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My granddad used to have one up until the late 2000's. Slow, noisy, uncomfortable, stench was unbearable. But worst of all those things were the gear shifts. Fu
by axegon_ 3y ago
My granddad used to have one up until the late 2000's. Slow, noisy, uncomfortable, stench was unbearable. But worst of all those things were the gear shifts. Funnily enough it was the first car I ever drove - I must have been like 10 or 11 (on an abandoned dirt road in the countryside, worst thing that could have happened is running over a grasshopper). I think he got it in the second half of the 80's or something like that. Those were a lot more desirable than the other soviet cars available in eastern Europe: at least finding a half-empty bottle of vodka left behind the door panels was out of the equation. As far as that region of the world, the decent(strong word) choices were Trabant and Skoda - all other cars were practically designed to decapitate you in even the lightest accident(I witnessed a fair bit of horror stories when I was a child and soviet cars were still roaming the streets). By having a Skoda or a Trabant you had some chance of survival. This was their only redeeming quality really.
- kazinator 3y ago> thing that could have happened is running over a grasshopper If that happens to be a locust, there is a risk of rollover.
- gumballindie 3y agoWhats paradoxical though is how these vehicles lasted decades. Sure they had issues, but trabants, skodas, dacias, yugos, all worked for decades - of course they required maintenance but were so basic that anyone could do it. Somehow modern cars have all the gadgets yet fall apart once out of leasing and last 10 years at most.
- jacquesm 3y agoWhat's not on there can't break ;) That said, they did break frequently, but always fixable.
- OfSanguineFire 3y agoIndeed, for a few years after socialism ended, it was common for old Dacias to be recommended to tourists to Romania as the best choice of rental car. The idea being that if you had a breakdown, anyone in the country would know how to fix with it rudimentary tools. I once heard someone quip that all you needed to fix most Dacia problems was a hammer.
- visarga 3y agoFunny thing is that the modern incarnation of the Dacia brand is now selling about as many units as Skoda and half as VW (which is #1) in Europe.
- OfSanguineFire 3y agoThe modern Dacia brand, however, are complex, modern cars. The socialist-era Dacia was a locally made copy of the Renault 12, a 1960s-era vehicle with a simple design.
- hulitu 3y agoModern cars have electronics which needs wonders to survive more than 10 years.
- izacus 3y agoThis is BS, the AVERAGE age of a car on the road is 12 years, with most easily lasting for longer. Cars have massively improved in reliability these days to the point where you've all forgotten all the stuff we had to go through as owners of carburator driven cars. Not staring in the winter, empty batteries, having to heat up diesel, dealing with constant light bulb breakages...
- The_Colonel 3y agoThat's right, modern cars are more reliable than old cars were when new, but are also usually more difficult to fix once something breaks.
- orbital-decay 3y agoThey really didn't, it's all survivorship bias, and those that survived were usually maintained out of necessity or not used at all. > of course they required maintenance but were so basic that anyone could do it The problem with most products made under planned economy is that they often didn't even work out of the factory, and required part replacement or hacking some solution right off the bat. And the maintenance wasn't really trivial most of the time. Yes, modern cars have planned obsolescence but they are far more reliable and don't need to be serviced that often.
- jacquesm 3y ago> The problem with most products made under planned economy is that they often didn't even work out of the factory This happens under capitalism as well. Judging by the amount of junk in your average building store's tool department... some of it looks just like the real thing, in some cases they aren't even trying. I recently bought an air relief key for my radiators, they only sold them in packs of three. All three of them were of such crappy casting material that they broke on the first tap I tried to open with them. Fortunately I found one made in the 70's or so from stainless steel and that worked like a charm. But you couldn't buy that quality today in a normal store, you'd have to go to some specialty place that sells tools for professionals, get yourself a registered account with them and then you can order. Planned economy products were a mixed bag, that's for sure, but capitalism can produce junk just as easily. What matters are the incentives and to what degree the buyers have access to alternatives.
- coldtea 3y ago>They really didn't, it's all survivorship bias Visit Cuba to see the "survivorship bias" theory proven BS. Or many places in Asia and Africa and Latin America, for that matter. Older cars, including cheap ones like the 2CV, VW Beetle, Fiat Mini, Yugo, and such, were very serviceable and durable, with very easy means of repair. I know people who in 2023, still have the Beetle, 2CV, and Mini in working condition (and rather pristine), their family having it since the 70s. And I had a friend who was using a Yugo for over 20 years, from student to 40ish (he changed it when he got a kid). If a modern car, engine or one of the dozens of cpus die, you're SOL without the manufacturer support, original parts, and official service. Even worse for an electric. With those you could go around the world (and many in the 60s and 70s did, like going on "hippie" style adventures), and fix them locally, sometimes even with the most basic tools. >those that survived were usually maintained out of necessity And that's bad (or invalidates their durability) because?
- dzikimarian 3y agoSorry but that's pure urban legend. My father at the time had Skoda and before that a Siren. Each year when he tried to transport grandparents 20km for Xmas eve, when the temperature dropped it was half a day of tinkering with no guarantee of working. Meanwhile over last decade I pulled multiple 3k km+ vacation trips over the Europe in 13-15 years old cars. Worst thing that happened was single random "check engine" light that went away later. Communism was shit. I hope I won't ever see it again.
- axegon_ 3y agoBack in 2009 when I got my licence, I was really tempted to buy an '89 BMW e34 which had done 2.5 million kilometers. It was absolutely perfect in every way but I simply could not afford the fuel needed for a 3.5 liter straight six bi-turbo(it was the Alpina B10). I'd still get one if I find it for a reasonable price but that's kinda off topic. point is, it had done 2.5 million kilometers. As for the soviet cars, they rarely had done over 100k. A neighbor of ours when I was a kid had a lada and in it's 30 years it had done less than 35000km and for as long as people could remember, nothing that involved wires in the car ever worked. Point is, by those accounts, a mule is possibly the most reliable form of transportation and will likely outlast any car.
- fsh 3y agoNo, they really didn't last decades. The horrible two-stroke engine of the Trabant had a design lifespan of only 60000 km, and the rest wasn't much better. Since buying a new car was nearly impossible, people kept theirs on the road by constantly swapping out parts.
- tharkun__ 3y agoPeople put in Trabant orders when their grand children were born. As an 18th birthday gift. Theres a German entertainer that made TV skit where he tracked down some of these people (probably some time in the late 90s or early 2000s and "delivered" their new Trabant on (hidden) camera. Quite fun.
- rvba 3y agoThings built during communist times often did not have any planned obsolescence. The vacuum cleaners, refridgerators - are inefficient but built like tanks. Also often primitive enough to be repaired.
- bojan 3y ago> Whats paradoxical though is how these vehicles lasted decades This isn't really true. My dad's Yugo was always breaking down. The only redeeming thing was that the car was easily serviceable and the parts were cheap and widely available. So after 10 years or so you end up with a Yugo of Theseus.
- jacquesm 3y agoThat bottle would never be half empty.
- zabzonk 3y agoskoda are now pretty good and popular, in the UK at least https://www.skoda.co.uk/new-cars/range https://www.skoda.co.uk/new-cars/range
- flohofwoe 3y agoThe new Skodas are basically "reskinned" VWs.
- actionfromafar 3y agoAren’t Skodas the LTS versions of VW?
- flohofwoe 3y agoYep that's pretty much spot on :)
- omnimus 3y agoAre you sure? Afaik The way VW works is the companies themselves compete against each other and all brands within the corp have pretty big autonomy. They do use some of the same parts but they are designed and build in different places by different people. With EVs this might be unified even more but ICE VWs and Skodas feel quite differently. Just like you wouldnt say Audi or Porche is reskinned VW. If anything VW (not the corp, the car brand) is probably upset that Skoda is taking some of their customers since they make better cars than they should.
- flohofwoe 3y agoAFAIK the core parts (engine, drive train, ...) are taken from VW without modifications. Only the "human facing parts" (body, interior, ...) are different. But yes, the "sub-companies" are fairly autonomous. In East Germany especially, Skodas are quite popular because they offer great value for the money.
- rvba 3y agoI heard few times that the Skodas were too good and started cannibalizing VW sales, so the newer models were made worse.
- BrandoElFollito 3y agoWasn't Lada or Fiat an option too?
- BlackFingolfin 3y agoFiat is from Italy, so probably no
- BrandoElFollito 3y agoFiat was very popular in Poland and was also manufactured in Poland. Fiat 126p or 125p was a staple of communism in Poland.
- Beldin 3y agoFiat is Italian, so from the other side of the Iron Curtain.
- PaulRobinson 3y agoThe Polish government licensed the right to build several Fiat cars under the brand “Polski Fiat”. Fiat was pretty open to doing a deal with communist states if they could, and communist states were more than happy to be “inspired” by other manufacturers when designing cars, either by stealing ideas (Trabant 600 has lots of ideas taken from VW and Saab cars of the era), or through proper licensing deals. The first Lada for example is a Soviet government take on the Fiat 126p.
- ahoka 3y agoLada is based on Fiat 124. 126 is the Polski.
- izacus 3y agoThat doesn't mean all that much though, there were several Fiat cats being built in eastern/southern Europe. E.g. Zastava was building them (the Yugo, "crappiest" car in the world was a licensed Fiat platform, same with 101 and 750). Polski Fiat was another example of Fiats common licensing of their platforms to Eastern Europe. They weren't very good, but they were available.
- coldtea 3y ago>Those were a lot more desirable than the other soviet cars available in eastern Europe: at least finding a half-empty bottle of vodka left behind the door panels was out of the equation. Why not finding one would that make it more desirable? If anything, it would have doubled its value!