Why Crashed American Cars Are on Russian Roads

If you crash your car in Georgia or any other American state, there's a good chance it could end up in Russia, via the other Georgia. Importing, fixing, and exporting cars written off by insurance companies in the US is big business in the former Soviet republic, reports the BBC. Businesses like Caucasus Auto Imports buy used cars at auctions in the US and ship them 6,000 miles to the Republic of Georgia. The multibillion-dollar trade has made the cars the country's second-biggest export. "These cars that have been damaged in the US, most of the time it does not make economical sense to rebuild them in the US," says CAI exec David Gulashvili.

He says that because of factors including labor costs and legal issues, it typically takes six months and $5,000 to get a crashed car in the US back on the road, compared to one month and $1,000 in the Republic of Georgia. The country restricted the re-export of used cars to Russia and Belarus last year and Gulashvili says his company acted sooner. "From day one of the war we have restricted any kind of transactions from Russia, any kind of exports to Russia," he tells the BBC. "You will not see a single car exported by Caucasus Auto Import to Russia."

The Republic of Georgia's iFact investigative media outlet, however, found earlier this year that loopholes, including one that allows people to drive their own vehicles to Russia, were being widely exploited. Reporters saw a steady stream of Georgians driving luxury cars across the border and returning on foot. Huge numbers of cars are also exported from the Republic of Georgia to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia, where a customs union with Russia means they can be re-exported there with few tariffs. Sales to those countries have risen steeply since the start of the Ukraine war, with exports to Kazakhstan quintupling from 2022 to 2023. (More used cars stories.)