(first posted 8/8/2017) We all remember the upstart import brands that launch, stumble, and then become roaring successes. Toyota, for example, almost sunk its reputation with the Toyopet Crown, which was ill-suited for American conditions. Hyundai’s early models sold well but quickly earned reputations for poor quality in their export markets. But what of the brands that didn’t triumph against adversity? Road & Track travelled north to Canada to test drive 5 imports not offered in the U.S, pitting them against the Honda Civic.
As this Popular Mechanics article helpfully explains, safety standards in the 1970s and 1980s were almost identical in Canada and the U.S. Where Canada differed was in emissions standards. In 1984, for example, Canada’s emissions standards were equivalent to those employed in the U.S. in 1975.
It was these weaker emissions standards that allowed automakers like Innocenti (from Italy), Skoda (from Czechoslovakia), Lada (from Russia), and Dacia (from Romania) to peddle their wares. These companies could ill afford to re-engineer their cars to meet stricter US emissions standards and typically lacked the vision and capital to plan for elaborate export ventures, the heavy lifting taken care of by enterprising importers like Peter Dennis. After all, there’s always a market for a cheap, new car.
Some were more successful than others. Lada managed to shift 50,000 units in Canada between 1974 and 1984, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 hampering sales for a period of time. Sales eventually petered out—blame the old, 1966-vintage design of the Signet. The rugged Niva 4×4 enjoyed a cult following, however. Canada also received the Samara before AvtoVAZ’s export brand packed up and left Canada in 1998.
Aussies were far less willing to take a chance on Lada than Canadians. Launched in 1984 in Australia, these Soviet automobiles were viewed with skepticism. Was it Cold War hostility that sunk Lada’s Australian fortunes or was it simply because the cars were crap? Only the Niva remains on Aussie roads in any meaningful quantity. We skipped the RWD Signet/Riva (which was also relatively popular in the UK with bargain buyers) and instead got the FWD Samara. Or was it Cevaro? Or Volante? No, it was Sable. Actually, it was all of the above. The constant rebooting of the Lada brand and the cars’ rock-bottom prices couldn’t salvage the brand here, nor could famous Aussie race car driver Peter Brock’s involvement.
Speaking of the UK, Brits could buy a Polish FSO Polonez (later known as Caro) all the way up until 1997. This was a rebodied Polski 125p, which in turn was based on the Fiat 125. The 125 was simply a lengthened variant of the 124, which spawned the aforementioned Lada Signet.
We didn’t get FSOs here but we were offered cars from FSM, another Polish company affiliated with FSO and also producing old Fiats. The Niki, FSM’s only offering in Australia, was a Fiat 126 built under licence and sold for just $AUD7,990. That was $2k less than the next cheapest cars in Australia, the Kei-class Daihatsu Handivan and Subaru Sherpa hatchback vans. Promotional material highlighted the Niki’s low running costs and easy serviceability, not to mention its rock-bottom price. If you bought a Niki, you even got a free teddy bear called Niki! Few, however, took the plunge. Its rear-mounted two-cylinder engine could muster only 24 hp and 30 ft-lbs of torque. Even the two-cylinder Sherpa had 36 hp! Like the Yugo (not sold here), a convertible version was created. Whether it was even fast enough to put the wind in your hair is a good question. The Niki would reach 60 mph in 41 seconds, more than twice as slow as a three-cylinder Suzuki Swift or Daihatsu Charade. If, miracle of miracles, I ever find one still on the road, I’ll snap some photos and we can all have a laugh about a 1972-vintage minicar being sold in Australia in 1990. They didn’t even come with radios! How desperate did they think people were for a new-car warranty?
Speaking of other regrettable entries into the Aussie market, there are the low-tech pickup trucks of Chinese ZX Auto and Indian Tata, the shameless Toyota RAV4 clones and cheapo hatchbacks pushed by Chery (from China), and the handsome MK sedan by Geely (also Chinese) which is sold only in Western Australia.
Back to the magazine. Of the cars in Road & Track’s test, only the Skoda was sold here in Australia. That surprised me as I’ve never seen an old Skoda on the road here, but indeed they were sold up until 1983. The testers rated the Skoda much higher than the Dacia, which was judged the slowest, crudest and noisiest of the group.
The Beetle spawned so many rear-engined imitators but almost all of them were gone by the 1980s. Not so the Skoda, which seemed to be a better Beetle. Sadly for Skoda, 1980s shoppers wanted something different to a newer, fresher Beetle.
The Innocenti charmed the Road & Track crew. Mini mechanicals, Italian styling, and a willing Daihatsu three-cylinder engine made for a winning combination. There were reservations, however, about long-term durability considering the often poor rustproofing of Italian cars of the era.
And, of course, there was the benchmark Civic to compare these upstarts again. Miraculously, the Pony came quite close in overall points.
The only Dacias North Americans are likely to see today are Renault-badged ones crossing the border from Mexico, like the Logan and Duster—Dacia is still a budget brand but a relatively respectable one. Skoda is even more respectable, albeit one of the lower-priced brands within the VW Group. Innocenti is long gone. AvtoVAZ exported Ladas globally for many years but today their export program has almost entirely dried up. Hyundai, of course, has been smashingly successful. With the exception of Lada and Innocenti, these brands have come a long way since this comparison test.
Does anyone here have any experience with these old econoboxes?
Rear engined Skodas in the late 70s actually won their class in the Heatway? rally of NZ, yes theyre better than a beetle as a car to drive but thats not saying much, I had one of those Honda Civic hatches 1300 5 speed, not bad little cars not great either but certainly better than a Lada 2104 or a Hyundai Pony, though any of the cars in this test are very rare in NZ these days the Dacia and Innocenti werent sold here the rest were and the Honda included have virtually all evaporated.
Fun read! Two anecdotes about Skodas, both told to me by the owners:
Mary bought a Skoda, a new one, in the early eighties. We car nuts showed our disapproval, but she took it in good stead. She drove it in to work every day. One day she was quite late, and arrived looking quite shaken. It turned out that as she was driving along the freeway, she was passed by her own rear wheel….
Henry was an electrician. While doing his training, his ute kept getting broken into and vandalized. So he bought a second-hand Skoda. Zero problems – the vandals gave it a wide berth. Nothing to be jealous of here!
Obsolete Skoda Octavia backbone chassis and running gear were turned into cheap utilities in NZ called a Trekka some were exported to OZ and I actually saw a dead one in Narrabri NSW nobody knew what it was.
Nice to see these budgetcars of yore. Lada, Skoda and FSO were all available here. Lada was by far the most successful in the seventies and early eighties with their 1200 and later 2105 (the Signet from the article) and the Niva.
Thanks to VAG the Skoda brand has become a common sight on our roads, Skoda now offers a whole line of modern A-, B-, C- and D-segment models, plus compact and mid-size SUVs.
One of the most no-nonsense cars you can buy in Europe these days is the sub-compact Skoda Fabia, preferably the Combi (wagon) for extra room and practicality.
There was a lot of buzz in the US a year or two ago when a report surfaced that VAG had registered Skoda, Rapid and Octavia in the US, potentially as a price leader as VW continues to move upmarket.
As I recall, William and I were talking about this over lunch at the Henry Ford Museum during the meetup. I wondered at the time how a Czech produced Skoda could be a price leader in the US market competing against Mexican built VWs. I have since learned that the Rapid, Octavia and Superb are built in India. Further learned, in the COAL about a VW Gol, that Indian autoworkers make about $1.09US/hr vs $3.50-$5/hr in Mexico.
Maybe we will see Skoda in the US some day.
My favorite of their current line is the Rapid Spaceback. Seems to be plainly trimmed inside, but it can carry my stuff and lacks the Golf’s wide C pillar, which always makes the Golf look a bit heavy.
Skoda production facilities, according to the Dutch Skoda website:
-three plants in the Czech Republic;
-production in China, Russia, Slovakia and India mainly through VAG-Group cooperations;
-production in Ukraine and Kazakhstan through local partners.
Skoda is present in about 100 countries.
Skodas were always the best regarded of the eastern bloc cars in the UK. Here you could get an FSO 125p “ute”. Surely that would have sold like hotcakes in Oz? Or at least like Proton Jumbucks.
The first family car I remember was my parents’ 1983 Fiat 126. It was our only car and we went on holiday in it. My main memory is of my legs/nylon shorts being burned by the black vinyl seats in summer, and my dad’s colleagues referring to it as “The Hairdryer”.
my grandmother had a Fiat 126 – it was a base model at the time you could buy a ‘Personal 4’ with a canvas roof, and various special editions called ‘Brown’ and so on. Was much loved for its simplicity, and IIRC slats under the back seat for engine heating and a squishy button to pressure the windscreen washers
Pony’s were everywhere here in Atlantic Canada. Of course, they all eventually rusted out and I never see them anymore. I have a few different friends whose parents had them when we were growing up. Nearly all of them have good memories of those cars.
I remember there being Lada and Skoda dealerships in my small city at one point. The Skoda one disappeared quite quickly, but the Lada one stuck around longer. I still see the odd Niva.
One question though… Was Canada the only market where the Pony had to have the sealed beam headlights? It changed the look of the car quite a bit.
The Pony didn’t have to have sealed beams. ECE (“European”) headlamps have been permitted in Canada since the mid-’70s, so the same headlamps used for pretty much all the world’s right-traffic markets could have been used. The Lada Samara and Niva came to Canada with ECE headlamps (though the Niva’s were of standard 7-inch round format like a sealed beam); I assume Hyundai put together the sealed-beam setup to keep US-market options open—that would’ve been less expensive than engineering, tooling, and producing a US-spec composite headlamp setup.
This was fascinating to read — just a review of one of these cars would have been interesting, but all of them together is really quite revealing.
These Canadian-market cars have always been oddly appealing to me… kind of like looking at unusual produce at an ethnic supermarket — it’s not so much that I wanted to own one, it’s just that I was curious what they were all about.
I’m surprised to learn that Hyundai’s presence in Canada only begun in 1984. For some reason, I thought the company had a longer, established presence in Canada before the Excel came to the US in ’86. I find it interesting, though, that Canada gave Korean imports a tax break due to it being a developing nation — I wonder how long that status lasted?
In 82 a shopkeeper berated me for missing his delivery the previous week, that he hadnt yet registered his business with us seemed surplus to his facts, but he proudly showed me his new Hyundai Pony hed driven to our depot to collect 6 cases of butter and hauled that huge load easily back to his shop, I had never seen a Hyundai Pony before but a 240kg load didnt impress either, I saw a Pony last week a survivor exists locally, amazing.
Need to know lovely Lada Afalina 11O sedan , it worths the while of unusual Russian designs .
That was a fun read! Takes me back to my youth, growing up in Ontario in the 80’s, I certainly saw all those on the road.
What was even more interesting to me were the test drivers. I met Craig Fisher when I took his skid control course in 1985 and regularly drive by where that school operated up until a few years ago. IIRC, One of the instructors there drove the Innocenti/Mini hot hatch “de Tomaso” version; I suspect it was Craig. I wonder if he got it before or after participating in this test.
Of course Scott Goodyear went on to become quite famous, winning the Indy 500 three times.
On a 1990 business trip to Chile I saw Lada four door sedans (Signet in the article but Fiats to me). Many were taxis. Chilean Ladas surprised me because the country was such a strident, anti-communist and capitalist country – this was at the end of the Pinochet era. But cheap is cheap and the imported Ladas served some purpose.
This has been on Kijiji for a while. It has to be the best one left, but at the asking price I suspect it will be there a while longer.
https://www.kijiji.ca/v-classic-cars/city-of-toronto/1985-skoda-120gls/1282981055?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true
A college housemate’s father who had a used car lot in Napanee, Ontario also had the area Skoda franchise for a while. The same housemate briefly drove an Innocenti De Tomaso around 1987 – I thought at the time it was a grey market import, not knowing that they were sold here. I never saw another one on the road.
If that was a ‘6’ instead of a ‘9’, I’d be sorely tempted. What a car to show up in at Cars & Coffee Richmond, plus my Slovak heritage.
That’s $9,000 Canadian ~ $7,000 American
I think it was the British magazine CAR that declared the NIKI one out of 10 of the most cynical celebrity tie-ups car manufacturers gave European car buyers.
It’s amazing how far Skoda and Hyundai have traveled in 30-35 years….and even Dacia does fairly well in it’s market niche. And almost as amazing? How the Civic hit a peak in the late 80s to mid 90s….then started a slow decline when it was no longer “the car” for buyers under the age of 30.
Speaking of “under the age of 30”, the Civic CRX Coupe from the early nineties was once very hot among the young guys/public road racers-crowd. Bought used, of course. Lowered, wide tires, spoilers, loud rain pipe exhausts. The whole boy racers-shebang.
It has been a while since I saw one. All trashed into the ground by now, I guess.
Just this morning I saw a CRX, parked about a mile from where I live. It had been painted that flat, medium green, similar in color to an old chalkboard. It also had a wheel/tire “package” that had the tires protuding a few inches past the outside of the wheelwells.
I owned 3 Civics and an Integra, all from the late 80s-early 90s. While I admire the newer models, they sit too close to the ground for someone my age to have to get into and out of “regularly”.
Honda in Europe somehow managed to slide into the same position held by some of those East European brands back then: an obscure make bought by the few, and generally not the young few. At least the reliability is there, always an important consideration for the Civic-driving retiree.
There was a great article in the Wall Street Journal about the Dacia, circa 1985-86. The writer interviewed a couple of owners and related their experiences. One said he left his with the window down and the keys in the ignition hoping someone would steal it.
Another claimed that the new car stalled coming away from the dealership as all the gasoline had leaked out. People were abandoning them left and right.
The British car magazines of the time were fascinating and once featured a Samara [?] and also a Skoda. their take was pretty much like that found in the featured article.
Very clever comparison test.
Thanks for finding this and reprinting it, William. Cars of this type have always fascinated me.
One of my favorite scale models is a 57 Volga. And I have saved a dvr’ed episode of “Wheeler Dealers” that features an FSA Syrena that I’ve already watched twice. And there are You Tube videos I savor as well.
Well done.
Dacia tried breaking into the Israeli car market twice in the 70s and 80s and in both case it ended in a disaster due to the cars’ appalling reliability; Dacia jokes are still recited in 2017 Israel. The current cars are a different matter altogether and deserve the success which they have.
There were tons of Ponys running around here in southern Ontario for about 2-3 years in 1984-86 or so, but then they almost disappeared overnight. BIL found one in the early ’90s and actually put it on the road. It was scary to ride in, felt like you were about to be pitched onto the road, it was really cheap and flimsy feeling.
Amazingly in my small eastern Ontario town (pop about 35k in 1985) we actually had a small Dacia dealership and I remember looking at these cars close up though I never drove one. They looked ok and were priced very low, as I recall the dealer even had a Dacia pickup truck too! Never saw any on the road so I don’t think he sold any and closed the dealership about a year later.
Ladas were still being sold in Canada in the mid-90s and I remember checking out out at the auto show in Toronto, it was a 4-dr sedan, the old Fiat design. Lots of bare painted metal and sharp edges inside, it looked and felt like an old Soviet-bloc design. One of my co-workers in 1991-92 had one of these and a couple extra for spare parts and he swore by them, said they were very easy to work on and fix and just ran and ran.
There was a Dacia pickup in Belleville when I first moved there in ’85. I think it’s the only Dacia I ever saw, and I never came across a dealership.
Belleville is where I live! The Dacia dealership was on College St. just on the west side of the Moira Bridge where Parkhurst Transportation is now located.
My dad once test drove a Skoda in Victoria BC during the early 80’s, he does not have a high opinion of the experience. Just last week I drove past a green Niva In Sooke BC, I’ve seen two Ponys as well, one ridiculously rusty example and a pristine one with rear window lourves; they’re are still out there.
I’ve seen a few of the Fiat-based Ladas here in Florida with Canadian plates over the years.Did they really get down here under their own power?
My wife worked for a BMW-Saab dealer in Ottawa in the early ’80s that also handled Lada (out of a separate facility). Her recollection is that customers either got a really good one or a really bad one, without much middle ground.
I remember this. As a customer of Otto’s BMW dealership in Ottawa since 1975, I was more than a bit surprised when the owner’s wife opened a Lada dealership in an adjacent building. But it probably made sense as a way for them to better cope with boom/bust economic cycles.
One of my work colleagues purchased a Lada from Otto’s. It was his first car, and I recall that one of the selling points was that Otto’s would spend many hours going over each new Lada before delivery, even replacing/upgrading some parts that were known to be problematic. I remember his ownership experience being a mixed bag, but he did get to work on time.
BTW, Otto’s BMW provided the best dealer service I have ever experienced. I gave up on BMW after I moved to Montreal in 1982 because of the poor service and arrogant attitude.
I read this article when it was new. I remember the line about using the glass coolant overflow jar in the Dacia to make borsch.
My late wife used to tell me stories about an insanely cheap co-worker of hers (when she lived in Montreal) who owned a Dacia. Primarily because he wasn’t willing to pay anything more that that for a new car.
She rode in it a number of times, said the car was absolutely horrible. Grossly underpowered (and she owned a Toyota Starlight(? – the RWD model under the Tercel) with automatic and air conditioning.
Which should say something.
French Canadians LOVE French cars. And the Renault 12 roots of the Dacia probably helped sell some cars in Quebec.
That would be a Starlet, K series Corolla powered good entry level rally cars boy racers here love them.
I’ve owned a couple of these. Three Lada Nivas, Nissan Micra, and a Hyundai Stellar. I had a Hyundai Pony rear axle in my Lotus Seven clone.The Lada and Hyundai were definitely dated designs but I quite liked them. The Micra was fantastic fun to drive – like a classic Mini with boring styling. A friend of mine ran some Innocentis for a while until rust and parts supply issues took them off the road.
I’m a bit surprised that less stringent emission standards, and not limited crashworthiness and safety standards, allowed a couple of these into Canada. Who would have crash tested the Innocenti for example? As I thought Transport Canada used the crash standards of the NHTSA, for their own recommendations.
Of this group, the Lada was the only car that seemed to have any significant brand allegiance in Canada. Thanks mostly to the Niva. Other than the Pony, during a brief period of wild popularity, each of these cars were considered ‘fringe’ at best for much of their time on the Canadian market.
My brother in Ottawa bought a new Pony in the mid 1980’s. For its price It looked very good inside and out, but I remember it as rough-running & sounding, and it succumbed to rust very quickly. Within a few years, the Pony was a bad joke.
One attitude towards Lada, as I remember, was that given the similarity between the Russian and Canadian climates (and maybe even roads in some areas), a Russian car might be worth a try.
I’d like to see Skodas reintroduced though – sensible, basic, less expensive versions of VW products.
I don’t remember any innocenti running around, but the rest were Canadian favourites for a short while. A skoda belonged to a friend’s BIL. His comment was that it was an easy car to push. Another friend’s dad had his Lada burned in their driveway right around the Korean airliner incident. He replaced it with a Buick. The people that kept them tho swore by them. Which was better than a lot of cars from that period that were usually sworn at! My Dad bought a 15yr old Electra from a guy that bought the first Pony in our village. I’m sure he was thrilled to see still on the road long after the Pony was scrapped. That’s my memories.
The other brother William
The feature put a smile on my face as I recalled how plentiful Ladas and Ponys were in the Edmonton area. There were Skodas too, as for Innocenti I seem to recall a dealer who sold quite a few of them here.
While I smirk at what these cars were like, Lada models and Hyundai Ponys were still plentiful until the turn of the new Century. In fact I saw a Niva on the streets a few months ago. Nearly sprained my neck looking to see if it was what I thought it was.
Innocenti.
This company which made the Mini in Italy, was very successfull.
Their cars used a lot of locally produced parts like Veglia gauges, Carello lights and Brembo brakes. The Italian Minis were better made in a more modern plant as their UK sisters.
Innocenti was responsible for the revival of the Cooper and Cooper S, Leyland had replaced these by the Clubman 1275 GT, which were not a great success!
By that time Innocenti were bought by Leyland and we got the Innocenti 1300 Cooper in export trim in Europe. The car was an instant success. Previously Innocenti not being BMC (later Leyland) were not allowed to compete in Europe.
This square model, called the 90 (850 or 900 cc) was developed under ownership of de Tomaso, yes the guy of de Tomaso cars, he gave the order to Bertone to re-design and modernize the concept of the Mini. De Tomaso had stepped in as Leyland met with financial problems and were desperately in need for cash!
Of course a new hot hatch was developed and the ‘new Cooper’ was called Innocenti de Tomaso.
Later they started to use Daihatsu 3-cylinder engines and even a small Diesel was introduced.
The car was now called Minitre, the tre = 3 referring to the three cylinders.
Innocenti soldiered on, and the Daihatsu engine, although more expensive to buy, was cheaper in the end because warranty claims dropped with two-thirds !
Anyway, de Tomaso sold Innocenti off to FIAT who killed its rival in 1996.
NOTE
Do not make the mistake to compare the crude, rough agricultural Yugo 45 with an Innocenti, the Yugo is a tractor, the Innocenti is a Jaguar.
In my simple world the stupid arsses at Leyland could have gotten the Innocenti 90 model on a silver platter, the car looked much better then the Mini Metro, the boring obese Mini successor.
The Inno was crisp, handled like a Mini but was more luxurious and mature with its third door or hatch. This car was designed using all Mini components like the front and rear subframes, and looked much more expensive and chique as the rest of the pack.
The Innocenti was a rval of that other snall urban chique rascal, FIAT’s Autobianchi A 112.
I absolute agree the Innocenti was defintely a cut above the Mini. If the dealer here had advertised more he might have sold more than he did.
Here in Hungary most of the cars mentioned above were part of everyday life until the mid-late ’90s. Until the fall of communism Western cars were very rare, 90% of the cars were made in the Eastern Block.
Everyone knew that a Mercedes, a Honda or an Opel is better than the Skodas, Ladas etc. but for local conditions these cars weren’t that tragic failure that the Mosport test shows.
Road network and its condition was not comparable to Western Europe and USA (it’s still not, but it’s another story…) Four-lane highways were rare, most main-roads were medium to low quality two-lanes. And Hungary is a small country, no really big distances here. In the ’70s and ’80s there weren’t much roads here where the average traffic speed was above 80 km/h. And even a Skoda or a Dacia can cruise comfortably at such low speeds.
The first car of our family was a 1975 Skoda S100. It was the predecessor of the 120GLS tested above. Build quality was solid, it was reliable and fuel economy was good – about 7 liter for 100km. I was a 8 years old when Dad sold it so I haven’t driven it but I remember that Dad complained many times about how sluggish the Skoda were. Overtaking a Zil or IFA truck on a busier two-lane was quite a challange! Comfort level was quite spartan: no power steering, no radio and the rear side windows were fixed – later combined with black vinyl seats and rear mounted engine made the back seats hot for us in the summer. Although it didn’t really needed power steering because the front end was light (engine in the rear) and tires were skinny.
After the Skoda we bought a brand new Lada 1200. It was not the modernised 2105/Signet with rectangular headlamps and black plastic bumper – it looked like a 1966 Fiat 124. Lada kept the older modell in production parallel to the 2105 up until about 1987. The 1200 was more “sporty” than the Skoda S100 – it could maintain steady 120-130km/h on highways – but because the 4 speed shifter, the loud engine and wind noise it felt much more. Fuel economy was worse, about 10 liters / 100km. Trunk was bigger but I remember that the Skoda were more roomy inside. Ergonomics were bad: high pedals and steering wheel too far away. Long arms and short legs preferred. Shifter was more precise than in the S100.
After the end of the communist era many used western cars were imported to Hungary: VW Golf Mk1s and Mk2s, Opel Kadetts and Asconas, Ford Sierras etc. – our Lada with it’s 1960s shape and chrome bumpers become suddenly like a museum antic. 🙂
When I learned to drive in 1994 the car of the driving school was a brand new VW Golf MkIII. It was like a luxury vehicle for us in those times. I could only enjoyed it for about 2-3 lessons because another student totalled it in an accident. After that the learner car was a 1985 Skoda 120L. That was a harsh contrast after the Golf! 😀 What I remember the most that I had problems to keep it in straight it wandered left and right even at 70km/h. I had to concentrate strongly
What was really surprised in the Canadian test is the Dacia. Build quality was the worst, I agree (as most Hungarians would) but was it really slower and weaker than the Skoda? I don’t think so. And it was a very comfortable and quiet car as I remember. Surprise again that the Canadian Dacia was the noisiest of the bunch. Anyway it’s a pity that the Romanian build quality and reliability was so bad because the Renault 12 which the Dacia was based on was a really decent car. Early Dacias (up until about 1975-76) were considered good quality because many original French built components were used during
production. When every part become locally made quality went below any standards.
One more thing: the FSO cars were not based on the Fiat 125! The Polish bought the body design of the Fiat 125 and the chassis of the Fiat 1500! (The Fiat 1500 (1961-1967) was the predecessor of the 125.) The difference was quite big between the two Fiats: the 1500 had a pushrod four with timing chain, the 125 had a DOHC, with timing belt. Brakes were all-around discs in the 125 – drums were at the rear in the 1500s. Also the 1500 and the Polski Fiat (at least the earlier ones) had column shifters. The original Italian 125 was the BMW 3series of its time, a modern elegant sports sedan – the Polish Fiat just looked like a 125 but it was a generation older under its bodyshell.
I totally agree with your assessment. The cars broke down, but even my babushka could repair them using basic tools. I understand once you get beyond a certain distance from Moscow, you stop seeing any fancy modern car and there’s nothing but those or ZIL, Ural and Tatra trucks, none of which featuring any electronics. Perfectly understandable when you realize that a breakdown may result in your death – it is as bad as the Australian outback (in fact, during winter, worse).
Oh: of course the Ladas’ and Skodas’ RWD platform is very useful for creating a cheap starter rally car.
I have a hazy memory of a Wheels magazine (Aus.) road test of an FSM Niki that ended up on its roof.
a few things stand out here for me – I love the lap time as the arbiter even though it’d be the least important factor in any of these new cars’ sales (shades of classic Top Gear here) but I had NO IDEA it was ‘normal’ to deface/destroy the property of those whose purchases suggested an affiliation you abhorred. In the UK Canada is often portrayed as being a wealthier Sweden (eg peerlessly liberal).
Yes the Innocenti would’ve been a great addition to the ‘real’ Mini range – but (nationalism spoiler alert) the then-largely nationalised British Leyland would’ve gone on strike in near-perpetuity if someone had had the temerity to build cars elsewhere…
I sold my last Skoda here in Canada maybe 4 years ago.
I love those things – reliable, fun to drive in a quirky way (think land snowmobile – all weight/power in the back, just sort of direct the car from the from skis/tires), and surprisingly decent on the highway, and the power was low enough so you really couldn’t get into any trouble unless you REALLY tried.
Down sides were slow and thin metal with minimal crash safety. That’s about it.
What really killed them were a lack of spares after 1989.
Here in the US, we got the Renault 12 as well as both OHV and DOHC versions of the Fiat 124 from the late ’60s to mid ’70s. During the height the late ’50s import craze, we also got Skodas. One can be seen through the rear window of Cary Grant’s New York cab in an early scene of the 1959 Hitchcock thriller ‘North by Northwest”.
Happy Motoring, Mark
I find that Lada Signet pretty attractive for some reason. There’s a little Volvo 240 in the design.
Hi,
I agree with most of the comments in the article. I live in Vancouver, Canada, on the Pacific coast. There’s hardly any snow here most years, and thus no salt to speak of.
I drove a new orange 1985 Skoda four door sold here in Canada, and thought it was nice driving. The steering, shift action and clutch were light and smooth, while the engine was quiet and smooth also. It rode smooth and tight, and seemed quiet over the few miles I drove it. I regretted not buying it as a hobby car. The front trunk hood opened to the side, and the large tub inside served as a beer cooler for the salesman on the lot. I saw a two door version, called Rapid, which had beautiful styling, also orange.
I also drove a Dacia, in the form of a mint blue 1979 Renault 12, dressed up as a Nordic, the French word to denote a Canadian weather package along with some exterior decals. It had a beige interior, with controls that were difficult to figure out, such as the heater. It was a terrible car to drive, a small peaky engine that took a fair amount of skill on the clutch just to launch from a light. Heavy steering, poor brakes and wobbly shifter.
I drove a mint very low mileage mustard yellow Austin Marina four speed, which drove very poorly. Heavy clutch, rough loud engine, and steering that was so stiff it felt like a friction clamp was attached. You actually took corners unsafely to minimize the amount you had to turn the wheel. The fact that it had a single carb 1800 MGB engine, got lost in the misery.
My neighbor bought a new Pony 1400 automatic, as a second car to his last of the generation 1978 Ford Country Squire with woodgrain sides. I think they drove that Pony every day for the next fifteen years, keeping it in their garage. It seemed to be just as reliable as any Honda, and I never saw any rust.
In 1978 my dad bought a 1969 Vauxhall Viva, a British car sold through GM dealers at the time. He paid $200. for the used example from a friend at work, a giveaway price even then. Our family cars were much more expensive, because he was a a relatively good earning stock broker. It only had 16,000 miles and his friend had pulled a prank on him, his wife having gone through 3 clutches in their steep driveway. It had the worst brakes of any car of its year, I saw in an article once. It was tough to stop. Many days, it simply would not start, luckily we lived on a hill which is how my brother used to start it. We never got the starting problem serviced, because the first owner said later it was unfixable; he had tried. I drove around in it at camp when I was thirteen. Oddball materials and assembly in the interior that were from a different world. But you know what? That little car had a very smooth four coil suspension, drove very nicely, had the typical Detroit matching colours, (blue, in and out with smooth fabric seats) and had beautiful styling. I saw one years later, converted to Toyota drivetrain, so I guess that guy liked the car too.
Thanks for the great article!
Brian Anderson
My college flatmate in Deutschland had a Lada Nova, which is the same Fiat based sedan built by differing factories around the world, as was this Lada Signet. Jurai used to be embarrassed about driving it because it was a cheap used car, but I didn’t care, I had no preconditions. We traveled around the Harz mountains on trips, and it never broke down. It was certainly much better than the Trabbis that were still around blowing black oily smoke on the other side of the former border town of Wernigerode, in the DDR.
It was a solid car, primitive, but solid. He didn’t do much but drive it, since it was purchased by his parents as a college car for him. I drove it and it wasn’t as nice as my Festiva back in the States, it got us where we needed to go whenever we wanted to go anywhere.
Hyundai ran a lot of advertising for the Pony, after they were initially a word of mouth sales hit in Canada. This popular 1987 ad featured serious rebates, as the Pony’s reputation for rust, was already hurting sales by then. I don’t think most buyers realized, how old the Pony design was, when introduced here in 1984. Because it was new to the Canadian market, it seemed fresher, than say the Chevette. When the design dated from a decade earlier.
The Lada was just so bad. A colleague had one, it was in the shop more than it was on the road for the few short years they put up with it.
Another colleague had not one, but two Ponys. One caught fire, the other crashed due to some mechanical failure.
Other friends who had a VW Fox or a Toyota Corolla were eminently more pleased with their cars. As was I with my K car of the day.
The only instance of meeting up with any of these winners was outside the US, in approx 1987.
Dad rented a Pony during a family trip on a Caribbean island. There were five of us plus my brothers wheelchair under the hatch.
I recall at several times we had to get out and push the Pony up hills. Downhill, it was even scarier, and we quickly understood why the agency wanted to rent us a boat anchor as a brake assist…
Came late to comment but it’s pretty wild reading about (or is that aboot?) Scott Goodyear flogging econoboxes for Road & Track a few years before he got famous racing in CART and the IRL. And famous for falling oh-so-short to Al Unser Jr at the 1992 Indianapolis 500.
I got to visit the Skoda factory in the Czech Republic just before COVID. The plant was running lots of overtime just to fill orders. Also got to drive a Skoda Rapid wagon as part of a driving tour of Poland. Ideal for the very narrow village streets, yet kept up with traffic on the highways with no issues.
If VOA had brought over some Skoda CUVs, I feel they could have revised the old image of VW (plain, simple, very reliable) to pump sales in the US. Lost opportunity.
Also got to drive a Skoda Rapid wagon
iirc, the longroof Rapid has been replaced by the Scala. As the big brains at VW want to take the brand “upmarket”, don’t want to offer a Golf/Jetta wagon in the US anymore, I would be all over a Scala. They are on the “ever increasing ATP, ever increasing GP, big SUVs only” hobbyhorse that the big three are also riding however, so no Scala for the US.
A Skoda Scala, well thanks Steve, that’s the first time I’ve heard of it. I had to look it up.
Regarding the segment of the Golf wagon, there’s also the Skoda Octavia Combi. Let’s call it a C+ segment car, given its size.
Regarding the segment of the Golf wagon, there’s also the Skoda Octavia Combi. Let’s call it a C+ segment car, given its size.
I scrolled back and found we had this discussion back in 17. If VW was going to offer the Octavia wagon here, they may as well offer a Golf wagon. The Scala is sort of in between size. More cargo room than a Golf hatch, but less than a Golf wagon.
This is the Rapid Spaceback, that the Scala replaced a few years ago. There is a Polish guy who does car reviews on youtube, in both Polish and English. He referred to the Spaceback as a “shopping trolly”. I’m OK with that, as carrying stuff is what I need to do.
I remember watching a segment of the Red Green Show that featured a car I didn’t recognize and now I know it was a Pony. On another note, back in 2013 (the last time I was in the UK), I rented A Skoda Octavia Saloon (petrol), and was suitably impressed. I would have one here, 6-speed and all, but I have a long time to wait, as if there would be any left.. A diesel Estate would be fabulous, all 40+ mpg of it, and a Brit Youtuber had his 400k example torn down and showed little wear.
I had a US market 1975 Renault 12 wagon, and I don’t have a lot bad to say about it. I believe ours were all powered by the 1.6 liter Cléon-Alu engine from the Renault 16, which necessitated an offset (to the left) power blister in the hood to clear the carburetor bonnet. This engine motivated mine quite well, even saddled with all of its emissions components and an automatic transmission. Another of the car’s qualities was that it felt like it was well engineered and screwed together properly. The doors closed with a reassuring “thunk” and it wasn’t possessed by weird squeaks and rattles.
It’s quite interesting that reviews of the Dacia produced versions came in for as much criticism as they did, as they started with the same basic car. I’m presuming they used a 1.3 liter Cléon-Fonte engine, which also was standard fare for Renault 12’s in many markets. I recall some reviews for the 12 complaining of its slowness when equipped with this engine, but crude and noisy weren’t on the list. FWIW, my Renault also used the curious, thick glass jar as a coolant overflow vessel, but I never needed it for off label uses, nor did I drink the Kool-Aid contained within.
Hyundai is celebrating 40 years in Canada and its amazing how far they have come. Ponys sold well because they were the same price as used cars..my friend bought an 85 and it was good transportation. He traded it for a Hyundai Stellar, another car not sold statside, and again it was nice basic transportation. He didn’t keep either long so he didn’t get to know the long term ownership experience.
Working in aftermarket parts, as I still do, it was surprising Pony’s were the last cars that still used points and condensers–we quickly learned Dodge Colts used the same Mitsubishi engines.
We have a Hyundai dealer here in Hamilton that has a Pony on display in the secondary show room