The amount of abuse and neglect that those little cars can endure is astonishing. My mother used to have another 106 which grew wheat (wheat!) on the rear seat and when we scrapped it the water pump had no working rotor. But the little mill kept on and on...

Also a reasonable choice. Well not, more of a bonkers choice. All right anyway.

I rest my case here.

A SAAB 900 Turbo with this sticker,of course. Maybe it would be a bit unsensitive to go up Norway in a Swedish car, but the Troll Path is worth a good ole Troll.

Consider yourself answered.

These cars offered great performance and handling at a decent price. Unluckily, reliability wasn't a strong point (especially in the electric system). But a properly cared for car can last ages, here in Spain they are quite a common sight on the road, when other cars from that age are junkyard fodder.

The Mercedes-Benz W124.

BMW is copying what the French have been doing for years. Although less space efficient, heavier and more expensive.

I recommend the brief and excellent book by Loren Graham, The Ghost of the Executed Engineer. About the deeply flawed Soviet industrialization. A very illustrative read.

Well, when you don't give a damn about the working conditions and cost, you can sometimes have magnificent structures built. Like St. Petersburg, built with slave labor from the Mazepa rebels.

Well, for about a century the ONLY machinery that worked was British. Steam engines, pumps, ocean liners... sadly they squandered their reliability in the 19th century and by the mid-50s they were toast.

The unholy love child of a Lincoln Cosmopolitan and a Kaiser-Frazer, it seems.

The Scandinavian (aka Swedish) Flick. Especially when combined with left-foot braking.

This is a prime example of Carlsson on the Roof.

Indeed. "Shit happens" requires a lot of talent to make a compelling story. It's easier to tell one with a Big Bad Guy to blame.

Which proves they're not common. If they were common, they wouldn't generate news.

Some Zora Arkus-Duntov magic there.

The last exciting Golfs, IMHO.

Pimping.

Actually from Germany, but wonderfully adapted to Africa.