Cars of the Soviet Union

[jone]

I have always been interested in the history of cars.  Particularly cars from the generations before me.  And, in many instances, have seen films with old Soviet cars that barely operated.  I remember watching the movie "The Irony of Fate" and wondering what kind of car that orange car was.

So I thought I'd start a thread on Cars from the Soviet Union.  My contribution, for this morning is the ZiL.  These were the luxury sedans and limosines used by the leadership in film clips. 

Here is a picture from a 2011 ZiL limosine called the ZIL-4112R



At the end of 2014, I read that they stopped building these.   Although I'm not sure as there was a huge effort to re-industrialize the auto building industry in the past two years.

What is your favorite car from Soviet Union times?

[BC]

I remember well the flood of these East German Trabis on the autobahn when the Wall fell..  Pretty neat contraption and who wouldn't help even if they did break down fairly often just to take a look under the hood



http://davidlansing.com/trabant-trivia/

West Germans used to joke about them a lot.. like why do trabis get stuck at green lights? - got stuck on some bubble gum.

or what happens when a mercedes hits a trabbi? - It turns back into a pile of rags.   (the body panels, fender, doors, hood etc were made of some cotton/plastic mix.

Was a popular car in the East.. people waited years to buy one.  (was the only remotely affordable car around back then and production was not that efficient)

[jone]

Does she come as a standard feature with the car?

[BC]

The high heels I know were an option.. A good western pair of heels very rare indeed back then on the 'other side'.  Al Bundy would have been THE king of studs.

[GuppyCaptain]

I remember how looked down upon Trabants were back in the day but now for example if you see one in Central or Eastern Europe they are a tourist magnet. I saw one in recent years that had a slot built into one of the windows and a sign taped to the inside. The sign was asking for donations to be dropped into the slot in order to help keep the Trabant running. They've certainly turned into curiosities on public streets as their numbers have dwindled.

Interestingly the first car I ever "drove" was a Lada. It was when I was approximately 4 years old and my father's best friend put me on his lap and let me steer it down a secondary road back in Romania.