4 Reasons Why Indonesia's Car Culture Is Awesome

Hello, CTZens. Before i continue, let me briefly introduce myself. My name is Anggoro Putra, and i joined this wonderful website since 30th of January 2015. Also, i was born and resided in Indonesia. Which, As Mr. CSL Lightweight points out about the car culture, wasn’t that great. And yes, the points that he made were true. But, as R.A Kartini said “After The Dark, Comes The Light”. Amongst the negatives there’s always the positives, and now, let’s dive in to the car culture of Indonesia, shall we?

1. Massiveness

Mr. CSL points out that the major enthusiast of the car scene were in 3 major cities of Indonesia. Which is Jakarta, Bandung, And Surabaya. But actually, there is more than just those cities. Take Yogyakarta for example.

As you can see above, Classic VW’s had a strong following among enthusiast because they appreciate the mechanical simplicity and the timeless design and retro vibe it gives.

And not just in Jogjakarta, there’s going to be a scene in other small cities. Batam Island for example. In my trip there i saw for the first time in my life, an NA Miata, 90’s (GC8?) Subaru Impreza WRX STI, DC5 Integra, DC2 Integra 4-door, Countless Toyota Harriers (Lexus RX) (I swear, they’re more common than Avanza/Xenia). Those cars doesn’t sound like too precious (Except the Subie, of course) but those cars were VERY uncommon in Indonesia.

2. We Work With What We Have

Indonesia is a 3rd world country (in my eyes anyway….). And as such, it reeks with Japanese family cars, anything other than that is uncommon (except 70’s to 90’s European cars). But that doesn’t stop enthusiast to fulfill their need for speed (and street cred).

Or, you don’t want to go Drag racing or Drifting, and instead you want to get low and impress your friends in the parking lot? But you only have a minivan to work with…?

3. There is Still Variety

While Indonesia is littered with econoboxes, there is no denying that other cars make their way to Indonesian grounds. For Example……

There’s also a strong following of tuning houses in Indonesia.

4. The Classics

Talking about classics, the major part of Indonesian Car Culture were classic cars, as mentioned above in Jogja, and also above you just saw an immaculate Benz, RWB Porsche, and Countach. Again, we work with what we have or what is accesible. If you can’t have fun in a used modern car (because as Mr. CSL mentioned, the price can be atrocious..), why not take a classic Corolla or BMW or Benz for a spin?

And that concludes why I think Indonesia’s car scene is awesome. This is my first blog post so, please leave a comment about how i can improve my writing, and thank you for reading my blogpost. Also, if you think i’m missing sonething, please notify me in the comments. Thank You, and Peace Out, CTZens!

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Comments

Anonymous

lamborghini countach? where did you found it? Batam? :o

01/05/2016 - 14:27 |
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Apoetra97

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

It’s not my photo…. i found it on Instagram

01/05/2016 - 14:31 |
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Wesley Thung

I heard from my realtives indonesia that there is a very high tax on cars. Does this mean that the carscene consists of rich people?

01/05/2016 - 14:34 |
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Not necessarily. The high road tax applies to newer cars, so the scene consists mostly of classics because the tax weren’t as high. But there’s still a lot of Supercars here in Indonesia. Check out @SpeedCreed on Instagram, that’s where the supercars usually featured

01/05/2016 - 14:43 |
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DatLexusGuy

ayee.. greet from batam island my friend.. :)

01/05/2016 - 14:35 |
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there are actually a lot of subbie here

01/05/2016 - 14:37 |
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Me BOOSTa

ayee…. greet from jawa timur m8 (:

01/05/2016 - 14:57 |
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White HB12

And don’t forget brah everybody in Indonesia while driving is more like racin… an example is bus driver, motorcyclist and many more… why? Because we only have 1 International Circuit for racin a car or motorbike

01/05/2016 - 15:16 |
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Joshua 2JZRB26

Even in Surabaya, there is so much performance shop here.
For example, GUT Motorsport, GAR Power, etc

If you crazy camber fan, you can go to Autoji :p

01/06/2016 - 04:47 |
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Oh no…. i don’t like -60 degrees camber on the Jazz :v

01/06/2016 - 04:56 |
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Anonymous

And don’t forget, we have a MINE’S Destrier Ultra GTR 1000HP, 01/01

01/06/2016 - 08:30 |
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RED WRX

Great article. Love seeing fellow Indonesian CTzens (although I was only a silent reader till now). I’d like to add one point that you didn’t mention: Indonesia has lots of car communities and their varieties. One that I point out is the petrolheads’ speed goers communities such as Speed Creed, jdm.run, SpeedFreak, and so on. Many of them drive high performance cars, often they drive rare gems such as R34 GTR (which the 2002 model price now is over $150k), NSX, S2K, Supra, older model Evo and STi, and so on.
The scene is spread in major parts of the country, not only in big cities, but smaller areas such as Jogja, Solo, Medan, Semarang is now growing, too. Though the streets are not the best for speed and there are many downsides as stated before, our passion won’t fade.

01/07/2016 - 02:51 |
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omDidit

Nice write up. As a balanced view from the other article. Keep it up !!
Mantap gan

01/07/2016 - 03:03 |
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