Getting a Car in Kazakhstan
A dear friend of mine recently bought a car here and I do occasionally get emails about driving in Kazakhstan for foreigners, so here is a basic rundown of what you need to do to register a new car. Buying a car wasn’t that much different from buying a car in the States. However one big shock I had was that no one let us test drive the car before buying it. I assume they were afraid we’d steal it but it was a bit inconvenient since the only cars I’d driven before coming to KZ were American models and I didn’t want to buy an American car here-I wasn’t sure I could find a good mechanic who knew US-built car. So we had to rely on recommendations of friends and family (see earlier post and comment about communal living in KZ).
- License: We got conflicting stories about licensing. On the one hand we were told I could drive on my US license if I had a notarized translation. On the other hand, I was told I needed an international license. I ended up doing both. The international license is easy to get in your home country, and when police threaten to take your license away, it’s not a big deal to get another one. The bit about organ donations on US licenses did confuse the translator here so she ended up not translating that bit.
- Tech Control: All cars, even new ones, do have to go through technical inspections. For a new car, it’s not too bad, just a rubber stamp. But you still have to go to the Tech Control site and wait in an extremely long line. And we had to try several times as they seem to close at random or suddenly declare they aren’t taking more customers that day.
- Insurance: The cheapest auto insurance is the state minimum, 10000 tenge a year. Doesn’t matter how old you are or what kind of car you drive. No idea if there is other insurance available. The few crashes I, or my friends, have been involved in were settled informally with an exchange of cash or in one case, I followed the other driver (clearly at fault) to a mechanic, where he just paid the mechanic directly.
- Dovernost: No idea how to translate that into English but apparently every driver of the car, besides the owner, needs a notarized document from the owner saying that the owner allows this person to drive the car. And of course you have to set a time limit, so eventually you have to do it again. Without that, I’m told, police will assume the car was stolen and then you are in big trouble.
- Medical Exam: Drivers have to go through a very thorough medical exam, including a psychologist, a drug test, and a dermatologist (no idea why!). While the exam itself wasn’t a problem as I am in perfect health of course, the going around to different clinics, waiting for doctors and keeping people from cutting in line was the usual pain that going to public clinics always is.
Other than the tedious registration process, there aren’t too many problems driving here as a foreigner. Although it shocks some locals, I have almost never been pulled over by the police for no reason. Sometimes the reasons seem a bit silly (driving a dirty car is apparently technically against the law), but except for one morning when a persistent officer insisted I must be drunk for no particular reason, every time I’ve been pulled over I did in fact violate the rules. And usually admitting my guilt and explaining why I did it has gotten me out of any fine.
Any other suggestions for drivers in KZ?
Subscribe or Share
Culture
- Yurts Are High Fashion and Slum Fashion Too
2011-12-05 - Apples, Sure. But THC is from Kazakhstan too?
2011-10-05 - Naked Man Pot
2011-09-23
- Yurts Are High Fashion and Slum Fashion Too
Resources
- Oh, CNN
2012-07-21 - What Do You Know About Kazakhstan?
2012-07-19 - Books for Kazakh Students
2011-11-06
- Oh, CNN
Politics
- Image
2011-07-28 - Sub Rosa Endorsement
2011-07-26 - The Naked Truth
2011-06-12
- Image
News
- KZBlog is going down
2013-09-10 - Oh, CNN
2012-07-21 - Repentence
2012-07-15
- KZBlog is going down
Fun
- What Do You Know About Kazakhstan?
2012-07-19 - Yurts Are High Fashion and Slum Fashion Too
2011-12-05 - House Hunters Bishkek
2011-12-02
- What Do You Know About Kazakhstan?
Tourism
- Asian Games Torch
2011-01-12 - Wikitravel
2010-08-07 - ALZHIR, the Soviets and Democracy
2010-07-30
- Asian Games Torch
Life in KZ
- Photo Gallery: Almaty Subway
2011-12-07 - Healthcare and the Private Sector
2011-11-30 - Naked Man Pot
2011-09-23
- Photo Gallery: Almaty Subway
License: I had heard that you could drive on your home country’s licence if you were in Kazakhstan short term. However, I know of several ex-pats that have been here for years who haven’t had problems producing non-Kazakh driving licence. The one slight hitch with an intl. driving licence is that they only last a year, so you’ll need to re-apply each time.
Medical exam: We’ve not had to go through that at all, and no one mentioned it during the process of buying a car, sorting all the paperwork and checking what needed to be translated etc.
Insurance: I could be wrong, but I think this is perhaps closer to 13,000 Tenge now? 3rd party only (UK term, assuming other countries have similar levels). “Proper” insurance (comprehensive) is definitely available, as we have it. The age and cost of your car is taken into account when you get the quote, as is how long you’ve been driving back home.
Might be worth mentioning that if you have a crash, you are not allowed to move your car safely to the side of the road, as you would in Britain at least. This obviously can cause a lot of problems for drivers behind and around you, but if you and the other party(ies) involved have agreed on who is at fault, and are NOT going to be claiming on anyone’s insurance, police don’t seem to care about you driving off. If insurance (at least proper, more than bare minimum) is involved, you’ll need to contact the company (ours gave us a mobile number) so they can come out and take photos of the accident scene. If you fail to carry out this step, expect the company to not pay out.
Re. buying a car. Second hand cars retain a LOT, LOT, LOT more value than those in Britain. Don’t expect to save as much by not buying new. This sucks when you’re buying, but obviously is not as bad if/when it comes to the time you want to sell your own.
Make sure you know whether a) Local mechanics know the make and model of your car well enough to be able to fix simple problems quickly. b) Whether spare parts are i) readily available (waiting a month for a small part that prevents your car from working could cost a lot in taxi fares whilst waiting ii) are prohibitively expensive in Kazakhstan.
It is worth mentioning that if you come from North-Western Europe or America, you will most likely find the driving style very different here. Lane discipline (even when painted lines exist) is minimal to the point of farcical. People will stop on a six lane highway with only a second or two warning. Hazard lights are used as a “thank you” or “I’m reversing out of a parking space, pay some attention” system. Flashing your headlights seems to be used as a “hey, notice I’m here, don’t crash into me!”, whereas for me, in Britain at least, they tend to be a “I’ve noticed your need to change lanes/join this road/turn across me; whilst you may not have right of way, it will cause me no real hassle to allow you finish your manoeuvre, please do continue” 🙂
Finally, may I be allowed to plug my blog’s Kazakh Driving category – http://chrismerriman.com/category/kazakhstan/kazakh-driving/ – especially the older posts from 2006/2007?
Thanks for the detailed comment. I definitely recommend Chris’ posts on Driving.
Hope they have dropped the med exam requirement–that was for registering the CAR mind you, not getting a license. I drove in KZ for 3 years and was fine with my international license/US license.
Medical exam hasn’t been dropped. . It is a part of a procedure for obtaining a driver’s license and has never been intended for the purpose of buying a car and registering it.