Unloved and much maligned....

You've probably noticed by now ( or maybe not) that I have a thing about Eastern European cars... but not in the same way as my thing about trains and Jenny Agutter.... I've owned several Lada Rivas, and a workmate of mine owns a Niva 4x4.... and we've always found them to be rugged, reliable and useful... they were also cheap.... Lada, just like Skoda before the VW takeover, were the butt of many jokes...and I could never see why.... lets be honest, as a sixties car, the Riva was head and shoulders above everything British.. based on theCar-of the Year Fiat... alright, so it didn't change much for thirty years (and still hasn't) but did it need to??? I mean, modern cars contain so many unneccessary advances that I often think a loyt of it is progress for the sake of it.... a lot of fibs were told about Lada especially.. for instance, it was the financial situation in Russia that led to exports being stopped, not the brakes or emissions... as many MOT testers will testify, Ladas in the seventies had much better brakes than most eighties western offerings, and the emissions on my 1987 estate would have satisfied the levels for a brand new car in 2000.... so why did Eastern European cars get such a bad press?? Politics!!!! If it became apparent that a workable, good car could be had for half the price of a cheap tinny unreliable one, there was always a possibility that the good folks at the bottom would start thinking Communism was a good idea.... and that would never do... and so began the mission of damning Red Cars.... some of which was ridiculous... for example, we were told not to drive a Moskvich 412... why not?? because if you loosened all the wheelnuts, the wheels could fall off.... surprise surprise!!! why you would loosen them was never made apparent... neither was the fact that you could say the same about any car!!! So it was politics that tried to kill the Lada.... However, that looks set to change... British van firm LDV now belongs to GAZ, the Russian truck and SUV manufacturer, and Lada is sort of part of GM.... but still doing their own designs... even Yugo are back on the scene... so with a bit of luck we will be seeing "commie cars" back in this country soon.... but there we are.... until next time, anyone who has defied authority and bought a decent car, Wisebeard salurtes you....