Shorter bolts would have fixed the Pinto, as there was really no difference from the Pinto setup from what Ford had started back in 1960 with the Falcon, using the gas tank as the trunk floor, that was carried over into every other compact and intermediate they built till the '70sFord Pinto says hi.
I honestly didn't know that, I always though airbags were a thing of the late 80's and early 90s when they started appearing over here in the UK
Shorter bolts would have fixed the Pinto, as there was really no difference from the Pinto setup from what Ford had started back in 1960 with the Falcon, using the gas tank as the trunk floor, that was carried over into every other compact and intermediate they built till the '70s
Yeah but you should be worried when you get a car and they include the tools to fix the damn thing. Thats like buying a PC and then being given a foam fire extinguisher and when asking the salesman/woman why they reply "Oh..no reason..just keep it close when you turn it on okay?"
And you said its got a rev meter, thats pretty standard on all the cars of the time so its not really that great a thing say as a positiveImagine if Ford went "The new Zappa, with four wheels!" people be like 'yes its a car, its meant to have 4 wheels, why bring that up as a bonus?'
Yes Lada's are good little runners, and they train you how to be a vehicle mechanic, which is a bonus I guess? But they look like they were designed on an etch-a-sketch (then again so do Lincoln town-cars from the 70s). But really they'd need to completely re-work the Soviet cars to western safety standards and then overcome the US cultural bias against the Soviet union as well. The formers possible, the latter...in the 50s is impossible and whilst that MIGHT change in the 60's/70's with young 'rebels' buying Soviet to stick it to their old man/THE MAN, they are still SHIT cars by Western standards and the West produced some real dogs eggs, but still probably better than Russian stuff. You can bedazzle a turd, but its still a turd.
Top gear unless its a $100K car its usual shit in their opinion
Lets face it its biggest problem in the opinion of people nad media is that it was Soviet.
It was true that scores of people who bought Yugo's had definitely regretted their decisions to purchase one as the Yugo's we're a complete waste of money. For your information Yugoslavia was not part of the Warsaw Pact in fact it was part of the Non Aligned Movement. The Yugo was actually loosely based on the Fiat 127. In fact a used Chevette would have been a better buy than a Yugo ever was.
Didn't know that about Yugoslavia--does that mean in an East-West military confrontation, they wouldn't be involved? In any case, a little red Ryder wagon (as in the kind kids play with) would be a better buy than a Yugo.
Non-alinged movement shenanigans played a big role in getting the Yugo stateside to begin with-again, I recommend Jason Vuic's The Yugo for the whole sorry story.
(They needed to export, Bricklin wanted a cheap peoples car, the US government and financial industry wanted the Yugoslavs to stay on the West's good side, and the rest is history)
Ladas had a not very good reputation in Canada - but they WERE cheap. If you needed a car and didn't have a lot of money, a Lada looked better than nothing, and often more reliable than a second-hand car.
Do remember two things, though. We never were as virulently anti-Commie as the US was, and we were selling a lot of wheat to the USSR and they needed to sell something back.
Yeah. I think they'd have sold a fair number in the States, if they'd been allowed in. Although not as big a chunk of the market as in Canada.
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Yugos were available in the States, no? They filled a similar market niche. Both being derivatives of the same Fiat model, I think.
An idea that comes to mind: how about having the Soviet car industry seek markets in the Third World and especially in non-aligned countries and Soviet client states? Low prices (and preferential treatment) would allow it to undercut Western competition, and safety standards would be less of an issue.
An idea that comes to mind: how about having the Soviet car industry seek markets in the Third World and especially in non-aligned countries and Soviet client states? Low prices (and preferential treatment) would allow it to undercut Western competition, and safety standards would be less of an issue.