According to the RA Law on Ensuring Road Traffic Safety, a passenger car is considered to be:

Explanation

A car with no more than 8 passenger seats, built and equipped for the safe and comfortable carriage of passengers and luggage.

The definition of a passenger car turns on the same figure of 8 as the definition of a bus: up to 8 passenger seats is a car, more than that is a bus. The driver's seat is not counted, so a seven-seat family van, or even a van with 8 passenger seats, still counts as a passenger car. The two definitions complement each other and leave no gap or overlap between them — and that is exactly what makes them usable in law.

The reason this classification matters is the different legal regime: licence category, technical inspection interval, speed limit and commercial passenger-carriage requirements are all tied to it. For a roadside check to be immediate and beyond dispute, the criterion must be countable and objective; counting seats is such a criterion, unlike vague measures such as the size or appearance of the vehicle. Memorise the figure 8 and do not tie it to the 3,500 kg limit of category B — these are two separate criteria and both must be met.

• A ceiling of 4 seats and an exception for children under 12 do not exist in the legal definition of a passenger car; the law's criterion is a count of passenger seats up to a limit of 8, regardless of the occupants' age.

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