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You are forgetting that there was once a worse car than both the Wartburg and the Lada
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I seem to recall that the Moskvitch (not Moskovitch) was the only car that Motor magazine ever awarded one star (out of 5) for brakes. They considered giving it no stars at all. Fast enough to be dangerous, with an 1800 ohc motor based on (i.e. copied from) a BMW design. I haven't seen one in twenty years. Would make a hilarious historic saloon racer - a guy named Tony Lanfranchi used to race them and beat everything in his class. But then the class was based on new purchase price, so the opposition consisted of rear-engined 1100 Skodas and Fiat 126s....
If you really, really want a Moskvitch or Wartburg, probably the best place to try is the Unloved Soviet and Socialist Register (USSR) - contact details are in Practical Classics Magazine. They operate a spares scheme (Communist Classic Car Parts, or CCCP) and you'd have to be mad not to join them. Actually, you'd have to be mad to buy one of these cars in the first place....
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Back when the Berlin Wall came down, I was in Germany, and had to contend with the delightful Trabants coming over from the east. Autobahn driving became fun overnight, as these papier mache monstrosities hogged the inside lane at 60kph, causing everything else (artics, busses, other trabants) to overtake them ...
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Richard Hall wrote:
>
> If you really, really want a Moskvitch or Wartburg, probably
> the best place to try is the Unloved Soviet and Socialist
> Register (USSR) - contact details are in Practical Classics
> Magazine.
Why do we run this website, I ask myself, when people don't bother to look? The Unloved etc. Register is listed in our Car Clubs page, there for all to see without going out and buying Practical Classics. I *could* reprint them here. But I won't because I'm too peed off!
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The wartburg a Classic?
Or Practical?
Two lies for the price of one, surely?
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Martyn
So it is. Please accept my apologies. The USSR is such an obscure organisation that it never occurred to me that it might be listed on your website.
Richard
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Richard, put it down to my getting out of the wrong side of the bed this morning!
Martyn
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Aah, but how about the Volga? a 1950's style saloon that once enjoyed a brief vogue as taxis at Worthing Station I recall. But what I always wanted was that Lincoln Continental lookalike much favored by party apparatchiks known as the Chaika. Might as well break down in style.
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the worst car must be the zastava, and even when these were new you couldnt find the parts.
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if you have read the current issue of practical classics, the back page has a very odd car profile, its of the ZAPOROJETZ, which is a horrible little car. practical classics even say "the zaporojetz, a car that made trabants look sophisticated". the zap (as it was known as) had a 887cc, 27 bhp engine, it was rear engined, and it was made in the ukraine, it was built from 1960 to 1994, and was very un-economical at only 22 mpg, as one person said when asked "what was the best thing about these cars" he said "the best thing about these cars is that production has stopped". but these are cheap at £80 for a good condition one, but one of the problems was that the engine was really the starter motor off a russian tank???
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another thing that people say is this... remember those sixties movies where the hero gently wiggles the wheel the whole time in the same way whether he's in mountain hairpins or on vast desert stretches? well you can do the same in the ZAP. the tiniest change of camber, the merest hint of a rut in the road, and the car wants to wander off into the scenery. grappling with the wheel as you rattle down perfectly straight roads will impress passengers that you really are driving!
terminal speed may only reach 60 mph in the ZAP, but no road is dull.
touch the brake pedal, and a red dashboard light comes on, this is supposed to mean the dual-circuit braking system is still attached to the car, but to anyone who needs to stop quickly, it means you're in danger of making the front luggage space even smaller. the front boot may only swallow six soviet string vests and a tow rope, but it does contain the car's most prized feature: a separate gas-powered heater that works even when the engine is switched off, which is perfect for keeping the occupants warm while they wait for the tow truck.
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You've forgotten the FSO Polonez. My mate's dad had one and it used to be referred to as F*****g S***e Object. Bought new in a hideous shade of primer grey it couldn't be given away after a few years
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I do so love it when moderators come out of their PC mode and become human!
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Anoraks unite. These I recall were Yugoslav built Fiats 1950/60's. Would parts really be that difficult?
Hey!!! Don't forget the Romanian DACIA! THat was a copy Renault. When I worked in Bahrain a whole batch of these along with the first Hyundai Ponys appeared. In 6 months nary a one was to be seen!
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Dacia?
Yeah! we had them here is S Africa in the early/mid nineties.
In pickup and station wagon varieties.
About 15% cheaper than the next cheapeat vehicle, but still couldn't sell!
Even now, they are a rarity on the road - they must have sold about 50 in total!
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Ladaman wrote: the worst car must be the zastava, and even when these were new you couldnt find the parts.
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OOPS! Hit the wrong button.
We are currently waiting for 16 (yes - sixteen) parts for currently manufactured cars, from a variety of manufacturers. Parts range from wheel trims to intercooler hoses. I currently have two cars off the road and three travelling around with what can only be described as 'bodged' repairs to keep them mobile.
Back-ordered parts (i.e not available from the manufacturer due to no supply) is a big problem today what with the OEM's cutting costs, presumably?
David
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Regarding parts all these so called bad cars are still running in large numbers throughout the world with no parts supply problem,they are easy to fix no complicated electronics .When euro buckets have rusted away I will bet my Trabant will still be running
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its like my lada, its easy to fix, cheap to repair, quite roomy, and when it breaks down you can see ALL parts of the engine, so it only take the basic tools to fix it, i once stopped to help a mercedes that had broken down, but we couldnt fix it because the engine was completely covered over.
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Have you never opened your lada and found an old mattress and sundry rubbish dumped in it?
;o)
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the only thing in my car that has rubbish in it, is the perodua nippa catalogue.
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Why would you possess such a thing then. Is the Nippa a Lada owner's dream car?
;o)
Actually I owned a Lada Riva for 3 months whilst learning to drive. Cost £600 and sold, well traded in, 3 months later for £300. How's about that for stellar depreciation. 60K on clock when bought, 62K when traded in. That would have been in 1989.
It was orange and on one of the panels the paint would come off on your hand. Crap repair there I think.
Worst of all it only did 16 MPG, yes SIXTEEN! And it was a 1300 model and its reg was A887 GEM - now scrapped (insurance web quotes say the number no longer exists).
AT least I did not crash it. But god it was an awful car. The worst car I ever had, but still my first so I will remember it for that.
The metro I traded it in for was an even worse rust bucket, but at least I got twice the petrol consumption out of it.
Cymro.
PS - sorry. i did have a worse car, experience wise than the lada. It was a base model vauxhall calibra - hows about this:
Bought March 1997 for £10,000 with 31,000 on clock, K plater (Jan 93).
Traded in for £3,200 in December 1999 with 61,000 on clock (for a BRAND NEW CAR, my first).
Now that was terrible depreciation. It would have been worse had the garage that took it had known that it went thrpough 8 Litres of Water PER HOUR (YES!!) and needed £2K spent on it for a new gasket thingy. Still, they probably wouldnt have been bothered as the dealership would have taken it to auction anyway.
Can anyone beat these two depreciation examples (with worse ones, obviously)?
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I was in Slovakia a few weeks ago and saw several whale-like Tatras lumbering about - rear engined V8s I believe.....
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