Spottings from Budapest

[phil_lihp]

Just spent a superb weekend in Budapest seeing the sights and had the opportunity to absorb plenty of local culture.  This includes the benefits of being in an ex-eastern bloc country; I don't normally tend to bother much at home but on the streets of Budapest I became a shite-spotting MANIAC.

 

We start with this funny little thing not far from the hotel, never heard of a Daewoo Tico before but seems to have some Domino/Alto in its ancestry.  Saw a few more buzzing around later one but this one was particularly dog-eared.

 

 

Further along was this.  No idea what it was.  Looks a bit Russian.

 

And a backside view, no badges so still no idea.  

 

A Samara and a Parliament building.  Plenty of these still around.

 

 

This appeared to be a static display, shame really.

 

 

This, on the other hand, was one of several still working hard despite looking at least 40 years old.  I don't know lorries so again no idea what it is.

 

 

One solitary BX displaying patented nose-up-arse-down position with bonus Clio saloon.  Loads of those about too, I think they're called Thalius which sounds like a body part.

 

 

A four-stroke Polo-engined Trabant and one of the several million Suzuki Swifts swarming around the city in various states of disrepair.

 

 

This was lovely, particularly from the back.  The whitewall tyres were not.

 

 

I walked down a narrow street to be greeted by the strong whiff of a carb engine running on full choke and found this FSO with the elderly owner sat inside waiting for it to warm up.  Didn't sound too healthy and the Astra trims don't suit it but it was pretty tidy.

 

 

Decadent communist transport that only foolish dreamers would dare to hope for.

 

 

Saw a few of these, no idea at all other than the grill badge which said Maruti.  Looked desperately basic and miserable.

 

 

And saving the best until last, on Saturday I walked out of my hotel at 1:00PM to find a young chap called Balázs and this.

 

 

I'd booked a 3 hour Trabant tour and I can safely say it was a superb way to see the city with limited time, Balázs was a mechanical engineering student who loves his Trabants and was a fountain of knowledge and facts about both Budapest and the car.

 

 

This is one of 5 he owns including a Combi he restored to as-new for his mother after her much loved one was stolen.  This one's done 200,000km and came back from a 900km trip to a meet in Germany only last year.  It's been customised with a very clever fuel gauge pipe on the tank (otherwise you have to use a little dipstick), a heater from a different car that actually works and a horn from a bus.

 

 

Inside it's standard apart from real seatbelts (american tourists struggle to get in, let alone work an ancient manual seatbelt buckle) and a really clever cruise control lever attached to the throttle body.

 

 

Surprisingly comfortable little cars and the engine's very loud but actually not really a problem as you can still hold a normal conversation over it.  

 

Highly recommended and now I want a Trabant.

 

Oh, and he does this in his spare time:

 

[Split_Pin]

Excellent stuff on the Trabant tour. I'd love to be blezzed around for a few hours in that. Your dark blue mystery car is a Moskvich Aleko, a design not based at all* on the Chrysler Alpine.

[Bucketeer]

Budapest is a great city.

2nd and 3rd pics are a Moskvich Aleko.

Tico's are commonplace all over Eastern Europe. It took me a while to work out what they were as none of them seem to have badges or any other identifying marks.

Whilst not my cup of chai, that Trabant looks in superb fettle.

 

Oh and great pics.

[KruJoe]

That's an ace write-up Phil, thanks for sharing, especially the Aleko. I'm surprised there's that much tat still to be seen in Hungary, I'm sure it has changed a lot since I was last there in a previous century.

The Maruti thing is basically an early Suzuki Alto built under license. It may well be one of the 500 "Maruti 800's" which were the first cars that India commercially exported the The West*.

*For some reason, all of that batch went to Hungary.

 

Europe's 1990's Suzuki Swifts were made in Hungary, so that's why you saw so many. The similarly shaped AWD Subaru Justys were made in the same factory. I now have two.

[phil_lihp]

Just realised I abandoned this thread.  Thanks for the IDs, yes there was a decent spread of tat left but as Balázs told me, most people wanted a western car and when communism's grip started to relax very few people still held on to the relics of what was for many not a particularly wonderful time to live.  The Trabant was for a period despised by many as a hated symbol of a past regime but now it's more of a curiosity and attracted a lot of smiles and slightly bemused onlookers.  There's still a few later Polo-engined ones dotted around but the air-cooled examples seem to be quite rare now.

 

Random history lesson: He told me that there was an 8 year wait for a Trabant at one period (very fast, it was up to 15 years in East Germany!) , you could specify a colour when you ordered one but there was no guarantee you'd actually get what you asked for.  Those of really high aspirations could dream of owning a Lada but that was beyond most people.  

 

Considering how recently the Russians left (1992) and how much the country still struggles to shake their past from politics, it's entered a totally different era now, the McDonalds, Costa Coffees and stretched Hummer limo cruising the streets makes that abundantly clear but the odd car and hideous communist architecture remain and Balázs was keen to point out that they should stay as reminders, it wasn't a particularly good time but it was Hungary's time and needs to be remembered.

 

My favourite of his many stories was the Trabant 601 Combi he got for his Mum.  She loved hers but was very sad after it got stolen.  A couple of years ago Balázs found an identical one, rebuilt it to brand-new standard including rolling the odometer back to 0 (!) and presented to her as a gift.  Apparently she was understandably delighted!

[Inspector Morose]

Thinking of trabbis, there was an East German joke about the waiting list. A man question up to put his name down for at Trabant in 1972. "Ah yes", says the fellow behind the desk "you can collect it on Wednesday the 12th of October 1987 at 09:00". After a short pause, the prospective customer replies "can I come in the afternoon instead as I've got the plumber coming in the morning".

 

Boom tish.

[Bucketeer]

I would have really liked a local guide to share more of the history and flavour of the place.

They could also have advised me not to burst into a local people's cave church in the middle of mass.

 

As an aside, Budapest was the only place I've visited where the big supermarket (Tesco or Billa) had a whole aisle dedicated to car tyres.