Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

A Romanian car lover took advantage of the lockdown to get an impressive backdrop for a series of photographs of his beloved Dacia that have gone viral.

Wealthy Romanian immigrant to the US Eduard Palaghita posted the images of the orange Dacia 1300 manufactured in 1977 on his Facebook account together with the message: “The city that never sleeps takes a nap.”

Speaking to CEN, he said that the car is registered in New York and is the only one in America, and has proven its reliability by running smoothly despite being over 40 years old.

He said: “It was difficult to bring it here as I was the first one to ever try to do so. I had some issues at the customs as it looked suspicious to them that I was bringing such an old car into the US, and they searched it thoroughly for drugs and even gave it an x-ray.”

He said however that once he was allowed inside the country it was easy to register as there are few restrictions on cars that are older than 25 years, and he added that the insurance was quite cheap as they registered it as an old vehicle.

He said: “It cost me just 10,000 USD.”

The car lover, who said he had 10 classic cars in total but did not say what they were, said he took the pictures before the full lockdown happened when it was still possible to go outside. He said there were few people on the streets as there was nowhere to go with everything closed.

He said: “I live in Queens, 20 minutes away from Manhattan. Together with my fiancee we bought a house there.

“I have a garage for a single car but another three can fit on the driveway. There is another garage I rented across the street for another three cars, and the last three cars are just parked in the street.”

Speaking about his favourite 1977 Dacia, he said: “All the people like the car, not only Romanians. That’s because it’s unique. I often go to different car shows with it where many people surround my car to look at it.

“Is surprisingly not that difficult to find parts for it. I have many friends in Romania who send them to me when needed. I go back to the country every year for the Dacia Classic Show and put some parts as well in the suitcase when return back.”

He said he was amazed at how popular the pictures were, notching up a million likes on his Facebook page not long after being posted.

The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.