Many many magazines have been sold by the presence of a Ferrari, Aston Martin, Corvette or Rolls-Royce on the cover, accompanied by “Exclusive First Test” type headlines. But, inevitably, many of us are not buying those cars but are instead buying significantly cheaper cars. How about a comparison test of some of those, and specifically those frequently cited as the “worst car on sale today”? Cue a cover featuring a Skoda Estelle and Reliant Rialto, and four way test them with the Lada Riva and Citroen 2CV.
Picking the four candidates seems to have been straightforward.
First up, the Lada Riva, the current incarnation of the evergreen Fiat 124 derived Lada. Even CAR admits, hesitantly, that it has some positives, even if it was just showing how desirable the 124 was 15 years before. A lot of car, basically put together and as tough as old boots, with a dated driver and passenger experience.
Next up, the home team whipping boy, the Reliant Rialto. Small, not comfortable, not stable, not a good drive, pricey, and few good points. Perhaps that’s not a surprise; perhaps the surprise is such inadequacy was still available for a price higher than an Austin Metro. For loyal buyers only, and then only if you had just a motorcycle license.
Faring better was the Citroen 2CV, a perennial motoring journalist favorite, even if many did not get it or could compute the attraction on a rational basis. For comfort for four people, with no inclination to speed, perhaps. But its appeal really only worked for those looking back, not forward. After all, Citroen had replaced it twice (Dyane and Visa) and it did not have long to live.
And perhaps the surprise of the pack – the Skoda Estelle. The Estelle was a facelift of the 120, itself derived from the 100 first built in 1969 (not based on the Dauphine design as bought from Renault, as the article claims). Not only was it very good value, but it was also well equipped, well finished and, perhaps surprisingly, judged to be well engineered. It was hindered principally by cross wind stability and lift off oversteer – the target market might have encountered the first but likely not have driven in a manner to meet the second. You can see why the “I bought a new Skoda for the price of a used Escort and don’t regret it” letters were common in the magazines in the 70s and 80s.
So, CAR gave the win to the Citroen. But were they right?
I saw a Dyane in the parking lot of a Harbor Freight once, which is a one-of-one experience in America. The owner was pulling away, and he instinctively knew I’d be asking, so he pulled up to me and said, “It’s a Citroen Dyane.” I laughed because of his prescience; I knew it was a Citroen, but I had never seen a Dyane before.
I think I’d take the 2CV for the parts availability and status as an icon, but I can’t believe the Reliant three wheeler was still around in 1985!
The Reliant survived up into the 2000’s!
Thank you Roger for getting this article under our attention. Not much said about safety, this would not go unmarked today. Crash test anyone?
Last sentence of the Skoda part was interesting: “Only the name would remain a stumbling block”.
In hindsight, this was more the case about Lada. Lada as a marque has no value anymore, except for the Niva enthusiasts.
Skoda as we know has been bought by Volkswagen in the 90s. VW got rid of its history and basically Skoda became a cheaper VW. It is now one of the best selling makes in Europe.
I never had experiences with a Lada or Skoda, and do not think I ever will (too boring or not interesting enough). I had a 2CV as a first car 40 years ago and loved it, would gladly have one again. Last year I got a Reliant Robin van in an exchange deal with some cars (the Robin is a predecessor of the Rialto, basically the same “car” in a less “modern” body). I have yet to experience that car as the engine needs some work. I am interested because why not!
The Soviet calesh for me, please. The only of the four that got something at any rate s i m i l i a r to headrestraints.
Ah, sorry. I failed to see that even the old Bohemian got some. Nonetheless – for me, It’s the rear engine displacement that kills it.
“A new car for the price of a 3 year old car” was the sales rational , The verdict …” You be better off with the comfort and features of the used car. The Lads was very popular with cash strapped families who wanted a car with a full warranty. Many were ‘rei-mported to Russia to meet demand and converted at POE to LHD for 150 bucks!.
Oh yes the 2CV was imported into the US using a pre 67 chassis to keep legal and Canadian s will recognise the Lad a “Signet” and the Scoda,
“The Skoda’s other drawback is the stigma attached to it’s name” – this was absolutely true in 1985, but, since the VW takeover Skoda is now regarded in the UK as the “sensible” choice, ocupying the niche that Volvo once held. In our part of Devon they are one of the most popular makes to be seen – my in laws have a Karoq and we have a Yeti as our shopping/dog/bike transporter. I’m rather fond of it – huge amount of space in a small footprint (important with the local area’s narrow lanes), solidly screwed together and uses a lot less fuel than the Italian SUV that sits next to it in the driveway.
It strikes me that there is nothing quite like the 2CV on the market – something that does everything differently to any other vehicle in a practical, usable, chic package that has a classless image. The Yeti actually comes closest to this in my mind, but then, were this 1985, our utility car choice probably would have been the 2CV…
“The Skoda’s other drawback is the stigma attached to it’s name”
In Swedish, the name “Skoda” is very similiar to “skada”. The word for “damage” or “injury”.
Nonetheless, they sell well today even there.
I read CAR magazine when this article came out. I also lived near a Skoda dealer in 1984, and I was definitely curious about Skodas being rallied and the Škoda Rapid Coupé. Still, I don’t believe that I ever knew that Skodas were based on Renault designs.
A couple of other things struck me. One was that the French car was by far the worst made of the four, even in a pool with a couple of Eastern-block cars and a Reliant. The other is that the yardstick for medium sized family cars in the UK was the Vauxhall Cavalier, a car that in US trim was far from competitive with the best in class by 1985. There were material differences, as I’ve learned with firsthand experiences with an Ascona 1.6S and countless US J-cars. That being said, I’m pretty sure a higher percentage of US J-cars have survived than British or European ones.
I would be hard pressed to chose between the 2CV and the Skoda, as both are extremely appealing to me. The 2CV has so many great qualities, and I have always loved the challenge of extracting the most performance out of an underpowered car; its performance envelope is very close to that of my old 40hp Beetles (34 net hp). And its other qualities are all so charming.
But I’m very tempted by the Skoda as I do love me some swing-axle oversteer. All of my first three cars had them (Corvair, 2xVW), and I came to really appreciate the positive qualities and respect their limits.
If I can’t have both, it’ll be the 2CV.
The Reliant might be fun for a few minutes, and the “in between” (neither classic Octavia nor modern VW) Skoda has no interest for me.So it’s either the Lada as a Fiat 124 substitute or the Citroen. I’d take the 2CV in the end.
The Reliants – Jeremy Clarkson loved to crash them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQh56geU0X8
Wonderful British !
(Hope you don’t mind the “furrin” subtitles)
I’d take the Reliant if they’d have put two wheels in the front , and one out back. Would be an interesting car. Have the head ported and polished , lighten the flywheel, bigger carb …
I’m a 2CV fan. At university, Lada was unpopular, Skoda was acceptable, but on campus, the Vespa, and the Trabbi, were for hipsters and the 2CV, or “Ente” as they were called in German, were beloved. I never experienced a 2CV in the States, so I was speechless when I first encountered a red one that was driven by one of my flatmates. It was an adorable rolling Swiss Army Knife. How these escaped my knowledge before this time, since I have loved cars since my Buick peddlecar, stumped me. But then, although I was surrounded by imported cars back in Chicago, none – absolutely none – were French.
I would have a 2CV in a heartbeat – but in the States? Wow – not where I am currently living. It fit the university cities in NW Germany and the Netherlands where most travel is on bicycle, but in the US? That’s going to be a bit of a challenge. Modern automobiles are being propelled by computer-aided dummies who couldn’t change a flat tire or find their way back home without a GPS. They drive like it as well. Reckless. Smoking dope as they do it, (I’m in Illinois). So a 2CV here would be like riding a bicycle on the streets – God help you.
I have owned a 2CV for over 30 years, so not surprisingly I agree with the magazine’s choice. Since I retired 10 years ago the 2CV has been our daily driver for the summer for trips around town. It is actually just as useful as our 2012 Fiat 500. Highways are not its strongpoint, so we tend to not use it for longer trips. We did take it to a Citroen meeting in New York State, which was about 900 km. We stopped to visit friends on the way down, but came back in a single 10 hour drive. Other than the noise level it is not tiring to drive. It can keep up with most traffic. At least here in Ontario, the steepness of hills on the highways varies with the speed limit, with steeper hills on slower roads. So the 2CV can maintain 100 kph on the steepest hills on the limited access highways and on the smaller roads it can maintain the 80 kph limit. This of course assumes no strong headwinds. On a flat road without a headwind, it will cruise at 115 kph.
Both the Lada and Skoda were fairly common in Canada back in the day. Our low dollar made any imported car expensive and for this reason, both Lada and Skoda sold in not unsubstantial numbers.
The Lada drove like a tank. The steering was heavy but it went where you pointed it and it the cheapest car available in Canada until the Pony came along. My experience of the Skoda was much like that in the test. The cars drove surprisingly well and the side hinged frunk was really cool.
The aforementioned Hyundai Pony was the reason these east bloc cars failed in Canada. We got it first in 1984 and it pretty quickly took over the turf the east bloc car had. It was a much more modern design and a lot more reliable than a Lada or a Skoda.
The Hyundai being more reliable really hurts. In the US, the Hyundai Excel was a revelation about how badly made a car could actually be, in spite of it following all sorts of horrors from Detroit and the Renault Alliance. I spent far, far too long in Jamaica in 1997, and it is true that Ladas positively littered the countryside. I’d say there were three parts cars for every Lada still moving under its own power.
Thanks for the very entertaining review ! Memories: I owned the Lada’s more charming “ancestor”, a pea soup green 1974 Fiat 124 sedan. Practical, fun to drive, and reliable in my time.
Today, I’d choose the Skoda, because like Paul, I grew up with ’66 Beetle and later a ’62 microbus. But best would be the last rear engine Skoda 135/136 Garde/ Rapide 1981-1990. In its last few years it featured a 1300 cc engine, 5 speed transmission, and a trailing arm suspension replaced the swing axles. Now that’s a real poor man’s Porsche !
A huge advantage of the Lada was that there even was a wagon (that cost some nickels more, of course).
2CV for moi, although I’d have to hot the engine up some. Apparently, and bit peculiarly, that’s not a cheap exercise, but having watched the idiosyncratic youtuber Hubnut drive a modded one (with things like an advance mechanism for the ignition!), they can be made heaps more tractable and thus everyday useful.
It’s funny that a cheeky oufit like CAR would praise the Skoda: when the stuffy Autocar tested the car in August ’77, it’s a close as they’d come to saying that a car was a dangerous heap, which was fightin’ words for them. It’s true that there were worthwhile changes made by ’85, and also, the notion began to dribble into such later tests that the thing was a (very) poor man’s Porsche.One wonders… Must say, I liked the very few of them I’d see as a ’70’s kid.
Now, Americans complain about CAFE making for poor cars for a long time, but just think about the Rialto. This loony-bin device is the direct product of UK govt regulations that allowed this to be defined (effectively) as a bike and sidecar – no matter the merits or otherwise of CAFE, it sure never resulted in anyone making a car with a missing wheel!
Top Gear became increasingly tedious, but some episodes could sometimes make me chuckle, and, even though I know it was rigged and ridiculous, the famous falling-over Reliant job was undoubtedly a minor comedy classic. (It still makes me laugh). And, silly as it was, note the words of professional drivers in this ’85 test: it clearly scared the crap out of them, and just as startlingly, they literally say if it’s pretty windy, the owner simply shouldn’t drive it! A truly absurd car, though it must be said it’s so odd as to be a quirkily interesting object all this time later.
The difficulties associated with certifying a car for US sale did result in three wheelers like the Corbin Sparrow, the Campagna T-Rex, various three wheeled vehicles from Bombardier brands, Cushman and Westward three wheeled on-road utility vehicles, the 2CV-powered Trihawk 304, the Elio, and probably quite a few that I’m forgetting. Some of them even had the wheels in the wrong places.
Then there was the Reliant Regal before that as feature in the Mr. Bean TV series
i mean, if you were going to have a car just to drive (slowly and carefully) to the neighborhood supermarket and make people smile, the Reliant can’t be beat. Has one ever been imported to the U.S.?
There was rarely an issue of Car magazine in the 80s that didn’t have an article praising the Citroen 2CV. They kept that car and turbocharged it, but it caught fire when the card and foil tubes which take the cooling air away from the engine overheated.
These cars weren’t really competitors, as already noted the Reliant was mainly bought by people who didn’t have a car driving licence. The 2CV was bought by students and social workers, although I was neither I had two and a Dyane. The eastern bloc cars by older working class people.
I’m surprised the sales of these cars held up so well in 1984/5 given what was happening in Britain then.
Justy- the 2CV is fine in urban and suburban driving, it has a heavy flywheel which gets you to the first (dogleg) gearchange at 19mph quickly, and the brakes and gearchange are excellent – especially compared to a rear engined VW Paul. Country road driving is more of a challenge, forward visibility isn’t great (the Dyane is better) and there is a big gap between 2nd and 3rd gears. You just have to keep your foot to the floor, ‘pied au plancher’ as the French say and don’t slow down for corners. Busy Motorways are scary, you’re stuck in the 56mph lane with the trucks because it won’t do a consistent 70mph with any hint of a hill or headwind. It’s also incredibly noisy and the doors pull away from the body at motorway speeds. Having said that I’ve been just as scared in rear engined VWs at similar speeds on similar roads and the 2CV doesn’t get blown sideways as easily.
Would I have one now? No- I’ve been spoilt by cars with heaters that work, locks that work and that will start when it’s raining, but it was fun while it lasted.
Just remembered that there is a Reliant still driving round my suburb. You can hear it and smell it before you see it, the exhaust putters and the gearbox whines and there is that old car smell of unburnt petrol and hot oil.
Not as good as the sounds and smells of an air cooled boxer though!