Cars you didn't know existed until very recently.

[EyesWeldedShut]

9 minutes ago, martc said:

The Moskvitch 1500 SL from 1980. Quite a smart facelift IMHO.

There was a guy in the village I grew up in that had one of the these (I think it was white and a nagging feeling it may have been an estate).
This would be around 1976 - no idea if it was RHD - he was a Glasgow guy and would be up and down the road to there (so I think the dealer would have been up that way).
The robust* machine did not fare well with our seaside air and the salt on the roads - it was replaced by a Lada which fared similarly well*

[martc]

8 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

There was a guy in the village I grew up in that had one of the these (I think it was white and a nagging feeling it may have been an estate).
This would be around 1976 - no idea if it was RHD - he was a Glasgow guy and would be up and down the road to there (so I think the dealer would have been up that way).
The robust* machine did not fare well with our seaside air and the salt on the roads - it was replaced by a Lada which fared similarly well*

Moskvitch's were sold in the UK in the early '70's and did quite well until the Consumer Association laid into them due to 'safety problems'. The same safety problems which every other make of car suffered from at the time (because safety wasn't a thing back then). Anyhow Moskvitch's sales plummeted and they withdrew from the UK. Some conspiracy theorists believed that the Association were steered towards the foul commie car by the press departments of more established manufacturers....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moskvitch_412#:~:text=01 Pickup truck-,Sales in the UK,some 300 cars were sold.

The Moskvitch sold here was the 412, I clearly remember them - the van version was used on Hull Docks as utility run arounds. The version I posted above is the facelift of it, a model that had escaped  my attention until a few hours ago.

 

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

27 minutes ago, martc said:

Consumer Association

Ahhh - the infamous Which? magazine.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist but, knowing that lot, I'd not be too surprised if they were tipped off, paid off, whatever..........

[artdjones]

39 minutes ago, martc said:

Moskvitch's were sold in the UK in the early '70's and did quite well until the Consumer Association laid into them due to 'safety problems'. The same safety problems which every other make of car suffered from at the time (because safety wasn't a thing back then). Anyhow Moskvitch's sales plummeted and they withdrew from the UK. Some conspiracy theorists believed that the Association were steered towards the foul commie car by the press departments of more established manufacturers....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moskvitch_412#:~:text=01 Pickup truck-,Sales in the UK,some 300 cars were sold.

The Moskvitch sold here was the 412, I clearly remember them - the van version was used on Hull Docks as utility run arounds. The version I posted above is the facelift of it, a model that had escaped  my attention until a few hours ago.

 

 

They did pretty well in production car racing, as the categories were based on the car's on the road price so a  very cheap 1.5 was much faster than  other maker's weedy one litre economy cars.

[sheffcortinacentre]

There used to be a light gold saloon near my school in the late 70's I used to be a amused by the fact that it's nextdoor neighbour had an early 70's ford galaxie saloon.

Edited April 13 by sheffcortinacentre

[adw1977]

I believe Moskvich had the distinction of being the last car on the UK market for under £1000, a price point they managed until 1975, at the same time that a base Escort was £1300 and a Mini 850 over £1200.

Glass's Guide

[RayMK]

I persuaded my dad to at least take a look at a brand new Moskvich in 1971 when his RHD 1966 Ford Taunus 17m estate began to rust furiously.  We visited a fairly  local dealer and dad said 'NO' after 20 minutes.  He had noticed that one of the front brake flexibles was rubbing on the tyre on full  lock.  I managed to get him to look at a Wartburg Knight on the same trip as there was a dealer in Princes Risborough.  He quite liked it but, being somewhat conservative with his car choices,  he was able to criticise the inconvenience of having to mix oil with the petrol at each fill-up.  He eventually sold the Taunus privately and bought a white Vauxhall Victor FE (1.8litre) which I did not like at all.  Nevertheless, Moskvich and Wartburg were quite common in the UK for a few years (in the Midlands).  

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, adw1977 said:

I believe Moskvich had the distinction of being the last car on the UK market for under £1000, a price point they managed until 1975, at the same time that a base Escort was £1300 and a Mini 850 over £1200.

Glass's Guide

Weren’t they often on Sale of the Century as the star prize because there was a rule at the time that TV game  shows could only have a max £1000 prize?

[MiniMinorMk3]

1971 Fiat 132-S Flares by Michelotti

[MiniMinorMk3]

1968 Simca 1501 Coupe by Heuliez. Never made it into production.

[SEATMad]

Only just realised that in Brazil, they marketed the Escort Mk4 & 5 as Volkswagens as the Apollo and Pointer respectfully. 

[Richard_FM]

3 hours ago, SEATMad said:

Only just realised that in Brazil, they marketed the Escort Mk4 & 5 as Volkswagens as the Apollo and Pointer respectfully. 

The southern hemisphere is a hotbed for odd badge engineered cars!

[AnthonyG]

I think the Consumers Association thing about Moskvitch safety was more about the condition of the cars on delivery rather than any major defect in the design. Even some Western European cars, particularly volume British ones, were delivered to customers in a fairly shocking state by modern standards.

The main reason the Moskvitch 1500 was binned by the importers was the launch of the Lada - suddenly they had a much more modern looking, sellable vehicle to offer. Ladas were also better quality due to the modern factory (packed full of up to date equipment) that Fiat had built for the Russians in the late 60s. 

Moskvitch imports over here had ceased by the time the facelift one with the square headlights came out. 

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, Richard_FM said:

The southern hemisphere is a hotbed for odd badge engineered cars!

I like that 2 door Orion, closely related with another space themed name. Some resemblance to a 80s BMW 3 series at the back.

[MiniMort]

6 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

Moskvitch imports over here had ceased by the time the facelift one with the square headlights came out. 

They had square lights since about 1969, but the 2140 with it's fancy tech (and Girling brakes!) that would have made it much more desirable was the one the UK didn't get. But because they were withdrawn from sale here in 1976, it is easy to forget just how long production of the 412 continued. I know someone from the USSR who sold their 1979 2140 for a brand new IZH 412 in 1990, and even then you could still buy a new one at the end of that decade. Apparently the Samara that replaced it felt like a spaceship.

[EyesWeldedShut]

3 hours ago, MiniMort said:

Apparently the Samara that replaced it felt like a spaceship.

That rang a bell in the old grey cells - haven't seen one of those in years - had a look at HowManyLeft - maybe that's why - 49,000 back in 1994, 104 today

[bunglebus]

Just seen this, a Ssangyong Torres

 

[Bazfr69]

2 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Just seen this, a Ssangyong Torres

 

Looks like a Q2 via AI. 🧐

[MiniMinorMk3]

2 hours ago, Bazfr69 said:

Looks like a Q2 via AI. 🧐

Or more like the bastard love child of a Range Rooney and a new Defender.

[cort1977]

Was going to say, not bad looking that new Range Rover...

[AnthonyG]

15 hours ago, MiniMort said:

They had square lights since about 1969, but the 2140 with it's fancy tech (and Girling brakes!) that would have made it much more desirable was the one the UK didn't get. But because they were withdrawn from sale here in 1976, it is easy to forget just how long production of the 412 continued. I know someone from the USSR who sold their 1979 2140 for a brand new IZH 412 in 1990, and even then you could still buy a new one at the end of that decade. Apparently the Samara that replaced it felt like a spaceship.

Apparently IZH ones were better built, and were regarded as more robust than the original Moskvitch, certainly by those who lived way out in the Soviet sticks.

Think I’m right in saying IZH, a massive engineering factory, is/was Ukrainian? 

[MiniMort]

Just now, AnthonyG said:

Apparently IZH ones were better built, and were regarded as more robust than the original Moskvitch, certainly by those who lived way out in the Soviet sticks.

Think I’m right in saying IZH, a massive engineering factory, is/was Ukrainian? 

Pretty sure they're based in Izhevsk, Russia - ZAZ was the Ukrainian car brand.

Definitely have also heard that IZH cars were better built, though. And they had the unique Moskvitch hatchback - the IZH 2125:

[martc]

13 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

Apparently IZH ones were better built, and were regarded as more robust than the original Moskvitch, certainly by those who lived way out in the Soviet sticks.

Think I’m right in saying IZH, a massive engineering factory, is/was Ukrainian? 

Phun phact - IZH also make the Kalashnikov rifle and motorbikes. I had an IZH (marketed here as a Neval) Planeta and sidecar, which was considerably better than the popular motorbike mags seemed to suggest (quelle surprise).

Like this, but maroon and with a sidecar.

IZH are based in Izhevsk (see what they did there?), which is well and truly in Russia, near the Ural mountains. IZH are now known as the 'Kalashnikov Group'.

[MiniMinorMk3]

1948 Gatso 4000

[High Jetter]

^^^ would be embarrassing if caught by one of his speed cameras!

[quicksilver]

25 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

^^^ would be embarrassing if caught by one of his speed cameras!

The irony being that Gatsonides invented the speed camera to encourage faster driving. As a racer he wanted to measure his speed so he could improve it, so its role as a speeding deterrent is the exact opposite of its original purpose. He apparently often was caught speeding by his own invention and wasn't embarrassed because in his own words "I love speeding".

[Muniphobia]

Interesting headlamp configuration, you know when you have been flashed by a Gatso

[barrett]

37 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

The irony being that Gatsonides invented the speed camera to encourage faster driving. As a racer he wanted to measure his speed so he could improve it, so its role as a speeding deterrent is the exact opposite of its original purpose. He apparently often was caught speeding by his own invention and wasn't embarrassed because in his own words "I love speeding".

I don't think that's quite right. He had devised methods of measuring speed over distance to help him in rallying, were keeping to certain average speeds was necessary, but the Gatsometer as we know it was invented when he was stopped for speeding by a policeman with a stopwatch who was measuing speed between two fixed points 100m apart. Gatso went back and measured the distance and found it was only 87m, and therefore he got out of the fine. He invented the Gatso as a way of accurately measuring speed/distance to prevent people from being spuriously fined when they hadn't actually been speeding, but it was designed specifically for the police to use for the sole purpose of measuring speed.

[sheffcortinacentre]

Raising money ( fixed that for you).

[MiniMinorMk3]

The Giulietta Folk by Moretti