"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
02/04/2018 at 15:57 • Filed to: Moskvich 402
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"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
02/04/2018 at 15:57 • Filed to: Moskvich 402 | 3
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Time for a 402! Non, pas une Peugeot. A ..er Moskvich 402.
Klaus Schmoll
> Cé hé sin
02/04/2018 at 16:07 |
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My grandparents had one of those, two tone paint, red bottom and tan roof/upper half. It was their first car which they used to explore the Eastern block.
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Cé hé sin
> Klaus Schmoll
02/04/2018 at 16:11 |
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They must have been well off then by Eastern standards! I’m guessing Moskviches were judged superior to Trabis.
TwoAngryCarbs
> Cé hé sin
02/04/2018 at 16:27 |
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The 408 nad 412s they were above Trabants but still below pretty much everything else, you didn’t get as much prestige as with say a Lada.
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Cé hé sin
> TwoAngryCarbs
02/04/2018 at 16:32 |
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Yes, I suppose the Western designed Lada was the height of sophistication in the Glorious Socialist Workers’ Paradises!
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Klaus Schmoll
> Cé hé sin
02/04/2018 at 16:39 |
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They did ok. My grandpa was a school principal at the time and did some side work translating for the government. He must have fallen out of grace or something as at some point the calls stopped and there were no more black cars picking him up for urgent translations or whatever. He got demoted to being a normal teacher and started doing devious stuff like having western magazines and newspapers shipped to a post box in Hungary where he could collect and read them during summer break. We never really found out what exactly happened, though. He started off as a true believer in Communism but then realised that it was just Orwell’s Animal Farm.
The Moskvich was replaced by a beige Shiguli some time in the 70s.
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Klaus Schmoll
> TwoAngryCarbs
02/04/2018 at 16:56 |
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To be fair, those Kadett based Moskvichs were way older than the Lada. At that time they weren’t too bad. And the 408 was still above a Wartburg, or a Skoda, or a Zastava.
ranwhenparked
> Cé hé sin
02/04/2018 at 17:48 |
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I think this is the one they joked about being a perfect copy of a 1938 Nash in the movie One, Two, Three , always thought that was a profoundly stupid joke, since the only thing in common is that they have the same number of wheels.
I suppose they were really trying to joke about the Packard-aping ZiLs and Chaikas, but just didn’t have the right car to fit the line.
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TwoAngryCarbs
> Klaus Schmoll
02/04/2018 at 20:00 |
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Moskvitch was always old-fashioned in my eyes, no idea about quality but I’d put a Zastava or a Skoda ahead of one anyday.
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Klaus Schmoll
> TwoAngryCarbs
02/04/2018 at 20:26 |
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The Zastava might have seemed modern since it was another FIAT design like the Lada but build quality was terrible. Think of it as the Eastern version of an Alfa. Good on paper but terrible to live with day by day.
The Skodas were mechanically solid but prone to rust. The rear engine layout might make them fun on rally stages or as a third car, but as a family’s only car the frunk was a bit small.
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TwoAngryCarbs
> Klaus Schmoll
02/04/2018 at 21:16 |
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I can only relate to the Skoda, rust is always a 50/50 but I usually see the nicer examples for sale, all the bad ones were cash-for-clunkered a long time ago, a lot depends on luck and spraying the whole underside with a corrosion inhibitor which not many owners did. As for their practicality I think the frunk is on par with a Lada 2101. I’ve driven one very recently and the handling is on the safe side, you really have to commit to get the rear swinging.