies the country. It is incredibly expensive to import foreign cars because of import duties, so everyone drives a Daewoo or an old Soviet car. At one time the cars were relatively cheap, but the value of the UZS was realigned and the prices went up dramatically. People can essentially choose between the Matiz (pictured below) or the larger Nexia sedan. You also see quite a few of the older model Ticos and the Damas micro-vans driving around. If you can read Russian, you can build your own Matiz on the UZ-Daewoo website.


The Daewoo Matiz - photo from uzdaewoo.ru