FSO Polonez at Anglia Car Auctions

[eddyramrod]

4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

I'd love to see it saved as I've always had a big soft spot for those cars and regret never having owned one when they were cheap as chips, though that's largely because they were basically extinct by the time I was driving and £100 Ladas were still pretty easy to find. 

I would love to see it saved too, as I have a big soft spot for them - see my avatar!  I have experience of them, they were ridiculously comfortable for their market position.  And ok, being the most comfortable thing at the money might not be much, but for arthritic pensioners like my parents it was, and still would be, a significant consideration.  Economy wasn't out of order against the actual competition of used Hillman Hunters and suchlike; ditto performance.  Prestige goes out of the window when your back is at stake, so the badge in unimportant.  RWD meant towing was an option if required.  The one in the background was mine, two years older than my dad's but with the four-headlight smoother front like the car ACA has; but still with the thick C pillars, no quarter window.  And yet mine had a five-speed box to my dad's four.  I was in my mid-30s when I was driving these; we're looking at about 1993-96.

So there is support and even love for these things!

[Timewaster]

There was a dealer in our town and quite a few of these around at the time.

My dad went there to test drive a 2nd hand 125p but to my delight it wouldn't start and he walked away.

Being picked up from school in his Maxi was embarrassing enough.

[Barry Cade]

6 hours ago, sierraman said:

I think a fair few ended up on the minicab circuits in the fashion of the Hyundai Stellar, a big car you could probably pick up for practically nothing. I recall the Caro being no more than £5-6k, I’ll have to check contemporary price guides for the exact values. 

I worked in a dealership, a Caro "Osprey" was £4995, and a "Phoenix" was £5995. The "Phoenix" had "wood" trim, electric windows,central locking, and electric sunroof and stripes.... all fitted by me..  

[wesacosa]

2 hours ago, Peter C said:

This one isn't a Mk1.

This is:

yes, good point. Although the one I was referencing which sold for a grand was the same as the Anglia one so still think its going for a grand minimum 

[N Dentressangle]

10 hours ago, sierraman said:

I remember them quite well, as above they made the Lada look quality. The MOT suggests that it didn’t make its first test, it could well have been part of a deceased estate and pulled out of a garage. 

Mate of mine was lucky* enough to get one when he passed his test in Ludlow back in 1987 or something. I think it was white.

Easily the worst car I've ever been in. Slow, thirsty, shit handling, falling to bits and I don't think it lasted long. They all seemed to disappear at once sometime in the 90s.

Thankfully. Too crap even for me.

[grogee]

They were rated in my part of the world. 

I sniggered at one that appeared in the garage where I apprenticeized but the proprietor schooled me. It's cheap to run. Very rugged, those Commie roads are (or were) worse than ours. 

Best of all it's easy to fix. There were very few dealers in Poland so it was designed to be mended by farmers using a stick. 

If you take away the badge snobbery they're no worse than a contemporary Cortina. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

5 minutes ago, grogee said:

If you take away the badge snobbery they're no worse than a contemporary Cortina. 

This will be controversial among the Ford cult members.

[Barry Cade]

22 minutes ago, grogee said:

They were rated in my part of the world. 

I sniggered at one that appeared in the garage where I apprenticeized but the proprietor schooled me. It's cheap to run. Very rugged, those Commie roads are (or were) worse than ours. 

Best of all it's easy to fix. There were very few dealers in Poland so it was designed to be mended by farmers using a stick. 

If you take away the badge snobbery they're no worse than a contemporary Cortina. 

I didn't mind them at all, but feeler guges and micrometers weren't involved in looking after them much. Hammers and sickles  were never far away..

[yes oui si]

Yespls

[ProgRocker]

Sweet Georgia Brown! 

I wonder what that would perform like with a Fiat Twin Cam dropped under the bonnet? 

The facelifted Polonezssss looked alright to me. Just such a shame they were saddled to those early 1960s Fiat chassissss (chassi?) and criminally underdeveloped.

Edited to add:

When I was looking for my 2nd car purchase in early 1997 there was a white F reg Polonez Prima on a used car forecourt around the corner from where I was living. It was stickered up at £2,495. Given that you could purchase a tidy similar aged Golf, Astra, Escort or Tipo for similar money back then, let's just say that it wasn't a bargain. 

Edited September 21, 2023 by ProgRocker
Extra paragraph

[yes oui si]

8 minutes ago, ProgRocker said:

Sweet Georgia Brown! 

I wonder what that would perform like with a Fiat Twin Cam dropped under the bonnet? 

The facelifted Polonezssss looked alright to me. Just such a shame they were saddled to those early 1960s Fiat chassissss (chassi?) and criminally underdeveloped.

I'm pretty sure you could get the later ones with a K series... 

1.8vvc Bolonez, anyone? 

[captain_70s]

7 hours ago, wesacosa said:

A RHD MK1 will probably go for  over a grand.  One pulled out of a garage last year was up on FB for a grand and sold within ten minutes with about 20 other people trying to contact the seller within an hour.  

unless half of its missing or its rotten as fuck of course 

I'm inclined to agree, the pre-facelift cars have a significant following. Far worse examples have been restored and imported from Poland.

Having said that, it'll all depend on who's following the auction.

[ProgRocker]

2 minutes ago, yes oui si said:

I'm pretty sure you could get the later ones with a K series... 

1.8vvc Bolonez, anyone? 

Not for the UK market iirc. FSO left the UK market in around 1995/96 as they couldn't compete against Hyundai and Proton. The 1.9 PSA diesel engine was available in it's last incarnation as the Caro.

[wuvvum]

5 hours ago, Peter C said:

This one isn't a Mk1.

This is:

Was it the Mk1 where the rear seats didn't fold?

[Peter C]

24 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Was it the Mk1 where the rear seats didn't fold?

Yes, I believe so.

[Matty]

1 hour ago, yes oui si said:

Yespls

Fuck. That's. Well it's ace actually.

[N Dentressangle]

Apparently they're really popular with a major Polish banger rally:

https://zlombol.pl/17-edycja-zlombol-2023/

It's only for E Bloc cars - could get on board with that 😎

[Wibble]

2 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

This will be controversial among the Ford cult members.

😱

[Wibble]

Must have been the late 80’s when a mate picked me up in his mum’s new Polonez. I felt really guilty when the window winder came off in my hand five minutes later😬

[stuboy]

comfiest seats id ever been on

[tooSavvy]

Useless 'btw' aside....

When Consett Iron Works shut down (anyone remember the foo-farr of 'finally' killing/putting the fire out in the coking kilns??) an enterprising Arfur Daley took a shop unit on the high street and knocked out Ladas [redundancy wedge= 1st new car in the family] 😕

*No Bullsh.... I drove by!!

🚙💨

[DSdriver]

A friend worked for the FSO importers back in the day. She would tell tales such as how a rattle in the door was found to be empty beer bottles behind the door card and other such horrors which meant they had to virtually take the cars apart to check them before passing them on for sale.

[UltraWomble]

I robbed the ram air scoop off one in a scrappers and nailed it on to the bonnet of a Mk2 Fiesta with a bit* of filler.

Closest I ever came to one was in the scrappers.

[wesacosa]

I sat in one at the 1988 London Motorshow. I loved it, but I was 10 and no other fucker went on the FSO stand so the sales people made a fuss of me and let me sit in all the cars 

[warren t claim]

On 9/20/2023 at 10:49 PM, sierraman said:

I think a fair few ended up on the minicab circuits in the fashion of the Hyundai Stellar, a big car you could probably pick up for practically nothing. I recall the Caro being no more than £5-6k, I’ll have to check contemporary price guides for the exact values. 

The early examples found a few fans with our local driver's but would be dead before the finance was paid off.

The later one's like this were pitched to us brand new with the Pug diesel engine fitted for about six grand. I can't remember any driver taking the plunge but Mick 22 bought a P reg example back in 2001 for £800. Woefull parts supply meant that he bridged it within 18 months.

[ETCHY]

11 hours ago, yes oui si said:

Yespls

Has a look of a Lancia Delta  in that shot.

[yes oui si]

2 hours ago, ETCHY said:

Has a look of a Lancia Delta  in that shot.

Have a different Lancia Polonez... 

[ETCHY]

I never thought the Polonez was a bad looking motor. Wish when i was younger & stuff like that cost about the same as a packet of crisps I'd got one.

I hope it gets saved it'd  be tragic if it got banger raced.

[Steviemillar]

Some additional info added to the Lot listing by ACA

 

”This 1481cc FSO Polonez is a garage find, having been dry-stored since its owner passed away. It was registered in March 1988 and has had two registered keepers overall. Its odometer shows 89,923 miles and there's no record of an MoT back to 2005, when online MoT records began. The car isn't currently running. Documentation accompanying the FSO includes the current and past V5Cs, MoT certificates from 1991 to 2002, and service book with entries up to 75,650 miles in June 1996, including an engine rebuild at 60,193 miles.”

[HMC]

(for some reason) Id love one of the last, final facelift Caros- made to about 2002 iirc