Obscure Polish cars

[Andrew353w]

True, very true! If only the re-launch of FSO Cars in the mid 1990s had been better handled they might still be in business now. The re-launch of the company, selling the Caro, coincided with the cessation of Lada cars being imported to the U.K. The market for a really cheap car was wide open and FSO could have capitalised on it, but it never came to fruition.

 

Yes, the Caro, with Vauxhall/GM and Citroen/PSA input wasn't a bad car at all! Taxi drivers loved them, and that's always a good recommendation!

[Albert Ross]

Saw a foreign registered Red Zastava 750L today, in Doncaster. Looked well tidy. No pics, I was at work!

[Barry Cade]

True, very true! If only the re-launch of FSO Cars in the mid 1990s had been better handled they might still be in business now. The re-launch of the company, selling the Caro, coincided with the cessation of Lada cars being imported to the U.K. The market for a really cheap car was wide open and FSO could have capitalised on it, but it never came to fruition.

 

Yes, the Caro, with Vauxhall/GM and Citroen/PSA input wasn't a bad car at all! Taxi drivers loved them, and that's always a good recommendation!

You're kidding,right? caro's were shite! A brand new car with a wiring loom made of scotchlocks,a gearbox that was way below the rating of the engine,horribly heavy steering and plastics with the quality of my piecebox. Don't get me started on trying to get the petrol's through an emissions test too. Horrible,hateful things. I'm half Polish too so want to like them so much...

[cms206]

 

... caro's were shite! A brand new car with a wiring loom made of scotchlocks,a gearbox that was way below the rating of the engine,horribly heavy steering and plastics with the quality of my piecebox. Don't get me started on trying to get the petrol's through an emissions test too. Horrible,hateful things...

... so... what's not to like?! I'll have eleventy!

[Barry Cade]

[Tayne]

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[Marshall]

Interesting stuff Tayne. I see you got to see what was left of this dealer in the end. - Not much eh!?

[Tayne]

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[Marshall]

You should try and get that and save it for posterity. Thats the kind of stuff I would put on my garage wall (If I had one!)

[Tayne]

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[Marshall]

^^^Yep - even better! I would save it if you can cos, lets face it, it WILL just get binned otherwise.

[Lankytim]

Could you not get said Polish chap (or a mate) to drive one over for you, then register it in his name, then sell it to you as a UK-registered car? Lots of the Poles I know have bought thier own motors over and I dont think there is any problems getting them UK registered.

 

 

Id we well up for some FSO fun. Maybe it would be possible to buy a LHD early 90's Mondeo or similar over here for £250 or so and drive it to Poland, do a swap with a pre-arranged punter and crooz the POLSKI-FIAT home.

 

Or just fly there with £100 in an envelope.

[scoobypete]

I bought an FSO Polonez in about '98,it was a one owner job,forget what reg it was now but the guy had replaced it with an older volvo 360... :

Itd been stood up a while so paid him the 50 quid he was askin,bit of fuel and a new battery it eventually fired up and i drove it the half a mile home stupidly happy with my new very shite purchase

Same as this:

Except it had some kind of cheap white weller replica wheels on it......

 

Effin thing never went again once id got it home...justpoint blank refused to start.....so it sat around for a few weeks before being scrappered....

 

 

Random ad...

[Marshall]

^^^ Polonez Prima

 

[barrett]

The only Polonez i've been in was a Prima with those wheels. It was the first car i'd been in where all the windows wound down totally out of sight, which I found quite impressive at the time.

[scoobypete]

Yeh! thats the blighter lol

wow that pic brings back memories,mine was blue,it did have a pop up sunroof (wind up) iirc and front fogs only one of mine was cracked and brown..

The seats were amazingly soft too but the steering was rock solid so you could only relax on the straights till the next corner came up

Also remember thinking how bad the interior build quality was,poorly moulded/fitted with old fiat switches stuck in crudely made holes and exposed screws everywhere

 

try and find one now tho....

[Barry Cade]

Heres a pic of my old work, the FSO dealer in Alness.. once the biggest selling FSO dealer in Scotland! Along with the new Caros and pickups, there were a few Polonez' which were trade ins, and a good few Montegos and Maestros..and an Alvis TD21.. All the Lada's went to the Russians who came in to Invergordon, they bought them all!

 

 

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