Practically Classics Forum

I was thinking about these far eastern budget cars on the way to work this morning. Ladas, FSO and all the other eastern European cars seem to have been wiped out by the Hyundai, Kia, Proton type of thing.

The Korean stuff is light years ahead of the old eastern bloc stuff,mind you the Korean stuff isn't especially cheap
I remember in 1980 when my Dad had a choice between a used Scirocco and a Lada 1200 combi,the silly sod came home with the Lada (in a lovely mustard colour) and as a car-mad 9 year old I couldn't live down the embarrasment !

Would I have one now? Of course I would,if only to embarrass the hell out of my boy.

Which is why we should have the what's a classic debate! nobody in their right mind in the seventies/early eighties would have ever thought that Ladas and their Easdtern bloc cousins would ever even be mentioned in a classic car discussion, they were frankly awful cars in their day but today we see them in a completely different light.....what made them awful then is what makes them so cool now.

(ex) Eastern bloc market cars do still exist, the Renault Logan is all over Eastern Europe and a lot of the less developed parts of the world, usually badged as a Dacia, but we don't see them here because our market is apparently too sophisticated for this type of car now and we expect more than just two airbags......although I suspect many people would quite like a Renault with less electrics, even though it does look a bit old fashioned.

Dacia Logan you say? Look what I see every day:




Mmm, Dacia Logan. Just like Johnny Logan but makes a better noise.

TBH they're not a bad looking little car

JPB wrote:Dacia Logan you say? Look what I see every day:




Mmm, Dacia Logan. Just like Johnny Logan but makes a better noise.

Nice wing mirror!

What's it attached to?

Aar0sc wrote:

JPB wrote:Dacia Logan you say? Look what I see every day:




Mmm, Dacia Logan. Just like Johnny Logan but makes a better noise.

Nice wing mirror!

What's it attached to?

This :-


What ? It is a classic you know

Cheeky bugger.

It's attached to this:


Oh hang about, this is the view that most people see of him:


Yep, sorry to disappoint but it's Dougie, my only working car and daily driving Dolomite.

Martin Evans wrote:I was thinking about these far eastern budget cars on the way to work this morning. Ladas, FSO and all the other eastern European cars seem to have been wiped out by the Hyundai, Kia, Proton type of thing.

What wiped out most ladas was the fact that they were bought cheap and run into the ground. The majority of the rest were bought up and re-exported to Eastern Bloc countries after the wall came down, as they were better specified than the home marketed Zhiguli, a good source of parts and actually cheaper than the home market cars as those had been rationed under communism.

The cheap kia's and protons and Hyundais will probably live fast and die young for much of the same reasons

what constitutes a classic? everytime i hear this i think of an episode of Minder where terry and the garage mechanic steal a rolls royce because the owner ows money but before they do they go to rolls royce dealer with arthor to ask about buying one and arthor says " got lots of money" the dealers reply " all of our customers have sir there is a two year waiting list" Arthor " oh ok then i think i'll just stick to the maxi"
different people have different views on cars/classics but we all take good care of them some more than others


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2dDOEzIoGM heres a clip if don't believe me