Rattle is the way to go around here.
Driving between smaller towns and villages in Croatia, you’ll pass about a dozen diesel Golfs, Octavias and other cars before finding a petrol-powered machine. The nation (and the broader Balkans region) is obsessed with diesel cars – often to the point of outright mocking anything that isn’t a Škoda or a VW with the 2.0 TDI powering it.
But why is this the case, and how does it affect the state of the cars on the road here?
Diesel is the default
Growing up in Croatia, diesel cars were always prevalent and easier to get than petrol. Opening a quick search on Njuškalo, Croatia’s most popular used car sale platform, you’ll see around 49,000 vehicles on sale, used and new. Out of that number, around 31,000 is diesel. This means that for every petrol car, there are almost two diesels.
Despite many car brands’ efforts to switch to petrol and electric power, almost 89 out of every 100 imported cars are diesel, an astonishing metric. Regarding vehicles imported from Germany, Croatia is behind only Ukraine regarding diesel-fueled cars. It’s no overstatement that the country runs on diesel: around 70% of our used vehicles are diesel-powered.
The logical choice
In Croatia, where the cost of living is relatively high compared to income, many prefer driving diesel cars for the fuel savings. Diesel fuel has always been a bit cheaper here due to incentives and government support, so it pays off to drive a diesel just for the savings. Interestingly, diesel cars were more expensive than petrol-powered ones for the better part of my life. I remember my mom paying 5,000 EUR more for a diesel Toyota, just because it was a diesel.
Diesels are also viewed as “tanks” and as reliable machines, despite probably being less reliable than petrol equivalents due to EGR valves, DPFs, and other eco-friendly mods. With diesel cars facing ever-growing scrutiny in the West, many cars that are too expensive to run there come to Croatia, where laws against diesels are nonexistent.
Due to our lack of industry and excellent air quality, there’s not much incentive to buy greener cars that consume more fuel to save the environment.
The final nail
Since Croatia joined the European Union more than a decade ago, the number of imported cars, mostly German-made brands such as Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, and Mercedes, has increased dramatically. Almost every other car on the road is either a VW Group car or one of the premium German brands. Our police cars are diesel Škodas, many fleet cars are Octavias, and all are diesel.
While some brands do not offer diesels anymore, those brands are, interestingly, not all that interesting to Croatians anyway. We’d much rather import a five-year-old Passat diesel than buy a new Nissan or a hybrid Toyota, so as long as our favourite brands continue making diesels, we’ll continue driving them.
My perspective
I own two diesel cars, but did not want either to be diesel. It’s simply much harder to find a good petrol car here than a diesel, so many of us don’t even try. I despise driving a diesel and do not enjoy anything, from the sound to the lack of rev range and the vibrations, but there’s much more choice in the used market if you’re willing to endure bad sounds and issues with DPFs and EGRs.
These issues are also amusing. You see, most Croatians drive shorter distances, which is the one thing diesels are not good at. Hundreds of articles and videos explain how you should let a diesel warm up properly and drive it longer distances at least once every couple of weeks so the engine can start regenerating the eco-friendly features, but that doesn’t worry an average Croatian.
Many Croatians will argue that driving a car with all the ecological features enabled is a stupid idea, and that you should just do a DPF and EGR delete and drive without worries. That’s why black smoke from supposed “performance diesels” is often seen in Croatia. It’s easier to buy a 20-year-old 530d or an A4, delete the eco features and redline it all the time than to pay for the equivalent petrol version with none of the issues.
Our relationship with oil burners is a love-hate one, and our central argument is the fuel price, which has been relatively stable for the better part of a decade. In this decade, petrol cars have made strides in the economy, but we’re still ignoring them to drive cars that are louder, more complex, and worse to drive—to save a cent or two.
I am very aware of the irony that after writing this, I will get in a diesel-powered car and drive to the coast.
