Most drivers couldn't start up their cars because of severe frosts. Only the most skillful drivers did manage. Others had to use public transport, so they would not be late for work. Everyone preferred to leave their cars parked in driveway, only desperate housewives and bossy women continued driving.

as an old Russian joke says: there are no roads in Russia - only directions...

In the times of the Soviet Union Russian women and especially girls couldn't afford a car of their own. It was impossibly expensive. So, if a family had a car, it was a man (a father) who usually drove it. Women could only dream... Now, when the times have changed, a car is no longer a luxury. Russian women and young girls adore cars, and high speed. Although lately it's got rather hard even to move about Moscow, let alone going with high speed. Traffic jams are huge and permanent, even late at night. But nevertheless you can always see girls and women driving everywhere.

Russian cars are the cheapest here now. And many people drive them. But those, who have enough money, and especially youth, would rather have foreign cars. Korean cars, such as Hyundai and Kia, are in great demand because of their appropriate prices. So as some models of Nissan. But in Moscow young girls prefer Citroen and Peugeot.

Even about 15 years ago having a car in our country was a sign of being rich and prosperous. Not every family could afford to have a car. Nowadays the situation has changed. Practically all families have a car, and financially-secured families have 2 and sometimes 3 cars.
Unfortunately, underground parking places is a new thing for our country. There are such parking places only in Moscow, in new, expensive, elite houses. In a town situated near Moscow where I live, there are not such parking places at all!