The funniest thing about them is that the Lada name was not used in the Union or in post-Soviet Russia until very recently, and even now it is usually applied only to current (Renault-era) models. Some 25 years ago it was also used for imported Finnish production by Valmet, but these are gone and forgotten by now.
4:49 Победа is not "freedom". We outright object and detest this decadent capitalist demagoguery. Победа is "victory". March on, fellow soldiers, the English channel is just a Fulda gap away.
@davidyoung8521 hey now... Kias were pretty solid until Hyundai bought them out. Most of their hardware was licensed Mazda stuff, solid and reliable if less than inspiring. To this day the best source for Mazda FE dohc motors is a Kia Sportage.
In Poland it was called Warszawa, like our capital city. We produced Warszawas 1951-1973. You could still see them on the roads in the 90's. Polish vans Żuk and Nysa used Warszawa's M-20, S-21 engine, headlights, wheels, instrument panel and suspension.
I have a joke on Trabant. So, I ordered it and paid double the starting price, I managed to enter the waiting list, and now I've been waiting for it for around five years. Oh, sorry, it's not Trabant, it's Cybertruck.
And we had western brands that where made in Yugoslavia. For example Volkswagen TAS in Sarajevo Bosnia, Opel IDA in Serbia, Citroen and Renault in Slovenia etc.
Back when I was in Russia, I used to enjoy going for evening walks in Moscow, just to watch what came down the street.There was a remarkable amount of diversity in vehicles. Lots of old Soviet era cars still on the road in 2008. But everything from tractors to Lambos. Lots and lots of exoctic Italian, German, and British vehicles. I remember one Sunday morning as I was waiting for my driver to take me to Sheremetyevo and I saw a pink '50s Cadillac convertible cruise down the Garden Ring. It was a great place to be a car enthusiast.
@@MiloG209It's true but mostly because of how fucked the demographics of Moscow are, most of the country gets practically nothing from paying taxes, everything goes to the big cities, especially Moscow. The reason is the oligarchs and government officials live there, and thus anyone that wants a future goes to live there as well.
Go live there and see the public transport in even the smallest cities. Meanwhile in America, we don't have anything minus NEW YORK CITY @@My_Old_YT_Account
@@tulku4797 I think that's more indicative of Western education and media being filled to the brim with propaganda. If you were to peer outside the bubble you'd find that reality is very different to what you were told to think.
Eh... I'd love to see a good overview of soviet automotive industry - with all the pros and cons, and boy, do we have cons on them soviet cars... But sadly, that's not that video. I like your content, but this one had too many small, but glaring errors (like Pobeda, Moskvich placement in that hierarchy, total avoidance of Niva and so on...) and just too many jokes that kinda sound condescending. The errors show a shallow approach to research. It may be a fun video, but the rabbit hole of soviet automobiles is just so much deeper.
You got Moskvitch and Lada completely mixed up in the hierarchy. Moskvitch was never positioned above the Lada. It was on the same level at best and only if you compared it to the Lada 2101, the base model. These 2 cars were equal on paper but in practice Lada was still held in higher regard because of its superior reliability and build quality. Moskvitch 412 had a larger engine than Lada 2101 but that was its only advantage in this comparison. Everything else about it was inferior. Lada also had 2 higher trim levels- 2103 (later replaced by 2105) and 2106 (later replaced by 2107), both of which stood way above any Moskvitch and were perceived as luxury cars. In its time the 2106 was basically the most prestigious car available to citizens with no political affiliations
The hierarchy of the Moskvitch and Lada changed often. The early 412s were considered more luxurious than Ladas, later versions however in the early 80s 412s and 2140s were considered less luxurious than the Lada, but after the debute of the 2141 AZLK (Moskvitch) was again considered a more luxurious brand in the late 80s
Fun fact about Moskvitch: The very first post-war Moskvitch was just a pre-war Opel Kadett, because the Soviets took with them the Kadett production tools.
They did the same in the GDR. The Production was in Eisenach a City in the east. The soviets and GDR took the parts and build the BMW 340. The Problem is, they called it EMW Not BMW. After that, there was a huge discussion who is right.
@@bemolp7498 Not quite right. They first called it BMW, but after a court ruling in 1951, they weren't allowed to and switched to EMW (Eisenacher Motorenwerke) and later on to AWE (Automobilwerke Eisenach). They continued to build the pre-war 321 and 327. The 340 was an updated version of the 326. The 342 - based on the 332, which became the 501/502 "baroque angel" in the West - didn't go into production. Then AWE had to produce the F9, a DKW model.
Как раз сейчас я читаю книгу Александра Андронова "Думы о труде". Просто интересно, как онлайн - переводчик переведёт это всё. Но это не моя проблема. Первое. КИМ-10-52. Второе. Вскрытие сидений в Кадетт К-38 показало, что в рант по краям сидений вставлена "калиброванная лиана с острова Ява". Услужливые голландцы поставляли Гитлеру из своих колоний. И как прикажете копировать яванскую лиану? В СССР? В 1947?
@@mememetal6631"Woops it didn't collapse, now we have bajilion of dollars of debt. Time to hit and watch from afterlife race war among balkans begin"
You skipped some segments and particular models. First - is cars from SeAZ - very basic cars for disabled people, that giving for free 5-years rent. It was a very simple car, even didn't classified as car but as «мотоколяска» - something between cyclecar and motorized wheelchair, but it was a car. You skipped the 1977 Niva - a Lada model, that was a compact crossover of the time before crossovers become mainstream, with four wheel drive. You also put Moskvich above the Lada, but you are wrong. When VAZ was started, Moskvich became a cheaper car for rural people. It had a leaf springs suspension, only drum brakes (Lada has disk brakes in front) and poorer options. It was many quality issues. And the last part of your video is slightly outdated. After a year, ABS, airbags etc. came back into Russian cars, something from China, something developed (or, maybe, reverse-engineered) locally.
@@boyarin2269 Full drum 2140 was in production till 1987. Also Moskvich-412 was still in production until 1998, it was almost the same model that is in 1967.
You sound truly western for my russian ears. Just because there was a cold war doesn't mean that we hated EVERYTHING american or western. So in Russia it's a common knowledge of love of our leaders to american cars. From Stalin to Brezhnev they all were fascinated with cadillacs and fords. So if you stop paint everything with white and black, things will become more understandable.
Yeah man your right on there... It really wasn't MAD (mutual assured destruction) but MAC (m.a.control) U$ and Russia were simply different franchises and needed each other to wield their powers and fears over the people !!! 👍
@@AJayZy In fact the end of the cold war, Was due to , the success Of the west. And products , capitalism, had won. At that point. Now, 2024 , it may be the east , that. Well its being made to appear, to be a better system. A winning system.
black volgas were also a transport for usual officials. So a black was the best color you COULD get for a volga back then, there's also an anecdote about that
@@bldontmatter5319 Black volga wasn't a symbol of fear here, somewhere in poland or in mind of westerners, yes. But here it was a symbol of high status and post. People respect that car. I'm currently repainting mine in black with mint roof
@@bldontmatter5319 Black meant only status, nothing more. The KGB was busy with more important things than looking for some petty person who said that he did not like the USSR or did not like Khrushchev or Stalin. The REAL fear of black cars appeared only in the 90s, during times of instability, poverty and the heyday of banditry, when all sorts of organized crime groups drove them, so that it would be difficult to track them at night.
Common joke about Trabant (even though it's east german, i think it's apropriate) How do you double a Trabant's value? Fill up its tank There was also a joke about taking it inside the house during rain because they were made from effectively cardboard.
Or the classic British one, what do you call a soft top lada? a skip, then there's the classic, lada are fitted with heated rear windows so you can have warm hand while pushing it.
A Russian friend has a 1978 Lada. I've driven it, it was a delightful ruggedly built little car. Of course he takes good care of it. A couple years ago the engine failed. For $200 it was completely rebuilt. Parts are plentiful, repairs are simple and the whole car technologically is about equal to 1960 in the USA. That is great, you can fix it with a few hand tools, even far from a city or town. The bodies are thick galvanized steel with heavy duty suspension. If they were offered for sale in the USA, I think they would have been very popular. Imagine a reliable, better built 1975 Chevy Vega for 1/3 of the price.
"If they were offered for sale in the USA" -- The current safety regulations would never allow it. And yeah, I like simple cars of that era, but there it is.
@@mountainhobo Which is why I drive classic American iron. Sit down, turn the key, drive off. No touchscreen distractions, cryptic control symbols, seat belts, air bags, computers, navigation systems, environmental systems, etc. Can be had for a fraction of the cost of a new car, easy to work on, parts available, and so on. Gets you from point "A" to point "B" with decent fuel mileage. That's good enough for me.
@@seb_1504 *Current* regulations. It seriously went over your head? I don't live in your imaginary world where it is 1975. Go ahead, and try to make it street legal *now*. Try to understand the post before responding.
One thing to note however, is that since the inception of the USSR in 1922, to its dissolution in 1991, Russia had been under almost a complete embargo by the rest of the planet. As such, while western countries were allowed to specialise in specific export sectors of their economies and make up the shortfall by importing from other countries, the Soviet Union was forced by these sanctions to be completely self-sufficient, which meant it could not specialise it's economy towards a specific type of production, such as car building, and instead had to be able to produce everything it needed domestically. It is this context that I believe proves that a planned economy would still be far more efficient and beneficial in the modern day, as despite being beset on all sides by hostile powers, weathering the brunt of two world wars, civil war, invasion, blockade, and sabotage, the Soviet Union still managed to go from a backward feudal system under the Tsar, to sending the first man to space in 44 years, and it was the first in the world to grant universal suffrage to women, universal healthcare, housing, childcare, and guaranteed employment, all starting from an economy in 1922 that was equivalent to that of Brazil. We can only Imagine what they would've been capable of without the blockades, or the destruction. We can only imagine what we would be capable of under a similar system, starting from an economy multiple times larger.
You make a strong case. However, if I was to have vigorously disagreed with you back in the day, the problemette was that I would have risked arrest. Planned economies tend to be paired with totalitarian regimes. I would trade apparent freedom for any amount of economic wellbeing. I am well aware that freedom is in short supply everywhere at the moment.
@@jeffbybee5207 probably the only implication that the Italians had in the Soviet industry was the fact that they helped them with the creation of the Lada by giving them license from fiat for the first lada models
The cars of today are too expensive to buy new or used, and are wildly over-complicated and burdensome (both in terms of time and money) to repair. Ignoring all other historical and political context: the world needs another Lada. A simple, cheap shitbox, that no matter how many times it falls apart, can easily be pieced back together for the average lower class person.
It exists, Lada Granta would be considered one of the cheapest cars in the world if not for covid, sanctions and skyrocketed price,lol. It is mostly 80's and 90's tech inside. But otherwise as unremarkable as it could be
@@beibotanovI'm not deceived. It's literally tooled from a knock down kit from Chevy. It's LITERALLY A CHEVY COBALT. It has THE EXACT KNOCK DOWN KIT from 2010 for a CHEVY COBALT, same as the CHEVY NIVA, WHICH IS A KNOCK DOWN KIT FROM CHEVY.
@@bldontmatter5319 who told you this nonsense? Please point a finger at him. It is a domestic design, development of the so called AVVA project - a new 90's styled body with old 80's insides. It is much smaller, cheaper and worse overall than even a Cobalt. I have never seen a Cobalt for sale here, but used Dodge Neon, when they were available and relatively fresh, was considered a much better car, sold for almost twice as much and were popular as US used exports go. Chevy Niva is a domestic design too - also a new 90's body with old 80's insides. Joint venture "GM-Avtovaz" was formed because VAZ was starved for money and could not afford model 2123 mass production. Most of Daewoo's early 2000' line was sold under Chevy brand here too
My father's parents wanted a car and had the money for it in the early '70s, here in Hungary My grandpa had a small shop, making wooden barrels and such things, as an independent "company", the biggest enemy of the socialist state. They waited 4 years for a Wartburg, but did not advance on the waiting list, so they took their money out and bought an army surplus GAZ-69, that was nearly 20 years old at the time.
Can I just say that basically all Western countries, even the US, had protective tax policies and strong government subsidies for car makers... Pobeda also means "victory" not freedom.
I can't believe how ignorant this video is in so many parts. The author has a massive pro-capitalist bias, and it shows in their lack of understanding of some nuances. Not to protect the clearly inferior Soviet cars, but it's important to recognize that the urban planning in the US is heavily car-oriented, and it's pretty much impossible to get by without one, except for a couple of cities. The Soviet Union vastly differs in that. The towns are built in such a way that one could reach all the necessary amenities within a 15-minute walk or a short ride on well-developed and affordable public transportation. There's so many problems that I can't get arsed to write them all out.
A New Russian's son complains to his father: "Daddy, all my schoolmates are riding the bus, and I look like a black sheep in this 600 Merc." "No worries, son. I'll buy you a bus, and you'll ride like everyone else!"
I know somewhat different joke. New Russian's son complains to his father. "Daddy, all my schoolmates laugh at me for riding a bus, I want BMW" ... few days later. Sorry son, I was only able to acquire 30%. Other shareholders didn't want to sell.
Sir, I know you are trying to be funny in good old British humour fashion but a few things are indeed too biased. OK, Russia-bashing is currently en vogue and convenient. Therefore I like to offer another perspective. The Lada 1200 (WAZ2101) was the car of my childhood in the GDR. My Dad bough it factory fresh in the very early 1970s and kept it for 10 years. It drove all the way from East-Germany to Tbilisi a few times and was my Dad's daily runner to work. It never missed a beat. It still caried a lot of "Made in Italy" signs on various parts and had the white indicators at the front so it must be one of the very first to be manufactured. Then it was replaced by the identical model for ca. another 10 years and again was the daily runner. It too drove us deep into the USSR all the way from East-Germany and back home without a glitch several times. My parents kept this one two until mid 1980s and sold it only due to their assignment into a foreign country. Both cars were extremely reliable, although in the Eastern Bloc cars were understood as an investment and therefore properly maintained straight from the beginning. So much for the ecological aspect. Before becoming a Lada, various components and design features were redesigned for Russian conditions; the engine a complete Russian design to accept low quality gasoline and the suspension strengthen and lifted, plus some nice extra touches added. The Lada had a small but efficient toolset, a very efficient heater system and a crank to restart the engine with pure muscle power. Finally to compare a Lada with a VW beetle is really odd, the beetle was already much outdated while the Lada was still reasonable modern although the base model of Fiat 124 was already stopped manufacturing in Italy. Other countries like India, Turkey, Egypt also manufactured Fiat 124 in license. So claiming that all Soviet cars were crap in general, as so many love to indulge themselves, is of course wrong. Particular the Ladas and Volgas carried a seemingly endless life because their designs were well in general very tough, but also thought trough for easy repair and maintenance under the most primitive circumstances. And simple design, if properly executed, will always add to reliability. Your life in the vast and climatically challenging surroundings of Russia might depend on it. The Zaparoshez and the Moskvitch indeed had a rather lousy quality reputation, therefore the waiting period for a "Zappo" was almost zero in East-Germany. The Moskvitch was inferior and cheaper than the Lada and therefore your rating is wrong. The more luxurious Lada variants like the 2107 was nicknamed the "Mercedes of the East" not only because it nice looks but because of its performance and reliability. Also I miss the Lada Niva, an absolute icon and as many claim the "father of all SUVs". They were highly sought after in the GDR. Besides all this, there were other car manufacturers in the Eastern Bloc outside the USSR. The quality of their cars varied too, with Polski-Fiat (Poland), Skoda (Czechoslovakia) and Wartburg (GDR) probably being the best, followed by Zastava (Yugoslavia) and Dacia (Romania). Peace! from Dresden / Germany
Buses are better than having car's for every person, that's one thing the USSR won with, we in Eastern Europe enjoy such things as sidewalks, and public transport. (You may say something about the quality of the sidewalks, but that's just due to our current government's not giving a f-)
I would be very happy to use public transportation. It's not available where I live and when I travel I must go a long way to be anywhere. This is true for many people in America and I would think it's the same in the former Soviet Union because of its tremendous size. European countries are rather small in comparison so I believe I would use public transportation and perhaps a bike as well.
Leaves a lot to be desired honestly. Could've gone more into the history, and could've read some newer sources for the ending, not 1 year old stuff. ABS and airbags are back, the ESP systems are being tested still as they need 2 climate cycles for testing (winter-summer-winter). Emissions equipment is back in, and it wasn't really ever away, they still had catalysts, just the engine ecus weren't set up to not slow down production.
And he didn't even mention that Vladivostok and pretty much most of the Russian east is packed with JDM imports which are still steadily coming in to this day.
Or that GAZ did experiment with new models. The 3103-3104-3105 family, the 3111 and others. Or that with the struggle after the fall of the union, the auto makers started making some very strange models, like the Lada Nadezhda, the GAZ Ataman and the long Moskviches. There's so much more explore. Instead he went on the beaten path of downplaying the work of the russians and ending on a low note.
@@Random-nf7qb Yeah, the opening praising the free market was a dead giveaway about the level of the rest of the video. Let's not forget that Ed, a dutchman, has also likely grown up on anti-communist propaganda and news-reports about a drunk Jeltsin who finally got replaced by stronk leader Putin. Hell, most of the west was on Putin's dick until the last decade and past three years. It wouldn't surprise me if he thought that Putin was actually a pretty cool guy before all that shit went down, though that's just conjecture from my side and wasn't a particularly unpopular opinion to begin with. Ya know, before all thát. Just a disclaimer: I'm not saying that the Soviet Union wasn't up to some horrible de-humanizing shit, but so was the west. The ideology behind it barely matters. The whole making fun of Russia for basically having to rebuild itself after the collapse of the SU must have had a very traumatic and long lasting impact on inhabitants of Russia.
@@bioLarzen it went by a lot of different names like the Cossack or in Australia we had the bushman and niva toro but they all came with niva badges, the Riva is an entirely different car
14:25 The basic premise is wrong, the Moskvitch was WAY below the Lada, like in Czechoslovakia it was literally one 1/3 cheaper than the Lada, it had the same price tag as the basic Škoda 100 and would often sell so poorly it was sold next year with a 15% discount. And the GAZ 13 Chaika was basically unpurchasable for personal use. The ZAZ was much closer to the VW than the Fiat 500 as the lowest part of the market that the Fiat 500 represented wasn’t really a thing in the USSR.
@@kwanlinus6999 And it was never sold in the Soviet Union. Heck to continue the Czechoslovak comparison, it was literally only 10% less expensive than the Moskvitch. And actually more epensive if you bought the last year's Moskvitch.
@@kwanlinus6999 In Czechoslovakia Trabant was way cheaper cost about 36 500 Kčs compared to 42 000 Kčs for the Maluch, Moskvitch was 45 000 Kčs for the weaker and 52 000 Kčs for the more powerful model, the kombi version was the most expensive version of the Moskvitch at 58 000 Kčs but also imported in extremely low numbers. Compared to that the Lada 1200 cost 58 000 Kčs and the top of the line Lada 1600 76 500 Kčs. Wartburg cost about 57 000 Kčs for the sedan and 64 000 Kčs for the Tourist but compared to the Moskvitch it basically never stayed around and was way more desirable than the Moskvitch. To throw in a few more cars; Dacia 1300 went for 66 000 Kčs, Ford Cortina 1600 about 85 000 Kčs, Škoda 120 GLS cost 66 000 Kčs and Fiat 125p 1500 cost 65 400 Kčs.
@@eozcompany9856 The outlier here seems to be the Wartburg. No idea why it was so desirable despite being powered by a two-stroke, when the Lada 1200 has a four-stroke and is almost the same price (Maybe because the waiting lists were so much longer?) The Moskvitch and Dacia seems to face the greatest ridicule of the normal sized cars. The former had an Opel Kadett engine dating back to WW2, while the latter had a joke that only the ones built on a Wednesday worked. I guess the Skodas were quite desirable among the sports car community of eastern bloc, if there is one I guess?
Respect to everyone in the comment section that is clearly very knowledgeable about the Russian and Eastern Bloc auto industry. Seriously, that is one jungle that I wouldn't even dare enter, so complicated and convoluted. And respect to Ed for even trying. Sure, there might have been errors but this was better than most. And entertaining as always
@@karlwalther They already write whatever nonsense they want because Westerners have no idea. That's what 100 years of propaganda gets you, nobody questions the media when they've heard the same lies so many times.
I would not say this is better than most, it's so full of errors and shameless bias that if he had any creative integrity he'd take it down and re-do it from scratch.
Great to see some of the old cars of the USSR. But you should stay away from your childish political commentary. Western Russia was devastated by the nazis, 25 million Russians were killed so the fact that their auto industry wasn’t as good as the Americans is totally understandable, they had other priorities to deal with like building housing for millions of homeless people after the war.
@@tclott316 Yes, it was. You're either grossly misinformed or deliberately lying. Starting from 1955, the Khrushchevka apartment buildings were built on the order of hundreds of thousands within a timeframe of about 15 years. Clean, roomy, and for the time modern. With these, the USSR completely eliminated homelessness by 1970. Notably, a feat that no other nation either at the time or in the present has succeeded in replicating.
@jakekaywell5972 i lived in krushchevka, to be honest, it is much better designed then modern living complexes in russia. So much greanery around, a lot of space. The buildinga themselves are not as great of course, but the streets around them were good, i sometimes miss so much trees around
@@jh565bbthe Volga is on par with US build quality of the time. I've happened to own a Volga gaz-24 in Russia, and an UAZ hunter. They're both on par with the 1988 f250 and 1970 f100 I've had
Not just quite a few Moskviches and Ladas ended up abroad, but actually most of them ended up there, up to 80% of total production. It's just overall modest production numbers and barebonity of those cars which didn't make them appealing to preserve, that made them a rare sight abroad nowadays. And that was why USSR citizens had to wait years after paying just to get their car (after paying some more due to inflation). The reason for that was the soviet state being in a constant need of foureign currency to maintain international trade due to having a basically unconvertible inner rouble. So that task was achieved by exporting oil, grain, fish, agricultural equipment... and cars.
Yeah, quickly overlooked fact. The fact that the Soviet Union achieved the things with the pressure they were under deserves credit. They didn't have it easy.
@@theothertonydutch Just one more restrictive meat grinding machine under pressure of a bit less restrictive meat grinders)) All in all the difference by the end of 20th century was solely due to stubborn insistance of USSR to stay deaf for it's citizens and not even try to evolve in any meaningful non-recursive way. Modern day Russia is long way back on that recursive self-autofellative political course. Guess, that's what are the true russian circles. Only the finite nature of human existence stops them from winding lower and lower through centuries, heh. Some Asian countrues, however, somehow escape this rule - by a wisdom of giving birth to mentally elderly pricks, I guess)))
given that the Chinese car industry already terrifies the Western car makers, I wouldn't be so condescending with the future of the Russian industry. other than that, very good video as always.
chinese industry doesn't terrify the west, only the chinese government's financial practices does. and yes , we know asians can make good cars, Japan and South Korea have lead the way
@@Blackadder75 I guess the new tariffs imposed to Chinese products and accusations of 'over capacity' (whatever that is) are just friendly welcoming nudges huh?
@@Blackadder75 That's a ridiculous take, you've gobbled up the narrative where we in the West can help our car manufacturers as much as we want but China can't, not that they're even doing that much.
The video is a great example of someone who's politically illiterate making a video about something they barely researched with any depth. Awful, don't make anything like this again.
Honestly, it's never been easier to get LITERALLY any car to Russia than now. For example, if you want BMW - you can get used one from Korea, Germany (more like from every country from EU), UAE, USA etc., or a new one from the exact same source countries. More than that, now the whole chinese domestic market cyborgs on wheels are avaliable to buy here, in Russia. Lixiang, Zeekr (idk exactly, were they passed on EU market or not), Yangwang (luxury BYD brand), HiPhi and much more other brands, known only inside China. In late 80s, 90s and early 00s we appreciated JDM, now we are one on the first nations to experience CDM. Grey imports in its best.
@@poochie49 It was so much worse, let's say like 10-15 years ago, because the lack of cameras. Of course, you can't fully delete thefts from society, but i think the situation is better here, than anywhere in America. And there's another reason - all new cars (except the cheapest version of Lada Granta) came with immobiliser from like 10 years or even more. So, no "kia boys" here
That applies to every so-called 'historical' car video on RUclips. Smart-asses all over spouting off about chit they haven't the vaguest clue. If RUclips had a less-convoluted way of making money and compensating people, it wouldn't have gained the new reputation of the Worlds Greatest Liar Marketplace.
This video is looking at Soviet cars completely back-to-front with the usual Animal Farm smarminess. The development of automobiles was always a secondary consideration, even after the Great Patriotic War. This was partly due to the socialist ideal of developing public transportation first (which the USSR did to great success) and partly due to the sheer devastation that the Great Patriotic War wrought. Developing cars for private use, especially when the material conditions made it so that they were in effect luxury goods instead of the necessities they were in the West, would have been a waste of precious resources when your country had to rebuild from a smoking crater. Hence, the focus on trucks and buses vs. passenger cars just made sense right up until the USSR had finally rebuilt enough to launch its first true people's car in the form of the brilliant AvtoVAZ/Lada 2101.
lada 2101 is a Fiat, even after ALL those years rebuilding they still couldn't make a simple people car... George Orwell was a brilliant visionary and spot on.
@@Blackadder75 Not really. The 2101 started out as a FIAT 124, but so many changes were made to the platform that it could'nt be considered the same car anymore. More than 800 in fact by AvtoVAZ engineers. For starters, the body was 10% thicker to prevent rust issues, and the engine was so much improved that FIAT themselves even used it as a performance upgrade. This engine was a 1,198-cc single-overhead-cam unit that was all new. It also had a lot of room for future expansion, eventually hitting 1.7L. George Orwell was neither spot on nor brilliant about anything. He was a colonial cop for the British Empire in Burma who was later detested by his own comrades in the Spanish Republican side (saying that he should have been fighting for the other side). He flirted with Nazism, as evidenced with this quote from the New English Weekly dated March 21, 1940: "I should like to put it on record that I have never been able to dislike Hitler. Ever since he came to power . . . I have reflected that I would certainly kill him if I could get within reach of him, but that I could feel no personal animosity. The fact is that there is something deeply appealing about him. . . ." Oh yeah, he also sold out his "fellow" socialists to the CIA as a snitch and raped 17-year-old Jacintha Buddicom when he was 15. As for his so-called "greatest work", 1984, its just a mediocre carbon-copy of Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We".
@@curiousgeorge5992 as long as the US did them the Favorite Nation thing. As soon as they got jealous and turned the switch off, Japanese economy growth has halted and remains such for the last 35 years. While Russia had kinda 2 years without any sanctions in a century
I remember in the end of the 80’s, when there was still a lot of Ladas in Finland, there was a Russian and Estonian boom to come to Finland and buy up old, used Ladas. There was a severe shortage of spare parts there. In about one year, every Lada disappeared from Finland never to be seen again. They even came to our front door and asked my sister, who had a Lada, if she would sell it? She hesitated, because it worked just fine and she needed it for her job. They offered triple the sum it was worth and she sold it on the spot. The day after she bought a used BMW 3-series. That was a fun memory.
Well, the ranking of soviet cars is not quite right. Ladas were ALWAYS more presigious and pricier than Moskvitches. Also you missed a few cars from 1940-50s. Moskvich 400 series - in essence a pre-war Opel Kadett. Before purely governmental ZiL-111 there was ZiS-110, which was prodused even in much larger numbers, was used not only by party officcials and even Stalin personally, but also as premium taxicab, and as ambulance. And even before that, there was a pre-war ZiS-101. As for the deficite, it have become a thing only in the early 60s. Before that you could buy freely almost any car: Pobeda, Volga, Moskvich or even ZiM-12. As long as you had enough money for that. Which at first was a problem and rare thing, in the country that suffered heavily from massive war destruction.
You're damn right. Lada was Italian [Fiat licence], it was considered almost like a western car. In Poland everybody wanted a Lada 2106/07. Our Polish Fiat 125 was a piece of crap. Back in the 80's and early 90's Lada was something you really wanted to drive. Lada was for a director, army officer, party comrade or private enterprise owner. Moskvich? Just that Russian car. Nothing fancy. It looked old, outdated.
@@obywatelcane6775really goes to show you that things were not as they seemed. The 2106 was idolized, even in the west it was the status of "normal" and usable, given the time period, where power steering and AC weren't even common yet
@@bldontmatter5319 2106 was produced 1976-2006. It was cheaper than any western car. Was well made, the interior is really nice. It didn't burn a lot of gas, 8-10L, had strong suspension. Body was less susceptible to rust than, for example, Fiats, Polonezes, Zastavas or Opels. It was an honest car. You got, what you paid for, worth every penny you spent on it. AC, power steering, tachometer, or even power windows were not widespread, even in basic versions of Western cars. Look at some poor "naked" versions of Opels, Fords and VW of the 80's and early 90's.
It was pretty nice to remember some "In Soviet Russia" jokes at the start, but it escalated so quickly to the "outdated issue pricks" kind of punches, and full-size KGB theme park with a lot of misconceptions and fact acrobatics. So, I barely stayed in front of the screen to see where the story ends, and my worries didn't come unintended - obviously, the chain of blank spots between red flags ended with "issuepocalypse of nowadays", with no attention to the the real story of manufacturers, development, assembly lines, actual models, kind of current prosperity and so on. Pictures (the non-repeated ones) and the told story is okay though, so did your interest in the topic. Wish you'd have a bit more time and willing forces to complete the research deeper next time. Or, was it the task to make us ex-USSR citizens feel a bit strange? Well, that way you managed it. Just kidding. Despite all the stuff, I like your videos, see you next time with another controversial topic. Thanks.
I thought his picture of the soviet car history was too positive, my source mostly being youtubers who actually grew up in the USSR and tell us how bad it really was.
@@Blackadder75it wasn't bad. Go to the EX-USSR and you will find that most people don't mind it at all, and hate more the 90s, when the west came in and DESTROYED them, especially the CIA
I made jokes about the LADA, then I bought one. As a joke. Let me tell you, there will be a day, a post apocalyptic day, when the last BMW has stolled, and there will still be bloody LADAs built in the 70s roaming the roads. Not comfy, not high tech, but they fucking work and if they dont you can fix them yourself. If you can't, you won't survive in a postapocalyptic world anyway so no loss there. They are great! Just don't expect a Rolls Royce, a Ferrari or a Bimer. The bloody thing start with no problem, when its so cold that I need to wear glows when opening the door. Or rather stop holding the door. When its so cold that the hand and the door will freeze into one, just turn the key and that thing will start right up. It's amazing. I love it. And the heater... its Hot, Sauna, and Hell have nothing on me temperature. I cant keep it on max when its 35 celcius below zero, well in those temperatures I allways drive dressed to leave the car anyway. I might have to pull a poor MB diesel driver out of his hypertech shithouse to safety. There's no way to not love the old LADA.
This video is so coloured by ideology and propaganda that it's just ridiculous. Absolute low point of an otherwise pretty good channel. You could've just had a 5 second short that said "gommulism bad" and left it at that.
I don't follow the channel but I gave this a chance hoping it wasn't going to be the case, unfortunately you're very correct. "Putin's personal project to blah blah blah" - yup, he had every intention to invade Ukraine "unprovoked".
Such a poorly researched video. Barely scratches the surface of the subject, yet so much nonsense. This tells you nothing of the Soviet car industry, how it functioned, why, etc. Just another Top Gear style "can communism into cars" joke stretched to 20 min.
If you ever want to drive a 24 Volga, hit me up, i invite you to come to Austria :) I have been waiting for this episode for a long time! I myself own the outdated cost-cutting GAZ 2410 Volga from 1989, currently the only one registered in Austria. Even if this was just a rough overlook of the history with some tiny hickups, this is probably my favourite video you have made, since this part of automotive history is not really talked about too much here. About the current revival thing that is going on in russia: Russians and even Government official hate the fact that none of it is made in russia. The new Moskvich was hated, I can only pray for Volga. Edit: the Lada Niva and the UAZ 452 are still being made, with barely any changes.
awesome! Yet Ed's would be probably as mocking as DeMuro's review. UAZ 452 and it's minibus sis are now handmade in a bad sense of the word and certified as tractors, BTW
I hope the next episode about communist cars is about the entire non-USSR bloc. I was so annoyed that the Donut Media vid about communist cars only talked about the USSR and East Germany as if they were the only eastern bloc countries.
At 3:36, that is so wrong at many levels... East Germany was NOT part of USSR, but member of the warsaw pact. Also the brand was NOT "Trabant", the car maker was called SACHSENRING and the car was named Trabant. Please when you make videos for infotainment, do your research right! You will NOT call Chrysler "Voyager", because they built a car calles Voyager?? Also what is with the WARTBURG car maker on the chart? You forgot it?
Politics overload gets off-putting after a while. Moscow has far better subway stations than New York - and less homeless people on the streets. And Russia is not bankrupt.
1:40 Allow me to highlight an error in definitions. Russia was only a state inside the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was the superpower. The satelite states were the Warsaw Pact countries like Poland or Hungary. Those have never been part of the Soviet Union.
Kinda chilly for the ACT; it's about 31C here in N. Ohio today...Ironically, I first heard of Lada when I lived there (1974-76); a long-defunct U.S. car magazine, "Imported Car Performance", had an article titled "Better Lada Than Never", and our school (Lyneham High) had a copy of "World Cars: 1974") in the library, which I devoured during class breaks!
19:19 Soviets and Soviet Russians never hated the US as a nation. The hate was in official propaganda and targeted only the ruling class of capitalists and their govermnet cronies. Since the end of ww ii soviet ppl were in western music, fasion and movie culture and much influenced by it. That included car designes as you demonstrated. They even enjoyed Pepsi cola before Perestroika.
The ability for Russia to make some of the most impressive heavy engineering and military vehicles out there and have none of that translate to their cars is hilarious
Saab 💪 I’m in USA and fell in love and sourced some Hirsch Troll Saab parts to try to build the dream saab we never got in the states! Also have a friction tester saab 9-5 let’s not forget saab started in aircraft then 2 strokes then the turbos and ice racing rally history they have! I call saab the smallest super car company as they just went all out, created great, safe cars and had so many custom or special options. Sad they are gone but not forgotten. Plan on attend Saab Owners Convention 2024 in Portland Oregon USA
I would correct you a bit. Moskviches were cheaper and much more available than the Ladas, therefore I consider the Moskvich as an Opel or a Ford and Lada more like BMW. VAZ 2103/2104 with 1500cc engines were pretty quick in their time, compared to ZAZ or Moskvich.
Despite this article being a bit biased I enjoyed it. Having travelled extensively in the former Soviet Union and later the CIS I can vouch that many of these vehicles are still in everyday use. I remember being in a Lada in Tblisi in Georgia when one of the rear wheels came off, the driver just carried on and dropped us off as planned about 200m up the road
ZiL is pretty interesting ZiL began as AMO, but was changed to ZiS after Stalin took over and decided to name the factory after himself, the ''S'' standing for ''Stalina''. This changed after Stalin dies and De Stalinization was carried out, causing the factory's name to be changed to ZiL. ZiS made the ZiS 5 which served a huge role in the Red Army in WW2. In 1947 they made the ZiS 150, which went on to become one of the most recognizable Soviet trucks and was licensed to allied countries, like China and Romania. ZiS also made the ZiS 112, a race car with an interesting ''cyclops'' design similar to the GM LeSabre. When they changed to ZiL they made the ZiL 130 and 131, some of the most iconic Russian trucks ever made. The 131 is easily recognized for it's light blue color and white grill. The 131 was also made all the way up until 2012, when ZiL ceased to exist. There's many others that could be talked about, like KamAZ and MAZ, and even the Yugoslav FAP, communist trucks have always been fascinating to me
In greece they sold the niva up until they invaded ukraine, there was a lada dealership on my island. I always loooooved the niva so much. Its such a chill car with character!
It seemed to me, that farm tractors were in larger demand than cars, for a long time. We used to see people on tractors, sometime pulling carts or wagons behind them. It would make sense, when you consider the huge portions of land that was country, farmland, or isolated villages, far from the modernism of the bigger cities. I don't blame the Russians for imitating the American cars. I wish American cars could go back to those days when style was something more than plastic bumpers and plastic everything else! You used to be able to look under the hood and see an engine... Now, "just more plastic." So much so, the engine is usually completely hidden.
The problem of the Soviet car industry is that it had a to small sales market. This meant that the car could not be updated as often as the car that was already in production still hadn't payed off the price it cost the state to retool the factory to make it. The US on the other hand had a large sales market as it sold not just to the states but also to the remaining half of the world. Also a lot of the car manufacturers were also weapon manufacturers in WW2 so after the war they had a lot of production capacity that they used to conquer the market. The soviet's, due to having to rebuild their country after the war, were not able to expand onto the global market until the 60s and by that time the US manufacturers dominated the market. It's like with China right now, they have a large internal sales market and as a result of economy of scale they can sell their cars cheaper than the Americans or Europeans.
An old Lada will outlive you and probably your grandkids. 😂 And I’d love one of those big old Zis or a Zil limousines! Might need some modification of course.
I want one of those black Volgas. I'll take the Chika in black sedan, too. Russians can't get western cars. Garage 54: "Watch us tow our latast experiment out of pile of snow with our H2 Hummer."
Волги на ЗМЗ, а именно так называется двигатель, будут довольно медленными, даже для того времени. Детали для таких белых ворон ты хрен где найдёшь за пределами России. Лучше купить старенькую s80, чем Волгу, хотя бы целее будешь
A bit cheap to bash on soviet cars, it is not really original, also did you ever ride in 50's european car? Not much better.. I know cars in the Soviet Union had many problems, but you make it out to be a total disaster, how many European cars last 40 years?
The Soviet Union's best shape was from the mid 50's to the early 60's. That's when their economy peaked, and they created a lot of things. 6:40 I think it was actually a bit of a mix between the 1949 Ford "Shoebox" and the 1954 Ford Custom. 19:10 After 14 years, a new model of the Volga will be made this summer called the C40. Sadly, it's just a Chinese rebranding of "Changan."
что смазать важнее, шкворни или червяка? и можно ли вставить в кузов 24 или 2410 детали от более похожих на автомобиль поздних - двигатель Крайслер, гидроусилитель, дисковые тормоза?
I have a 1974 Zhiguli 2103 which is what you are calling Lada, a later name. It is indestructible and starts first time, has a high wheelbase and stronger suspension for snow and bad roads (here in Latvia) and does not rust. The steel is thick and I love it. It is hard to steer as it has no power steering, thats all the problem if you mind that.
Nice job on the video. In Car and Driver magazine in the 70's there was an article about the Moskvich factory which said it was the last fully self-contained factory in the world. Raw materials went in and cars came out. Even the tires were made there. I always wanted to hear more about that factory but have never been able to find anything here in North America.
which is VERY inefficient, thats why Japanese and Western factories moved to a system of sub contractors, where every business specializes in certain parts.making the whole much cheaper, faster and higher quality
@@Klovaneer because the guy that invented a better disk brake lives 500 km away and build his factory there and not on the same plot. And the guy that makes the best car batteries lives 700 km the other way..... get the idea? Maybe economic forces bring these people together if that saves money, but maybe not, the market will decide what is best and not central planning which has always been wasteful and bad for invention, as communist history shows
@@Klovaneer The throw-away-economy is a recent phenomenon, most of the history of western capitalism quality won and people would re-use items as long as possible. I never heard about Superfest, so I looked it up, oh its drinking glassware I read the coca cola comment about not breakable being a bad thing, but that is commercial talk about cheap cafe glasses that get tossed around and break often. . Normal people don't use coca cola branded glassware, but just plain ones and they can last a lifetime. I got most of my nice looking glasses from my grandparents who bought them in the 1960s-1980s and they still are all perfectly useable and shining , as are the ones I bought myself as a student in the 2000s. Sure sometimes one breaks if a person is careless, but that's ok. That is just a normal aspect of life.
I wish that the many channels about technical history would refrain from including political history since most of them get it wrong. The summary of capitalism vs communism (well, socialism actually) in this video is a typical example.
my family's originally from the USSR, and my paternal grandparents had a GAZ-21 that they bought in 1963. They said that they had to borrow money from every family member in order to buy it, and the reason why they chose it over the Lada or other affordable options is that, due to the high price, there was no multi-year long queue to receive one.
I have heard several say it was, a few have appeared on RUclips, but maybe after market upgrades. I have never seen even an image of the engine bay of the much rumored Wankel Engine version (probably because they may have only made a few hundred, but thousands of engines, as it probably went through them like the NSU Ro80).
@@jon-paulfilkins7820 Sure, some of them are in fact aftermarket installations, made after the fall of SU, when these 5.5L engines have become available from the decommissioned Chaikas, but what is more significant - from military equipment, for example BRDM-2 armored vehicle, which also had these engines. But true KGB Volgas were made by GAZ itself. Model GAZ 24-24. And all of these factory made Volgas had mandatory automatic transmission. In fact, previous GAZ models also had modifications for KGB, GAZ M-21 also had V8 equipped variants, even earlier GAZ M-20 for KGB had inline flathead 6, when basic cars still had inline 4s.
@@k3kboi665 Not really a factory biult cars in that sense, but..Lithuania built rally Ladas, the Lada VFTS, estonia had racing formula type bolides, Estonia-21
@@k3kboi665 not strictly passenger cars - there were hundreds of auto repair plants, like a big service station, and most of these were also building small buses for local needs, usually on truck chassis, with bodies of their own design or open standard. Such as Kuban' bus type used by the Ministry of culture: libraries, movie theaters etc
yes, he didn't mention RAF, which built minivans - which were all over USSR, serving as ambulances, mini buses, and small delivery trucks.Also they used to make fully electric delivery vans for baby foods.
I owned a Lada 1300 estate. It was a comfortable and nice to drive vehicle. Although when I jacked it up to change the rear wheel during a puncture both headlights popped out and smashed. Mmmh.
What did you expect, westerners rarely have any perspective of what it was like. These videos are more about "communism bad"(undoubtedly, but thats not the point) than the cars, he left out a TON of soviet cars like Trabant, Dacia, Polski Fiat. Shame, because there is a lot interesting stuff about them.
Yeah, once you go to Russia / former USSR, you see these old cars still running, people respect them and understand their limitations, and it's all in good fun with a rich past
@@bldontmatter5319 Not to mention that the old Ladas (that everyone in the West makes fun of) actually in Russia have their own specific subset of car culture based solely around them. They're cars that are extremely cheap to buy, easy to maintain and upgrade, and also it's the cheapest way to get your feet wet with motorsports, from circuit racing to (especially) drift - these cars are basically a go-to option for the first project car for a lot of young Russian car enthusiasts. Do these people mocking Ladas know that it's one of the best cars for drifting in winter? Like seriously, these are so light and well-balanced that no JDM legend or modern car can compare to them on ice. Winter drift has become really popular in Russia in the past years, and the most winning car of this sport is an old soviet shitbox Lada. Silvia/Supra/etc who? They're left eating -dust- snow by Ladas of all things.
@@Axter6None of the cars you mentioned were Soviet though. Trabant was East German, Dacia is Romanian, Polski Fiat was (as the name suggests) Polish. So in a video about SOVIET cars (not Eastern European cars in general) they would be out of place.
guy finally has money to buy car. car company says you can pick up the car on this date 10 years from now. guy asks morning or afternoon? car company says what does it matter, its 10 years from now! guy says the plumber is coming on that day in the morning. (tl;dr it takes so so so long to have something done in the USSR)
To be honest, the state of the Warsaw pact automotive industry really makes me wonder how good life actually was, like how was life for the modern consumer in the eastern bloc. When it comes to entertainment, transportation, recreation and vacation options, consumer electronics, in home appliances, automobiles, even just the variety of foods and clothes in the west were way ahead of what was avalible in the pact with the added bonus of immediate and constant availability and service. You want a car, you get one same day. Meanwhile if you want a lada, get in line.
Another mistake in your biased documentry - in Soviet Union the VAZ sedans were not called LADAs. Lada brand appeared AFTER Soviet Union. in modern Russia. During Soviet Union the VAZ was commonly called "Jiguli". They were "Ladas" brand for EXPORT.
VAZ 2101 was sold from the beginning in communist countries under name Zhiguli (Жигули in Russian), thats how I remember it, my father had 2 of them (I am from Slovak Republic now, CSSR od Czechoslovak Socialist Republic before). After some time, couple of years, USSR started to export them to Western countries under LADA brand.
Hi from Russia. It's a detailed review, even with rare part of crash tests and KGB training, but it has few historical mistakes. And few mistakes in logic. I want to design and to produce my own cars from the Soviet childhood. So, I know much about our car produce. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgary and GDR have never been a USSR. They were USSR allies. So-called Soviet zone, or Council for Economic Mutual Help. And in military case - a Warzaw Agreement Countries. A Cold War is not something general. It has a fixed start in Western Berlin. As an attempt of USA and it's European allies to deal with economic blockade of Germans in Western Berlin. Which was located in a deep Soviet zone in Germany. Pobeda (GAS) doesn't mean Freedom. It means Victory. A victory against the Hitler's Germany in WWII. That USSR got in a great effort. With a small help of GB and USA troops help. And a great help of USA economic produce. The range of value of Soviet cars is depicted in a wrong way. Moscvich from its very beginning (Moscow plant of Komsomol, AZLK - auto plant of Lenin Komsomol) in 50th was a small-engine economy-class model. Like most European cars after WWII. Later it became middle-size car. Like VW. And won in racing. For its durability. But the models showed never were regarded better than VAZ (Lada). VAZ (FIAT 124 with a new engine) was more modern and better. And VAZ was the biggest auto plant in Europe. That's why VAZ won the championship for the people's hearts. That's why Moskvich mostly has stopped the production. Even of the last, better and bigger size model - AZLK Aleko. Based on Chrysler and Simca. You showed this model it in Your video. But not told about it. VAZ had a model 2108, later 2109, later 21099 and others. Simply so-called 8 and 9. It was a front-wheel car with 3 or 5 doors. And it won a victory with rear-wheeled Moskvich. And even with front-wheel Moskvich Aleko. Because Aleko was started later and exactly in the moment of the empire crash. So, all supply was broken. With the lost territories. Most of the Soviet produce was unofficial car copying. Except official licensed FIAT. Who build the biggest plant in Europe in a new town. Near Samara. The town was renamed Togliatti. After Italian communist Palmiro Togliatti. FIAT in USSR became as a local VW. And Fiat 124 model was also produced in Poland. In bigger size but worster options. ZAZ from Ukraine was not a popular car at all. It was a compromise car with rear-sheels and a very loud rear-engine from a bike. And because of the rear engine it was good in mud. But could not get a multi space body like universal SUV or VW Transporter. Volga (GAS) was the best car that one could get. But it wasn't sold for everybody. Only for organizations and as a personal purchase for theater and cinema artists, singers, cosmonauts, scientists and administration. That's why Volga generally had only few models. GAZ-21 (22) in 1960th was among the best Soviet cars. GAZ-24 was nice in 1970th and early 1980th. And it had some more modern modifications. Like GAZ-3102 (31029 and others). But opening borders showed a great variety of normal-sized cars except Volga. And it became obsolete in a few years. With its rear-wheel construction. And the same doors size without change from GAZ-24 from 1968 or 1969, as I remember. GAZ - Chaika and a more luxury ZIL were never sold for the public. That's why they were a micro-series handmade cars. Without automatic lines to produce lot, as I remember. And with lack of ideas for new technologies. Just big-size limousines with less then about 2 or 3 thousand items of all years of production. So, among all former Soviet producers only FIAT-based huge moodern plant of VAZ had succeed. And legendary VAZ Niva (a 3-doors SUV from 1986-87 as I remember) is still cheap and popular in Europe. And not more popular in Russia in fact. Because of rust. So, the territories were lost, the producers of detailes were in bankruptcy. And ZAZ, Moskvich, Volga and ZIL had shrinked and died. That's a pity. Now about AURUS. The car is a serial model. Limousine. With ideas about serial minivan and SUV. But the price, design and level of assembly control can lead it to the fate of ZIL. It's more a toy to possess. To move with a clear road. Not a car for everyday travelling in mud and snow or a taxi use. And about Chinese produce. It's a pity for us and for USA, but Chinese communistic capitalism made a great car industry. With copying, investigation, Europe specialists and inventing. Now, US car manufacturers can cry. But their cars are like our Volga. Sold only if you have no choice or lack of experience. Or has a great patriotic passion for exact model. So, Chinese cars in cheap and middle segments are overwhelming. And are kin even in flying cars and electric cars.
Please do a video about Tatra! Those were very successful among the Soviet elites, who were aware of their much higher quality when compared to the local offerings.
How many jokes can you tell about Lada's?
To triple one's value, you fill it up half-way.
In Jamaica they called them Life After Death Association, because of the chance of surviving an accident
The funniest thing about them is that the Lada name was not used in the Union or in post-Soviet Russia until very recently, and even now it is usually applied only to current (Renault-era) models. Some 25 years ago it was also used for imported Finnish production by Valmet, but these are gone and forgotten by now.
4:49 Победа is not "freedom". We outright object and detest this decadent capitalist demagoguery. Победа is "victory". March on, fellow soldiers, the English channel is just a Fulda gap away.
It vos invented in Russia.
"I want to return my Lada. Uphill it only goes up to 75"
" 75 uphill sounds pretty good to me"
"Yes but i live at house number 80"
That's a good one.
Ha good one.
😂
That's a western joke as you do not get soviet housing numeration
😅🤣😂
A guy comes to a junkyard and asks : "A hubcap for a Lada ?" Junkyard man: "Yeah. That sounds like a fair deal"
A re-badged Kia joke. See the irony? Both are a P.O.S. car.
Oldie but a goodie.
@davidyoung8521 hey now... Kias were pretty solid until Hyundai bought them out. Most of their hardware was licensed Mazda stuff, solid and reliable if less than inspiring. To this day the best source for Mazda FE dohc motors is a Kia Sportage.
@@DrewLSsixkilled in action against hyundai
Ladas today are better quality than American or Australian cars, I know as I have one and its parked in a paddock at 25 below zero.
Победа (Pobieda) is not “freedom” as claimed in the video but it is “victory”.
Was gonna say it then I saw your comment.... I'm not even Russian but I know it lol
its all meh
yup..was just gonna comment this!
I thought it meant decades of economic missmanagement and state opression
In Poland it was called Warszawa, like our capital city. We produced Warszawas 1951-1973. You could still see them on the roads in the 90's. Polish vans Żuk and Nysa used Warszawa's M-20, S-21 engine, headlights, wheels, instrument panel and suspension.
I have a joke on Trabant. So, I ordered it and paid double the starting price, I managed to enter the waiting list, and now I've been waiting for it for around five years. Oh, sorry, it's not Trabant, it's Cybertruck.
but you eventually got the Trabant. A luxury the Tesla simps waiting for the soon to be discontinued Cybertruck won't experience.
Worry not, Comrade. We in the West despise the Cybertruck too. If nothing else, we can agree on that.
CyberF&$k😂
@@MladenPostruznik not nice, deleting my accurate comment 👎⤵️🚽💩😂 not nice
I'd walk before owning a Cybertruck
BTW, Yugoslavia was never a satelite state. It was a socialist counttry, this is true, but it was never a part of Eastern block.
And we had western brands that where made in Yugoslavia. For example Volkswagen TAS in Sarajevo Bosnia, Opel IDA in Serbia, Citroen and Renault in Slovenia etc.
Back when I was in Russia, I used to enjoy going for evening walks in Moscow, just to watch what came down the street.There was a remarkable amount of diversity in vehicles. Lots of old Soviet era cars still on the road in 2008. But everything from tractors to Lambos. Lots and lots of exoctic Italian, German, and British vehicles. I remember one Sunday morning as I was waiting for my driver to take me to Sheremetyevo and I saw a pink '50s Cadillac convertible cruise down the Garden Ring. It was a great place to be a car enthusiast.
Sounds great! Totally convinced a lot of info isn't exactly the truest..
@@MiloG209It's true but mostly because of how fucked the demographics of Moscow are, most of the country gets practically nothing from paying taxes, everything goes to the big cities, especially Moscow. The reason is the oligarchs and government officials live there, and thus anyone that wants a future goes to live there as well.
I have watched my share of car crash vids and can confirm
@@My_Old_YT_Account seems like oligarchs are a problem most places
Go live there and see the public transport in even the smallest cities.
Meanwhile in America, we don't have anything minus NEW YORK CITY @@My_Old_YT_Account
All seems more or less correct, exept Perestroyka was a period before USSR collapsed, not after.
Considering 1990s Wild West Russia and the rise of the oligarchs can trace their origins to Perestroika, yeah...
@@kwanlinus6999thanks to the USA and purposely inserting terror agents into Russia, yes
A crazy amount of mistakes and awful fact checking in this video, not just that one.
@@kristoffer3000 I mean who in the West can pronounce Zaporozhets anyway? Not so many mistakes in my opinion.
@@tulku4797 I think that's more indicative of Western education and media being filled to the brim with propaganda.
If you were to peer outside the bubble you'd find that reality is very different to what you were told to think.
Eh... I'd love to see a good overview of soviet automotive industry - with all the pros and cons, and boy, do we have cons on them soviet cars... But sadly, that's not that video. I like your content, but this one had too many small, but glaring errors (like Pobeda, Moskvich placement in that hierarchy, total avoidance of Niva and so on...) and just too many jokes that kinda sound condescending. The errors show a shallow approach to research. It may be a fun video, but the rabbit hole of soviet automobiles is just so much deeper.
I agree, this video is just a rehash of past videos concerning Soviet cars, with the the prerequisite soviet car jokes.
Totally agreed. I mean he didn't even mention Uaz, the Invalidkas and different variants of Lada!
Yeah for all people shit on Lada’s they were well built and unlike the car they were based on actually had a heater.
Pobeda means not freedom but Victory. Chaika means seagull.
Where did you find that map? Greece was never a part of the Soviet Union or a satelite state.
Finland neather
Neither was Iran.
He has literally no idea what he's doing and it shows.
Made it up
The video was kinda politically motivated
You got Moskvitch and Lada completely mixed up in the hierarchy. Moskvitch was never positioned above the Lada. It was on the same level at best and only if you compared it to the Lada 2101, the base model. These 2 cars were equal on paper but in practice Lada was still held in higher regard because of its superior reliability and build quality. Moskvitch 412 had a larger engine than Lada 2101 but that was its only advantage in this comparison. Everything else about it was inferior. Lada also had 2 higher trim levels- 2103 (later replaced by 2105) and 2106 (later replaced by 2107), both of which stood way above any Moskvitch and were perceived as luxury cars. In its time the 2106 was basically the most prestigious car available to citizens with no political affiliations
something something equal, but one was more equal than the other
The hierarchy of the Moskvitch and Lada changed often. The early 412s were considered more luxurious than Ladas, later versions however in the early 80s 412s and 2140s were considered less luxurious than the Lada, but after the debute of the 2141 AZLK (Moskvitch) was again considered a more luxurious brand in the late 80s
2106 was a successor of 2103 and 2107 was a luxury version of 2105, which was a successor of 2101
The 6th in Russia is an obsession. My girlfriend's dad has one and people every ex-soviet man will obsess over it
@@mordentus 2106 is not a successor of 2103, it's a cheaper version of it. 2107 was a successor of 2103.
Fun fact about Moskvitch: The very first post-war Moskvitch was just a pre-war Opel Kadett, because the Soviets took with them the Kadett production tools.
If it hadn't been for the west they'd still be in horse and buggy.
knew a Korean War veteran -- USMC
they captured a couple Soviet "jeeps" ~~ under the hood they recognized the copy of Ford Model A
They did the same in the GDR. The Production was in Eisenach a City in the east. The soviets and GDR took the parts and build the BMW 340. The Problem is, they called it EMW Not BMW. After that, there was a huge discussion who is right.
@@bemolp7498 Not quite right. They first called it BMW, but after a court ruling in 1951, they weren't allowed to and switched to EMW (Eisenacher Motorenwerke) and later on to AWE (Automobilwerke Eisenach). They continued to build the pre-war 321 and 327. The 340 was an updated version of the 326. The 342 - based on the 332, which became the 501/502 "baroque angel" in the West - didn't go into production. Then AWE had to produce the F9, a DKW model.
Как раз сейчас я читаю книгу Александра Андронова "Думы о труде". Просто интересно, как онлайн - переводчик переведёт это всё. Но это не моя проблема.
Первое. КИМ-10-52.
Второе. Вскрытие сидений в Кадетт К-38 показало, что в рант по краям сидений вставлена "калиброванная лиана с острова Ява". Услужливые голландцы поставляли Гитлеру из своих колоний. И как прикажете копировать яванскую лиану? В СССР? В 1947?
3:27 yugoslavia wasnt actually a soviet satellite state but was its own kind of socialist state, a mix of both worlds, basically market socialism.
Tito
vid is to demonize and simplify complex topics. most likely NED funded
That's the best explanation. And "capitalism will collapse soon so take anothet IMF loan".
@@mememetal6631"Woops it didn't collapse, now we have bajilion of dollars of debt. Time to hit and watch from afterlife race war among balkans begin"
The map looked incorrect so I've found the source. It's an alternate history map by Kuusinen. Why tf was a fictional map used for the video??
You skipped some segments and particular models.
First - is cars from SeAZ - very basic cars for disabled people, that giving for free 5-years rent. It was a very simple car, even didn't classified as car but as «мотоколяска» - something between cyclecar and motorized wheelchair, but it was a car.
You skipped the 1977 Niva - a Lada model, that was a compact crossover of the time before crossovers become mainstream, with four wheel drive.
You also put Moskvich above the Lada, but you are wrong. When VAZ was started, Moskvich became a cheaper car for rural people. It had a leaf springs suspension, only drum brakes (Lada has disk brakes in front) and poorer options. It was many quality issues.
And the last part of your video is slightly outdated. After a year, ABS, airbags etc. came back into Russian cars, something from China, something developed (or, maybe, reverse-engineered) locally.
moskvitch had disc brakes since 2140 model - and the choice wasn't bad, they put Girling 4 piston brake calipers there, the Gaz 3102 had the same ones
@@boyarin2269 Full drum 2140 was in production till 1987. Also Moskvich-412 was still in production until 1998, it was almost the same model that is in 1967.
@@vbifusful full drum was the country trim with reinforced suspension and lower compression ratio. And probably 2138 had these too
Niva is just fiat 126 on steroids
Stick to American cars and don't touch subjects like economy or history, dude. You need a lot of education yourself here.
Nah. That was ok for a brief view.
You sound truly western for my russian ears. Just because there was a cold war doesn't mean that we hated EVERYTHING american or western. So in Russia it's a common knowledge of love of our leaders to american cars. From Stalin to Brezhnev they all were fascinated with cadillacs and fords. So if you stop paint everything with white and black, things will become more understandable.
Understand your leaders are hypocrites? 😂
Yeah man your right on there... It really wasn't MAD (mutual assured destruction) but MAC (m.a.control)
U$ and Russia were simply different franchises and needed each other to wield their powers and fears over the people !!! 👍
@@AJayZy
In fact the end of the cold war,
Was due to , the success
Of the west.
And products , capitalism, had won. At that point.
Now, 2024 , it may be the east , that. Well its being made to appear, to be a better system. A winning system.
@@broderickwallis25Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were the Dons in charge.
@@AJayZy You know you can like stuff without being a hypocrite right? It's a rather simple premise to grasp.
black volgas were also a transport for usual officials. So a black was the best color you COULD get for a volga back then, there's also an anecdote about that
If the black Volga pulls up to an apartment in Russia, there is still a bit of worry in the faces of ex-soviet)
@@bldontmatter5319 Black volga wasn't a symbol of fear here, somewhere in poland or in mind of westerners, yes. But here it was a symbol of high status and post. People respect that car. I'm currently repainting mine in black with mint roof
@@bldontmatter5319
Black meant only status, nothing more. The KGB was busy with more important things than looking for some petty person who said that he did not like the USSR or did not like Khrushchev or Stalin. The REAL fear of black cars appeared only in the 90s, during times of instability, poverty and the heyday of banditry, when all sorts of organized crime groups drove them, so that it would be difficult to track them at night.
@@boyarin2269ПОНЯЛ брат.
@@boyarin2269 Why black with mint roof? You want to use it as a TAXI in Portugal? These are the official TAXI colors there...
Common joke about Trabant (even though it's east german, i think it's apropriate)
How do you double a Trabant's value? Fill up its tank
There was also a joke about taking it inside the house during rain because they were made from effectively cardboard.
Or the classic British one, what do you call a soft top lada? a skip, then there's the classic, lada are fitted with heated rear windows so you can have warm hand while pushing it.
@@jh565bb I think this joke about the windows worked for most if not all eastern european cars. At least in poland.
@@jh565bb the heated rear window thing is actually for a Skoda (110R Open Top specifically)
They're made from duraplast which are old cotton blend clothes combined with phenol resins and pressed into shape. So basically bargain bin Bakelite.
@@jh565bb Funny because they're far more reliable than British cars of the time
A Russian friend has a 1978 Lada. I've driven it, it was a delightful ruggedly built little car. Of course he takes good care of it. A couple years ago the engine failed. For $200 it was completely rebuilt. Parts are plentiful, repairs are simple and the whole car technologically is about equal to 1960 in the USA. That is great, you can fix it with a few hand tools, even far from a city or town. The bodies are thick galvanized steel with heavy duty suspension. If they were offered for sale in the USA, I think they would have been very popular. Imagine a reliable, better built 1975 Chevy Vega for 1/3 of the price.
"If they were offered for sale in the USA" -- The current safety regulations would never allow it. And yeah, I like simple cars of that era, but there it is.
@@mountainhobo Which is why I drive classic American iron. Sit down, turn the key, drive off. No touchscreen distractions, cryptic control symbols, seat belts, air bags, computers, navigation systems, environmental systems, etc. Can be had for a fraction of the cost of a new car, easy to work on, parts available, and so on. Gets you from point "A" to point "B" with decent fuel mileage. That's good enough for me.
@@mountainhoboAs if they had all the new safety regulations we have now in 1975
@@seb_1504 *Current* regulations. It seriously went over your head? I don't live in your imaginary world where it is 1975. Go ahead, and try to make it street legal *now*. Try to understand the post before responding.
@@mountainhobo You were the one that misunderstood things, no need to get so hostile when called out on it.
One thing to note however, is that since the inception of the USSR in 1922, to its dissolution in 1991, Russia had been under almost a complete embargo by the rest of the planet.
As such, while western countries were allowed to specialise in specific export sectors of their economies and make up the shortfall by importing from other countries, the Soviet Union was forced by these sanctions to be completely self-sufficient, which meant it could not specialise it's economy towards a specific type of production, such as car building, and instead had to be able to produce everything it needed domestically.
It is this context that I believe proves that a planned economy would still be far more efficient and beneficial in the modern day, as despite being beset on all sides by hostile powers, weathering the brunt of two world wars, civil war, invasion, blockade, and sabotage, the Soviet Union still managed to go from a backward feudal system under the Tsar, to sending the first man to space in 44 years, and it was the first in the world to grant universal suffrage to women, universal healthcare, housing, childcare, and guaranteed employment, all starting from an economy in 1922 that was equivalent to that of Brazil.
We can only Imagine what they would've been capable of without the blockades, or the destruction. We can only imagine what we would be capable of under a similar system, starting from an economy multiple times larger.
You make a strong case.
However, if I was to have vigorously disagreed with you back in the day, the problemette was that I would have risked arrest.
Planned economies tend to be paired with totalitarian regimes. I would trade apparent freedom for any amount of economic wellbeing.
I am well aware that freedom is in short supply everywhere at the moment.
underated comment. Finally a man with some general culture
Except a great deal of that industrialization was planed and built by American and Italian engineers
Self sufficient?😂😂😂
“Western Technology And Soviet Economic Development” (1917-1930, 1930-1945 and 1945-1965)-Antony Sutton
@@jeffbybee5207 probably the only implication that the Italians had in the Soviet industry was the fact that they helped them with the creation of the Lada by giving them license from fiat for the first lada models
Literally laughed out loud at "this phone number on wheels." What a fascinating new chapter in your excellent series.
The ZIL was preceded by the ZIM which was a license built pre-war Packard.
The cars of today are too expensive to buy new or used, and are wildly over-complicated and burdensome (both in terms of time and money) to repair.
Ignoring all other historical and political context: the world needs another Lada. A simple, cheap shitbox, that no matter how many times it falls apart, can easily be pieced back together for the average lower class person.
It exists, Lada Granta would be considered one of the cheapest cars in the world if not for covid, sanctions and skyrocketed price,lol. It is mostly 80's and 90's tech inside. But otherwise as unremarkable as it could be
@@beibotanovit's definitely not 80s 90s tech. What on EARTH are you smoking?
It's on par with a 2010s car, like a Chevy cobalt.
@@bldontmatter5319 yeah, looks are good🤣 As good as they can be on the cheapest car. But do not let them decieve
@@beibotanovI'm not deceived. It's literally tooled from a knock down kit from Chevy. It's LITERALLY A CHEVY COBALT. It has THE EXACT KNOCK DOWN KIT from 2010 for a CHEVY COBALT, same as the CHEVY NIVA, WHICH IS A KNOCK DOWN KIT FROM CHEVY.
@@bldontmatter5319 who told you this nonsense? Please point a finger at him. It is a domestic design, development of the so called AVVA project - a new 90's styled body with old 80's insides. It is much smaller, cheaper and worse overall than even a Cobalt. I have never seen a Cobalt for sale here, but used Dodge Neon, when they were available and relatively fresh, was considered a much better car, sold for almost twice as much and were popular as US used exports go.
Chevy Niva is a domestic design too - also a new 90's body with old 80's insides. Joint venture "GM-Avtovaz" was formed because VAZ was starved for money and could not afford model 2123 mass production. Most of Daewoo's early 2000' line was sold under Chevy brand here too
Hungarians talking on the bus: "Is he in the party? ...I don't know. Well, does he have a car? ...yes. He's in the party."
My father's parents wanted a car and had the money for it in the early '70s, here in Hungary
My grandpa had a small shop, making wooden barrels and such things, as an independent "company", the biggest enemy of the socialist state.
They waited 4 years for a Wartburg, but did not advance on the waiting list, so they took their money out and bought an army surplus GAZ-69, that was nearly 20 years old at the time.
Can I just say that basically all Western countries, even the US, had protective tax policies and strong government subsidies for car makers... Pobeda also means "victory" not freedom.
I can't believe how ignorant this video is in so many parts. The author has a massive pro-capitalist bias, and it shows in their lack of understanding of some nuances.
Not to protect the clearly inferior Soviet cars, but it's important to recognize that the urban planning in the US is heavily car-oriented, and it's pretty much impossible to get by without one, except for a couple of cities. The Soviet Union vastly differs in that. The towns are built in such a way that one could reach all the necessary amenities within a 15-minute walk or a short ride on well-developed and affordable public transportation.
There's so many problems that I can't get arsed to write them all out.
Shallow video on a subject that deserves much more in-depth and nuanced discussion. Jij kan beter dan dit, Ed!
"Shallow" meaning "I don't like the truth."
"Shallow" meaning that it wasn't a 12 hour long documentary... gotcha. 👍
@@berkeleyfuller-lewis3442no, he's wrong on nearly every single little detail. Even basic things like "pobeda" meaning FREEDOM...
A New Russian's son complains to his father: "Daddy, all my schoolmates are riding the bus, and I look like a black sheep in this 600 Merc."
"No worries, son. I'll buy you a bus, and you'll ride like everyone else!"
actually it was a joke about georgian son with a context of Georgia being the wealthiest republic
I thought this joke was about a Saudi or an Emirati in London
Yea supposedly
this story sounds more Western to be fair but okay
I know somewhat different joke.
New Russian's son complains to his father. "Daddy, all my schoolmates laugh at me for riding a bus, I want BMW" ... few days later.
Sorry son, I was only able to acquire 30%. Other shareholders didn't want to sell.
Pobeda is not freedom, its Victory! OMG(
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
That was bait for comments :)
you right a freedom in Russian is Svaboda (свабода )
@@parovozovo honestly couldn't have been anything else
boosting engagement for anything
What does a quote from 1984 have anything to do with this? @@john1703
Sir,
I know you are trying to be funny in good old British humour fashion but a few things are indeed too biased. OK, Russia-bashing is currently en vogue and convenient. Therefore I like to offer another perspective.
The Lada 1200 (WAZ2101) was the car of my childhood in the GDR. My Dad bough it factory fresh in the very early 1970s and kept it for 10 years. It drove all the way from East-Germany to Tbilisi a few times and was my Dad's daily runner to work. It never missed a beat. It still caried a lot of "Made in Italy" signs on various parts and had the white indicators at the front so it must be one of the very first to be manufactured.
Then it was replaced by the identical model for ca. another 10 years and again was the daily runner. It too drove us deep into the USSR all the way from East-Germany and back home without a glitch several times. My parents kept this one two until mid 1980s and sold it only due to their assignment into a foreign country.
Both cars were extremely reliable, although in the Eastern Bloc cars were understood as an investment and therefore properly maintained straight from the beginning. So much for the ecological aspect.
Before becoming a Lada, various components and design features were redesigned for Russian conditions; the engine a complete Russian design to accept low quality gasoline and the suspension strengthen and lifted, plus some nice extra touches added. The Lada had a small but efficient toolset, a very efficient heater system and a crank to restart the engine with pure muscle power.
Finally to compare a Lada with a VW beetle is really odd, the beetle was already much outdated while the Lada was still reasonable modern although the base model of Fiat 124 was already stopped manufacturing in Italy. Other countries like India, Turkey, Egypt also manufactured Fiat 124 in license.
So claiming that all Soviet cars were crap in general, as so many love to indulge themselves, is of course wrong. Particular the Ladas and Volgas carried a seemingly endless life because their designs were well in general very tough, but also thought trough for easy repair and maintenance under the most primitive circumstances. And simple design, if properly executed, will always add to reliability. Your life in the vast and climatically challenging surroundings of Russia might depend on it.
The Zaparoshez and the Moskvitch indeed had a rather lousy quality reputation, therefore the waiting period for a "Zappo" was almost zero in East-Germany. The Moskvitch was inferior and cheaper than the Lada and therefore your rating is wrong.
The more luxurious Lada variants like the 2107 was nicknamed the "Mercedes of the East" not only because it nice looks but because of its performance and reliability.
Also I miss the Lada Niva, an absolute icon and as many claim the "father of all SUVs". They were highly sought after in the GDR.
Besides all this, there were other car manufacturers in the Eastern Bloc outside the USSR. The quality of their cars varied too, with Polski-Fiat (Poland), Skoda (Czechoslovakia) and Wartburg (GDR) probably being the best, followed by Zastava (Yugoslavia) and Dacia (Romania).
Peace! from Dresden / Germany
Buses are better than having car's for every person, that's one thing the USSR won with, we in Eastern Europe enjoy such things as sidewalks, and public transport. (You may say something about the quality of the sidewalks, but that's just due to our current government's not giving a f-)
I would be very happy to use public transportation. It's not available where I live and when I travel I must go a long way to be anywhere. This is true for many people in America and I would think it's the same in the former Soviet Union because of its tremendous size. European countries are rather small in comparison so I believe I would use public transportation and perhaps a bike as well.
Leaves a lot to be desired honestly.
Could've gone more into the history, and could've read some newer sources for the ending, not 1 year old stuff. ABS and airbags are back, the ESP systems are being tested still as they need 2 climate cycles for testing (winter-summer-winter). Emissions equipment is back in, and it wasn't really ever away, they still had catalysts, just the engine ecus weren't set up to not slow down production.
And he didn't even mention that Vladivostok and pretty much most of the Russian east is packed with JDM imports which are still steadily coming in to this day.
@@Diwasho neither that the gaz 14 was banned by Gorbi and all the documentation and tooling was destroyed by his orders.
Or that GAZ did experiment with new models.
The 3103-3104-3105 family, the 3111 and others.
Or that with the struggle after the fall of the union, the auto makers started making some very strange models, like the Lada Nadezhda, the GAZ Ataman and the long Moskviches.
There's so much more explore.
Instead he went on the beaten path of downplaying the work of the russians and ending on a low note.
You're right; the Russian automotive industry is the envy of the world 🙄
@@Random-nf7qb Yeah, the opening praising the free market was a dead giveaway about the level of the rest of the video.
Let's not forget that Ed, a dutchman, has also likely grown up on anti-communist propaganda and news-reports about a drunk Jeltsin who finally got replaced by stronk leader Putin. Hell, most of the west was on Putin's dick until the last decade and past three years. It wouldn't surprise me if he thought that Putin was actually a pretty cool guy before all that shit went down, though that's just conjecture from my side and wasn't a particularly unpopular opinion to begin with. Ya know, before all thát.
Just a disclaimer: I'm not saying that the Soviet Union wasn't up to some horrible de-humanizing shit, but so was the west. The ideology behind it barely matters. The whole making fun of Russia for basically having to rebuild itself after the collapse of the SU must have had a very traumatic and long lasting impact on inhabitants of Russia.
Not going to mention the Lada Niva (now called Lada Niva Legend), the last Soviet Era SUV still in production today?
I was disappointed to not see the niva in this video , an iconic classic, I have one in my garage I am doing up rn , I am Australian
Wasn't the Niva marketed in the Western world as Riva?
@@bioLarzen it went by a lot of different names like the Cossack or in Australia we had the bushman and niva toro but they all came with niva badges, the Riva is an entirely different car
@@MB-iq6wq Oh, I see. I had incorrect info then. Thanks for the info!
Riva is the pretty name for the 2101 and all its various trim levels, Niva is the SUV. @@bioLarzen
14:25 The basic premise is wrong, the Moskvitch was WAY below the Lada, like in Czechoslovakia it was literally one 1/3 cheaper than the Lada, it had the same price tag as the basic Škoda 100 and would often sell so poorly it was sold next year with a 15% discount. And the GAZ 13 Chaika was basically unpurchasable for personal use. The ZAZ was much closer to the VW than the Fiat 500 as the lowest part of the market that the Fiat 500 represented wasn’t really a thing in the USSR.
Hey, there is the Polski Fiat 126p Maluch, that's the Eastern Bloc Fiat 500
@@kwanlinus6999 And it was never sold in the Soviet Union.
Heck to continue the Czechoslovak comparison, it was literally only 10% less expensive than the Moskvitch. And actually more epensive if you bought the last year's Moskvitch.
@@eozcompany9856 How do they compare in terms of prices to the Trabants and Wartburgs?
@@kwanlinus6999 In Czechoslovakia Trabant was way cheaper cost about 36 500 Kčs compared to 42 000 Kčs for the Maluch, Moskvitch was 45 000 Kčs for the weaker and 52 000 Kčs for the more powerful model, the kombi version was the most expensive version of the Moskvitch at 58 000 Kčs but also imported in extremely low numbers. Compared to that the Lada 1200 cost 58 000 Kčs and the top of the line Lada 1600 76 500 Kčs. Wartburg cost about 57 000 Kčs for the sedan and 64 000 Kčs for the Tourist but compared to the Moskvitch it basically never stayed around and was way more desirable than the Moskvitch. To throw in a few more cars; Dacia 1300 went for 66 000 Kčs, Ford Cortina 1600 about 85 000 Kčs, Škoda 120 GLS cost 66 000 Kčs and Fiat 125p 1500 cost 65 400 Kčs.
@@eozcompany9856 The outlier here seems to be the Wartburg. No idea why it was so desirable despite being powered by a two-stroke, when the Lada 1200 has a four-stroke and is almost the same price (Maybe because the waiting lists were so much longer?)
The Moskvitch and Dacia seems to face the greatest ridicule of the normal sized cars. The former had an Opel Kadett engine dating back to WW2, while the latter had a joke that only the ones built on a Wednesday worked.
I guess the Skodas were quite desirable among the sports car community of eastern bloc, if there is one I guess?
Respect to everyone in the comment section that is clearly very knowledgeable about the Russian and Eastern Bloc auto industry. Seriously, that is one jungle that I wouldn't even dare enter, so complicated and convoluted.
And respect to Ed for even trying. Sure, there might have been errors but this was better than most. And entertaining as always
Ничего. Мы скоро вымрем, и блогеры смогут писать об СССР любую ахинею!
@@karlwalther sorry, can't translate it
@@seventysevenfiji вот и хорошо! Вам спокойнее будет!
@@karlwalther They already write whatever nonsense they want because Westerners have no idea.
That's what 100 years of propaganda gets you, nobody questions the media when they've heard the same lies so many times.
I would not say this is better than most, it's so full of errors and shameless bias that if he had any creative integrity he'd take it down and re-do it from scratch.
Great to see some of the old cars of the USSR. But you should stay away from your childish political commentary. Western Russia was devastated by the nazis, 25 million Russians were killed so the fact that their auto industry wasn’t as good as the Americans is totally understandable, they had other priorities to deal with like building housing for millions of homeless people after the war.
their main priority was military industry
“Priorities like building housing for the millions of homeless”.
Yeah no. That was literally NEVER a priority to those communist dirtbags.
@@tclott316 Yes, it was. You're either grossly misinformed or deliberately lying. Starting from 1955, the Khrushchevka apartment buildings were built on the order of hundreds of thousands within a timeframe of about 15 years. Clean, roomy, and for the time modern. With these, the USSR completely eliminated homelessness by 1970. Notably, a feat that no other nation either at the time or in the present has succeeded in replicating.
@jakekaywell5972 i lived in krushchevka, to be honest, it is much better designed then modern living complexes in russia. So much greanery around, a lot of space. The buildinga themselves are not as great of course, but the streets around them were good, i sometimes miss so much trees around
25 million people definitely wasn't just ruskies..
It’s so weird but I love Soviet automobiles and especially the ZIL 114
They are interesting, but I wouldn't own them because of build quality
They probably no different from US cars of same era build wise especially the High official stuff
ZIL 117 is a car I will never own but won't stop dreaming about it
Me, Trabant Universal, Wartburg 353, Lada Riva 2107 or whatever looks like that.
@@jh565bbthe Volga is on par with US build quality of the time. I've happened to own a Volga gaz-24 in Russia, and an UAZ hunter.
They're both on par with the 1988 f250 and 1970 f100 I've had
Not just quite a few Moskviches and Ladas ended up abroad, but actually most of them ended up there, up to 80% of total production. It's just overall modest production numbers and barebonity of those cars which didn't make them appealing to preserve, that made them a rare sight abroad nowadays. And that was why USSR citizens had to wait years after paying just to get their car (after paying some more due to inflation).
The reason for that was the soviet state being in a constant need of foureign currency to maintain international trade due to having a basically unconvertible inner rouble. So that task was achieved by exporting oil, grain, fish, agricultural equipment... and cars.
Yeah, quickly overlooked fact. The fact that the Soviet Union achieved the things with the pressure they were under deserves credit. They didn't have it easy.
@@theothertonydutchthanks to the west, and the idea that the US dollar is mightier than all, and therefore all countries need to suffer
@@theothertonydutch Just one more restrictive meat grinding machine under pressure of a bit less restrictive meat grinders))
All in all the difference by the end of 20th century was solely due to stubborn insistance of USSR to stay deaf for it's citizens and not even try to evolve in any meaningful non-recursive way.
Modern day Russia is long way back on that recursive self-autofellative political course. Guess, that's what are the true russian circles.
Only the finite nature of human existence stops them from winding lower and lower through centuries, heh.
Some Asian countrues, however, somehow escape this rule - by a wisdom of giving birth to mentally elderly pricks, I guess)))
given that the Chinese car industry already terrifies the Western car makers, I wouldn't be so condescending with the future of the Russian industry. other than that, very good video as always.
chinese industry doesn't terrify the west, only the chinese government's financial practices does.
and yes , we know asians can make good cars, Japan and South Korea have lead the way
@@Blackadder75 I guess the new tariffs imposed to Chinese products and accusations of 'over capacity' (whatever that is) are just friendly welcoming nudges huh?
@@Blackadder75 That's a ridiculous take, you've gobbled up the narrative where we in the West can help our car manufacturers as much as we want but China can't, not that they're even doing that much.
The video is a great example of someone who's politically illiterate making a video about something they barely researched with any depth. Awful, don't make anything like this again.
Ikr. Throughout the video I was like, oh my god, this dude's a complete moron...
As an American living in China, as soon as you showed the All-New, All-Russian cars, I said "WAIT A MINUTE!"
the new moscvich is a disgrace; everything else is developed and assembled within the country with some components from other countries
Honestly, it's never been easier to get LITERALLY any car to Russia than now.
For example, if you want BMW - you can get used one from Korea, Germany (more like from every country from EU), UAE, USA etc., or a new one from the exact same source countries.
More than that, now the whole chinese domestic market cyborgs on wheels are avaliable to buy here, in Russia. Lixiang, Zeekr (idk exactly, were they passed on EU market or not), Yangwang (luxury BYD brand), HiPhi and much more other brands, known only inside China. In late 80s, 90s and early 00s we appreciated JDM, now we are one on the first nations to experience CDM. Grey imports in its best.
And how many of those cars are stolen? Big, big problem in Canada right now.
@@poochie49 It was so much worse, let's say like 10-15 years ago, because the lack of cameras. Of course, you can't fully delete thefts from society, but i think the situation is better here, than anywhere in America. And there's another reason - all new cars (except the cheapest version of Lada Granta) came with immobiliser from like 10 years or even more. So, no "kia boys" here
Are those Chinese cars doing ok?
@@AJayZy overall, yes, but chinese have a simple rule here: you get - what you pay for.
@@dankmemes8569 Be careful a lot of their EVs are catching fire
Bro, your fact-checking should be better. All over the place with this one, too many mistakes to continue pinpointing them
Proof
@@w210black Just read other comments
He has literally no idea what he's talking about and he's super pompous/biased (like most westerners)
That applies to every so-called 'historical' car video on RUclips. Smart-asses all over spouting off about chit they haven't the vaguest clue.
If RUclips had a less-convoluted way of making money and compensating people, it wouldn't have gained the new reputation of the Worlds Greatest Liar Marketplace.
@@w210black He has put Yugoslavia AND GREECE into the eastern block lmao.
This video is looking at Soviet cars completely back-to-front with the usual Animal Farm smarminess. The development of automobiles was always a secondary consideration, even after the Great Patriotic War. This was partly due to the socialist ideal of developing public transportation first (which the USSR did to great success) and partly due to the sheer devastation that the Great Patriotic War wrought. Developing cars for private use, especially when the material conditions made it so that they were in effect luxury goods instead of the necessities they were in the West, would have been a waste of precious resources when your country had to rebuild from a smoking crater. Hence, the focus on trucks and buses vs. passenger cars just made sense right up until the USSR had finally rebuilt enough to launch its first true people's car in the form of the brilliant AvtoVAZ/Lada 2101.
Japan did it better😮
lada 2101 is a Fiat, even after ALL those years rebuilding they still couldn't make a simple people car... George Orwell was a brilliant visionary and spot on.
@@Blackadder75 Not really. The 2101 started out as a FIAT 124, but so many changes were made to the platform that it could'nt be considered the same car anymore. More than 800 in fact by AvtoVAZ engineers. For starters, the body was 10% thicker to prevent rust issues, and the engine was so much improved that FIAT themselves even used it as a performance upgrade. This engine was a 1,198-cc single-overhead-cam unit that was all new. It also had a lot of room for future expansion, eventually hitting 1.7L.
George Orwell was neither spot on nor brilliant about anything. He was a colonial cop for the British Empire in Burma who was later detested by his own comrades in the Spanish Republican side (saying that he should have been fighting for the other side). He flirted with Nazism, as evidenced with this quote from the New English Weekly dated March 21, 1940:
"I should like to put it on record that I have never been able to dislike Hitler. Ever since he came to power . . . I have reflected that I would certainly kill him if I could get within reach of him, but that I could feel no personal animosity. The fact is that there is something deeply appealing about him. . . ."
Oh yeah, he also sold out his "fellow" socialists to the CIA as a snitch and raped 17-year-old Jacintha Buddicom when he was 15. As for his so-called "greatest work", 1984, its just a mediocre carbon-copy of Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We".
@@jakekaywell5972 not to mention ladas experiments with rotary engines
@@curiousgeorge5992 as long as the US did them the Favorite Nation thing. As soon as they got jealous and turned the switch off, Japanese economy growth has halted and remains such for the last 35 years. While Russia had kinda 2 years without any sanctions in a century
I remember in the end of the 80’s, when there was still a lot of Ladas in Finland, there was a Russian and Estonian boom to come to Finland and buy up old, used Ladas. There was a severe shortage of spare parts there. In about one year, every Lada disappeared from Finland never to be seen again. They even came to our front door and asked my sister, who had a Lada, if she would sell it? She hesitated, because it worked just fine and she needed it for her job. They offered triple the sum it was worth and she sold it on the spot. The day after she bought a used BMW 3-series. That was a fun memory.
I hope you will make a video on the rest of the Warsaw pacts car brands, there's some interesting ones in there.
Well, the ranking of soviet cars is not quite right. Ladas were ALWAYS more presigious and pricier than Moskvitches.
Also you missed a few cars from 1940-50s. Moskvich 400 series - in essence a pre-war Opel Kadett.
Before purely governmental ZiL-111 there was ZiS-110, which was prodused even in much larger numbers, was used not only by party officcials and even Stalin personally, but also as premium taxicab, and as ambulance.
And even before that, there was a pre-war ZiS-101.
As for the deficite, it have become a thing only in the early 60s. Before that you could buy freely almost any car: Pobeda, Volga, Moskvich or even ZiM-12. As long as you had enough money for that. Which at first was a problem and rare thing, in the country that suffered heavily from massive war destruction.
You're damn right. Lada was Italian [Fiat licence], it was considered almost like a western car. In Poland everybody wanted a Lada 2106/07. Our Polish Fiat 125 was a piece of crap. Back in the 80's and early 90's Lada was something you really wanted to drive. Lada was for a director, army officer, party comrade or private enterprise owner. Moskvich? Just that Russian car. Nothing fancy. It looked old, outdated.
@@obywatelcane6775really goes to show you that things were not as they seemed. The 2106 was idolized, even in the west it was the status of "normal" and usable, given the time period, where power steering and AC weren't even common yet
@@bldontmatter5319 2106 was produced 1976-2006. It was cheaper than any western car. Was well made, the interior is really nice. It didn't burn a lot of gas, 8-10L, had strong suspension. Body was less susceptible to rust than, for example, Fiats, Polonezes, Zastavas or Opels. It was an honest car. You got, what you paid for, worth every penny you spent on it. AC, power steering, tachometer, or even power windows were not widespread, even in basic versions of Western cars. Look at some poor "naked" versions of Opels, Fords and VW of the 80's and early 90's.
It was pretty nice to remember some "In Soviet Russia" jokes at the start, but it escalated so quickly to the "outdated issue pricks" kind of punches, and full-size KGB theme park with a lot of misconceptions and fact acrobatics. So, I barely stayed in front of the screen to see where the story ends, and my worries didn't come unintended - obviously, the chain of blank spots between red flags ended with "issuepocalypse of nowadays", with no attention to the the real story of manufacturers, development, assembly lines, actual models, kind of current prosperity and so on.
Pictures (the non-repeated ones) and the told story is okay though, so did your interest in the topic. Wish you'd have a bit more time and willing forces to complete the research deeper next time. Or, was it the task to make us ex-USSR citizens feel a bit strange? Well, that way you managed it. Just kidding. Despite all the stuff, I like your videos, see you next time with another controversial topic. Thanks.
I agree wholehartedly. This video was a disservice to both the subject matter and Ed's channel.
I thought his picture of the soviet car history was too positive, my source mostly being youtubers who actually grew up in the USSR and tell us how bad it really was.
@@Blackadder75it wasn't bad. Go to the EX-USSR and you will find that most people don't mind it at all, and hate more the 90s, when the west came in and DESTROYED them, especially the CIA
@@Blackadder75they don't know anything and neither do you
@@bldontmatter5319Why such hostility?
"Pobeda" in russian means victory, not freedom
I made jokes about the LADA, then I bought one. As a joke. Let me tell you, there will be a day, a post apocalyptic day, when the last BMW has stolled, and there will still be bloody LADAs built in the 70s roaming the roads. Not comfy, not high tech, but they fucking work and if they dont you can fix them yourself. If you can't, you won't survive in a postapocalyptic world anyway so no loss there. They are great! Just don't expect a Rolls Royce, a Ferrari or a Bimer. The bloody thing start with no problem, when its so cold that I need to wear glows when opening the door. Or rather stop holding the door. When its so cold that the hand and the door will freeze into one, just turn the key and that thing will start right up. It's amazing. I love it. And the heater... its Hot, Sauna, and Hell have nothing on me temperature. I cant keep it on max when its 35 celcius below zero, well in those temperatures I allways drive dressed to leave the car anyway. I might have to pull a poor MB diesel driver out of his hypertech shithouse to safety. There's no way to not love the old LADA.
Part two: Soviet 4x4s and offroaders. Please. And thanks for this video!
This video is so coloured by ideology and propaganda that it's just ridiculous.
Absolute low point of an otherwise pretty good channel.
You could've just had a 5 second short that said "gommulism bad" and left it at that.
Says a non-repentant, pro-Brexit / British Commie.
I don't follow the channel but I gave this a chance hoping it wasn't going to be the case, unfortunately you're very correct. "Putin's personal project to blah blah blah" - yup, he had every intention to invade Ukraine "unprovoked".
Such a poorly researched video. Barely scratches the surface of the subject, yet so much nonsense. This tells you nothing of the Soviet car industry, how it functioned, why, etc. Just another Top Gear style "can communism into cars" joke stretched to 20 min.
'Chaika' - I'm not sure if I spelled it correctly - but that's simply the Russian word for "seagull."
If you ever want to drive a 24 Volga, hit me up, i invite you to come to Austria :)
I have been waiting for this episode for a long time! I myself own the outdated cost-cutting GAZ 2410 Volga from 1989, currently the only one registered in Austria. Even if this was just a rough overlook of the history with some tiny hickups, this is probably my favourite video you have made, since this part of automotive history is not really talked about too much here. About the current revival thing that is going on in russia: Russians and even Government official hate the fact that none of it is made in russia. The new Moskvich was hated, I can only pray for Volga.
Edit: the Lada Niva and the UAZ 452 are still being made, with barely any changes.
awesome! Yet Ed's would be probably as mocking as DeMuro's review.
UAZ 452 and it's minibus sis are now handmade in a bad sense of the word and certified as tractors, BTW
I hope the next episode about communist cars is about the entire non-USSR bloc. I was so annoyed that the Donut Media vid about communist cars only talked about the USSR and East Germany as if they were the only eastern bloc countries.
That seems like an unusual thing to be annoyed about.
@@BatCaveOz Not really? It just takes more than an incredibly basic understanding of history to be annoyed at stuff like that.
Or they talk about "soviet" countries, but they mean whole communist block, not just Soviet Union, that's even more annoying.
At 3:36, that is so wrong at many levels... East Germany was NOT part of USSR, but member of the warsaw pact. Also the brand was NOT "Trabant", the car maker was called SACHSENRING and the car was named Trabant. Please when you make videos for infotainment, do your research right! You will NOT call Chrysler "Voyager", because they built a car calles Voyager?? Also what is with the WARTBURG car maker on the chart? You forgot it?
Politics overload gets off-putting after a while. Moscow has far better subway stations than New York - and less homeless people on the streets. And Russia is not bankrupt.
Lots of people have jobs cleaning those subway stations.
"...meaning "Freedom"!"
Nice fact-checking from the very start!
"We won't recommend videos from this channel to you again"
Just nice!
1:40 Allow me to highlight an error in definitions. Russia was only a state inside the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was the superpower. The satelite states were the Warsaw Pact countries like Poland or Hungary. Those have never been part of the Soviet Union.
2230 & 0c outside in Canberra AU - seemed like a sh*tty night, then Ed drops ep.64! Cheers all!
Kinda chilly for the ACT; it's about 31C here in N. Ohio today...Ironically, I first heard of Lada when I lived there (1974-76); a long-defunct U.S. car magazine, "Imported Car Performance", had an article titled "Better Lada Than Never", and our school (Lyneham High) had a copy of "World Cars: 1974") in the library, which I devoured during class breaks!
19:19 Soviets and Soviet Russians never hated the US as a nation.
The hate was in official propaganda and targeted only the ruling class of capitalists and their govermnet cronies.
Since the end of ww ii soviet ppl were in western music, fasion and movie culture and much influenced by it. That included car designes as you demonstrated.
They even enjoyed Pepsi cola before Perestroika.
The ability for Russia to make some of the most impressive heavy engineering and military vehicles out there and have none of that translate to their cars is hilarious
Where did you find the map at 3:40.? Greece was never a satellite state of USSR, especially the time that it was a nato state. My God,..
Got damn I’m early to this, Ello Ed when you talking about Swedish cars?
Saab 💪 I’m in USA and fell in love and sourced some Hirsch Troll Saab parts to try to build the dream saab we never got in the states! Also have a friction tester saab 9-5 let’s not forget saab started in aircraft then 2 strokes then the turbos and ice racing rally history they have! I call saab the smallest super car company as they just went all out, created great, safe cars and had so many custom or special options. Sad they are gone but not forgotten. Plan on attend Saab Owners Convention 2024 in Portland Oregon USA
I'd like to see someone talk about the Swedes' transition between driving on the left to driving on the right...
Now swedish cars are Chinese. So...
@@timoteiafanasie4894 Must be why they're so nice now then
@@kristoffer3000 yeah, now they are looking more like plastic toys, indeed
I would correct you a bit. Moskviches were cheaper and much more available than the Ladas, therefore I consider the Moskvich as an Opel or a Ford and Lada more like BMW. VAZ 2103/2104 with 1500cc engines were pretty quick in their time, compared to ZAZ or Moskvich.
Yes the video is very biased. Putting an Lada on the same footage as a VW beetle - com' on!
Peace! from Dresden / Germany
the first Moskvich was a copy of Opel. They took out the entire factory as war reparations
@@abdulabdanahib9617 that's absolutely correct, thanks for the remark!
17:00 you missed a decade of renewed soviet cars of both Moskvich and Lada with '79 self designed 4x4 Lada Niva as a peak of soviet car industry.
Despite this article being a bit biased I enjoyed it. Having travelled extensively in the former Soviet Union and later the CIS I can vouch that many of these vehicles are still in everyday use. I remember being in a Lada in Tblisi in Georgia when one of the rear wheels came off, the driver just carried on and dropped us off as planned about 200m up the road
ZiL is pretty interesting
ZiL began as AMO, but was changed to ZiS after Stalin took over and decided to name the factory after himself, the ''S'' standing for ''Stalina''. This changed after Stalin dies and De Stalinization was carried out, causing the factory's name to be changed to ZiL. ZiS made the ZiS 5 which served a huge role in the Red Army in WW2. In 1947 they made the ZiS 150, which went on to become one of the most recognizable Soviet trucks and was licensed to allied countries, like China and Romania. ZiS also made the ZiS 112, a race car with an interesting ''cyclops'' design similar to the GM LeSabre. When they changed to ZiL they made the ZiL 130 and 131, some of the most iconic Russian trucks ever made. The 131 is easily recognized for it's light blue color and white grill. The 131 was also made all the way up until 2012, when ZiL ceased to exist. There's many others that could be talked about, like KamAZ and MAZ, and even the Yugoslav FAP, communist trucks have always been fascinating to me
In greece they sold the niva up until they invaded ukraine, there was a lada dealership on my island. I always loooooved the niva so much. Its such a chill car with character!
It seemed to me, that farm tractors were in larger demand than cars, for a long time.
We used to see people on tractors, sometime pulling carts or wagons behind them.
It would make sense, when you consider the huge portions of land that was country, farmland, or isolated villages, far from the modernism of the bigger cities.
I don't blame the Russians for imitating the American cars. I wish American cars could go back to those days when style was something more than plastic bumpers and plastic everything else!
You used to be able to look under the hood and see an engine... Now, "just more plastic." So much so, the engine is usually completely hidden.
The problem of the Soviet car industry is that it had a to small sales market. This meant that the car could not be updated as often as the car that was already in production still hadn't payed off the price it cost the state to retool the factory to make it.
The US on the other hand had a large sales market as it sold not just to the states but also to the remaining half of the world. Also a lot of the car manufacturers were also weapon manufacturers in WW2 so after the war they had a lot of production capacity that they used to conquer the market. The soviet's, due to having to rebuild their country after the war, were not able to expand onto the global market until the 60s and by that time the US manufacturers dominated the market.
It's like with China right now, they have a large internal sales market and as a result of economy of scale they can sell their cars cheaper than the Americans or Europeans.
Nice to see a car channel finally cover some good cars
An old Lada will outlive you and probably your grandkids. 😂
And I’d love one of those big old Zis or a Zil limousines! Might need some modification of course.
And one more addition - the Moskvish was always lower than Lada in the product stack.
And OLDER.
I want one of those black Volgas. I'll take the Chika in black sedan, too.
Russians can't get western cars. Garage 54: "Watch us tow our latast experiment out of pile of snow with our H2 Hummer."
Волги на ЗМЗ, а именно так называется двигатель, будут довольно медленными, даже для того времени. Детали для таких белых ворон ты хрен где найдёшь за пределами России. Лучше купить старенькую s80, чем Волгу, хотя бы целее будешь
A bit cheap to bash on soviet cars, it is not really original, also did you ever ride in 50's european car? Not much better.. I know cars in the Soviet Union had many problems, but you make it out to be a total disaster, how many European cars last 40 years?
SEATs, Vw, pre 95 Mercedes, pre 92 Renaults, Citroen only the 2cv, In latin america we have those runing in horrible roads since forever.
The Soviet Union's best shape was from the mid 50's to the early 60's. That's when their economy peaked, and they created a lot of things.
6:40 I think it was actually a bit of a mix between the 1949 Ford "Shoebox" and the 1954 Ford Custom.
19:10 After 14 years, a new model of the Volga will be made this summer called the C40. Sadly, it's just a Chinese rebranding of "Changan."
You forgot the SMZ "Invalid Car" Comrade Ed
@Hello Bob how are you doing?
If you want to know USSR cars better, ask me whatever you want, especially about GAZ Volga! I own two!
Really, really nice!
что смазать важнее, шкворни или червяка? и можно ли вставить в кузов 24 или 2410 детали от более похожих на автомобиль поздних - двигатель Крайслер, гидроусилитель, дисковые тормоза?
@@beibotanov какой червяк?) там кроме шкворней и резьбовых втулок в ходовке, ничего не мажется)
@@beibotanov а остальное да, двигатель, ходовку можно переставить, но много нюансов надо знать чтоб все нормально работало
I have a 1974 Zhiguli 2103 which is what you are calling Lada, a later name. It is indestructible and starts first time, has a high wheelbase and stronger suspension for snow and bad roads (here in Latvia) and does not rust. The steel is thick and I love it. It is hard to steer as it has no power steering, thats all the problem if you mind that.
You need to be better informed when talk about some subjekt. Zastava, in Kragujevac, SFRJ got nothing to do with USSR to bad 😔
Nice job on the video. In Car and Driver magazine in the 70's there was an article about the Moskvich factory which said it was the last fully self-contained factory in the world. Raw materials went in and cars came out. Even the tires were made there. I always wanted to hear more about that factory but have never been able to find anything here in North America.
which is VERY inefficient, thats why Japanese and Western factories moved to a system of sub contractors, where every business specializes in certain parts.making the whole much cheaper, faster and higher quality
@@Blackadder75 Why can't the subcontractors be on the same plot?
@@Klovaneer because the guy that invented a better disk brake lives 500 km away and build his factory there and not on the same plot. And the guy that makes the best car batteries lives 700 km the other way..... get the idea? Maybe economic forces bring these people together if that saves money, but maybe not, the market will decide what is best and not central planning which has always been wasteful and bad for invention, as communist history shows
@@Blackadder75 Funny i have just watched a video on Superfest, extremely durable glass that failed in free market because it didn't need replacement.
@@Klovaneer The throw-away-economy is a recent phenomenon, most of the history of western capitalism quality won and people would re-use items as long as possible. I never heard about Superfest, so I looked it up, oh its drinking glassware
I read the coca cola comment about not breakable being a bad thing, but that is commercial talk about cheap cafe glasses that get tossed around and break often. . Normal people don't use coca cola branded glassware, but just plain ones and they can last a lifetime. I got most of my nice looking glasses from my grandparents who bought them in the 1960s-1980s and they still are all perfectly useable and shining , as are the ones I bought myself as a student in the 2000s. Sure sometimes one breaks if a person is careless, but that's ok. That is just a normal aspect of life.
I wish that the many channels about technical history would refrain from including political history since most of them get it wrong. The summary of capitalism vs communism (well, socialism actually) in this video is a typical example.
Forgot to mention that Volga is in fact back! However they are rebadged Chinese cars just like the new Moskvitchs
my family's originally from the USSR, and my paternal grandparents had a GAZ-21 that they bought in 1963. They said that they had to borrow money from every family member in order to buy it, and the reason why they chose it over the Lada or other affordable options is that, due to the high price, there was no multi-year long queue to receive one.
in those days you could sell the Volga to the Caucasus for for three times more
@@abdulabdanahib9617 They kept it for around 20 years.
Wow, another western car "expert" explaining to us how life was in eastern bloc, I bow to amount of experience you must have in this field 👏👐👏👐👏
And the Volga with V8 engines for KGB really exists?
Yep, 5.5L all aluminium V8 + automatic transmission taken from other GAZ model - Chaika.
I have heard several say it was, a few have appeared on RUclips, but maybe after market upgrades. I have never seen even an image of the engine bay of the much rumored Wankel Engine version (probably because they may have only made a few hundred, but thousands of engines, as it probably went through them like the NSU Ro80).
@@jon-paulfilkins7820 Sure, some of them are in fact aftermarket installations, made after the fall of SU, when these 5.5L engines have become available from the decommissioned Chaikas, but what is more significant - from military equipment, for example BRDM-2 armored vehicle, which also had these engines.
But true KGB Volgas were made by GAZ itself. Model GAZ 24-24. And all of these factory made Volgas had mandatory automatic transmission.
In fact, previous GAZ models also had modifications for KGB, GAZ M-21 also had V8 equipped variants, even earlier GAZ M-20 for KGB had inline flathead 6, when basic cars still had inline 4s.
Each Soviet republic had its own automobile manufacturing company
I know latvia built ambulances but what cars did lithuania or estonia build?
@@k3kboi665 Not really a factory biult cars in that sense, but..Lithuania built rally Ladas, the Lada VFTS, estonia had racing formula type bolides, Estonia-21
And what cars did Turkmenistan make?
@@k3kboi665 not strictly passenger cars - there were hundreds of auto repair plants, like a big service station, and most of these were also building small buses for local needs, usually on truck chassis, with bodies of their own design or open standard. Such as Kuban' bus type used by the Ministry of culture: libraries, movie theaters etc
yes, he didn't mention RAF, which built minivans - which were all over USSR, serving as ambulances, mini buses, and small delivery trucks.Also they used to make fully electric delivery vans for baby foods.
03:35 - How is Zastava a Soviet car?
I owned a Lada 1300 estate. It was a comfortable and nice to drive vehicle. Although when I jacked it up to change the rear wheel during a puncture both headlights popped out and smashed. Mmmh.
This vid is a mixed bag of old stereotypes, factual mistakes and pure bullshit.
What did you expect, westerners rarely have any perspective of what it was like. These videos are more about "communism bad"(undoubtedly, but thats not the point) than the cars, he left out a TON of soviet cars like Trabant, Dacia, Polski Fiat. Shame, because there is a lot interesting stuff about them.
Yeah, once you go to Russia / former USSR, you see these old cars still running, people respect them and understand their limitations, and it's all in good fun with a rich past
Most Internet car videos are!
@@bldontmatter5319 Not to mention that the old Ladas (that everyone in the West makes fun of) actually in Russia have their own specific subset of car culture based solely around them. They're cars that are extremely cheap to buy, easy to maintain and upgrade, and also it's the cheapest way to get your feet wet with motorsports, from circuit racing to (especially) drift - these cars are basically a go-to option for the first project car for a lot of young Russian car enthusiasts. Do these people mocking Ladas know that it's one of the best cars for drifting in winter? Like seriously, these are so light and well-balanced that no JDM legend or modern car can compare to them on ice. Winter drift has become really popular in Russia in the past years, and the most winning car of this sport is an old soviet shitbox Lada. Silvia/Supra/etc who? They're left eating -dust- snow by Ladas of all things.
@@Axter6None of the cars you mentioned were Soviet though.
Trabant was East German, Dacia is Romanian, Polski Fiat was (as the name suggests) Polish.
So in a video about SOVIET cars (not Eastern European cars in general) they would be out of place.
I knew a guy who lived in Mill Valley who had a ZIL it was awesome...
I didn't understand the Reagan joke. I guess you just had to be there lol
guy finally has money to buy car. car company says you can pick up the car on this date 10 years from now. guy asks morning or afternoon? car company says what does it matter, its 10 years from now! guy says the plumber is coming on that day in the morning. (tl;dr it takes so so so long to have something done in the USSR)
Is about how long you'll espect even for the plumber guy to came. It's about everything not going well, a failed economy and society.
@@Dratchev241 Ah thanks
Iirc 18 yrs to get a new Trabant in eastern germany….
To be honest, the state of the Warsaw pact automotive industry really makes me wonder how good life actually was, like how was life for the modern consumer in the eastern bloc. When it comes to entertainment, transportation, recreation and vacation options, consumer electronics, in home appliances, automobiles, even just the variety of foods and clothes in the west were way ahead of what was avalible in the pact with the added bonus of immediate and constant availability and service. You want a car, you get one same day. Meanwhile if you want a lada, get in line.
Another mistake in your biased documentry - in Soviet Union the VAZ sedans were not called LADAs. Lada brand appeared AFTER Soviet Union. in modern Russia. During Soviet Union the VAZ was commonly called "Jiguli". They were "Ladas" brand for EXPORT.
VAZ 2101 was sold from the beginning in communist countries under name Zhiguli (Жигули in Russian), thats how I remember it, my father had 2 of them (I am from Slovak Republic now, CSSR od Czechoslovak Socialist Republic before). After some time, couple of years, USSR started to export them to Western countries under LADA brand.
Hi from Russia. It's a detailed review, even with rare part of crash tests and KGB training, but it has few historical mistakes. And few mistakes in logic.
I want to design and to produce my own cars from the Soviet childhood. So, I know much about our car produce.
Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgary and GDR have never been a USSR. They were USSR allies. So-called Soviet zone, or Council for Economic Mutual Help. And in military case - a Warzaw Agreement Countries.
A Cold War is not something general. It has a fixed start in Western Berlin. As an attempt of USA and it's European allies to deal with economic blockade of Germans in Western Berlin. Which was located in a deep Soviet zone in Germany.
Pobeda (GAS) doesn't mean Freedom. It means Victory. A victory against the Hitler's Germany in WWII. That USSR got in a great effort. With a small help of GB and USA troops help. And a great help of USA economic produce.
The range of value of Soviet cars is depicted in a wrong way.
Moscvich from its very beginning (Moscow plant of Komsomol, AZLK - auto plant of Lenin Komsomol) in 50th was a small-engine economy-class model. Like most European cars after WWII. Later it became middle-size car. Like VW. And won in racing. For its durability. But the models showed never were regarded better than VAZ (Lada). VAZ (FIAT 124 with a new engine) was more modern and better. And VAZ was the biggest auto plant in Europe. That's why VAZ won the championship for the people's hearts. That's why Moskvich mostly has stopped the production. Even of the last, better and bigger size model - AZLK Aleko. Based on Chrysler and Simca. You showed this model it in Your video. But not told about it.
VAZ had a model 2108, later 2109, later 21099 and others. Simply so-called 8 and 9. It was a front-wheel car with 3 or 5 doors. And it won a victory with rear-wheeled Moskvich. And even with front-wheel Moskvich Aleko. Because Aleko was started later and exactly in the moment of the empire crash. So, all supply was broken. With the lost territories.
Most of the Soviet produce was unofficial car copying. Except official licensed FIAT. Who build the biggest plant in Europe in a new town. Near Samara. The town was renamed Togliatti. After Italian communist Palmiro Togliatti. FIAT in USSR became as a local VW. And Fiat 124 model was also produced in Poland. In bigger size but worster options.
ZAZ from Ukraine was not a popular car at all. It was a compromise car with rear-sheels and a very loud rear-engine from a bike. And because of the rear engine it was good in mud. But could not get a multi space body like universal SUV or VW Transporter.
Volga (GAS) was the best car that one could get. But it wasn't sold for everybody. Only for organizations and as a personal purchase for theater and cinema artists, singers, cosmonauts, scientists and administration. That's why Volga generally had only few models. GAZ-21 (22) in 1960th was among the best Soviet cars. GAZ-24 was nice in 1970th and early 1980th. And it had some more modern modifications. Like GAZ-3102 (31029 and others). But opening borders showed a great variety of normal-sized cars except Volga. And it became obsolete in a few years. With its rear-wheel construction. And the same doors size without change from GAZ-24 from 1968 or 1969, as I remember.
GAZ - Chaika and a more luxury ZIL were never sold for the public. That's why they were a micro-series handmade cars. Without automatic lines to produce lot, as I remember. And with lack of ideas for new technologies. Just big-size limousines with less then about 2 or 3 thousand items of all years of production.
So, among all former Soviet producers only FIAT-based huge moodern plant of VAZ had succeed.
And legendary VAZ Niva (a 3-doors SUV from 1986-87 as I remember) is still cheap and popular in Europe. And not more popular in Russia in fact. Because of rust.
So, the territories were lost, the producers of detailes were in bankruptcy. And ZAZ, Moskvich, Volga and ZIL had shrinked and died. That's a pity.
Now about AURUS. The car is a serial model. Limousine. With ideas about serial minivan and SUV. But the price, design and level of assembly control can lead it to the fate of ZIL. It's more a toy to possess. To move with a clear road. Not a car for everyday travelling in mud and snow or a taxi use.
And about Chinese produce. It's a pity for us and for USA, but Chinese communistic capitalism made a great car industry. With copying, investigation, Europe specialists and inventing. Now, US car manufacturers can cry. But their cars are like our Volga. Sold only if you have no choice or lack of experience. Or has a great patriotic passion for exact model. So, Chinese cars in cheap and middle segments are overwhelming. And are kin even in flying cars and electric cars.
'Pobeda' means 'victory', not freedom. That would be 'Svoboda'
Please do a video about Tatra! Those were very successful among the Soviet elites, who were aware of their much higher quality when compared to the local offerings.
Ed can you do African Industry cause they have there own brands
Yeah but they all suck or are derivatives of the west. Usually stolen.