It’s funny to see as a European that Buick sells the Regal as a premium car. When GM introduced the Opel Insignia (they’re pretty much the same, with a little bit different engine and transmission options) here, they clarified that it is definitely NOT a premium car.

Yeah, they would have sold dozens of them. DOZENS!

There’s no beach car like communist beach car. Because East Germany was all about fun.

There is at least a manual option here in Europe, but sadly only with the diesel engine. (There was also a manual QV, but they stopped producing it after a few months-which is a shame for European buyers) Seriously, why the hell would anyone want to buy a diesel Alfa Romeo?

Old Citroens are pretty much the only cars, which are more fun with an automatic. Anyways, it looks like a nice buy.

There was one in Europe and it was made by GM of all automakers. Behold the mighty Zafira OPC.

My grandparents’ car. A Lada 2103, similar to this.

Why would it be strange? Ford of England’s and Ford of Germany’s products were direct competitors in all European markets, save for their home turf, where Ford didn’t sell the other division’s product.

Dear North America,

Gosh, I will never understand American carmakers of the era. All those huge, heavy cars with big, relatively powerful engines. And they put drums all around. I mean, really? All the European cars (save for the cheapest, tiniest ones) switched to at least front wheel disks by the early 70s. Yes, even the Eastern…

Do we talk about the Hudson 308 now?

“A good-looking American wagon with decent power and a distinct lack of bullshit.” I think it’s more German than American, and that’s not a bad thing.

What about this one?

About the Trabant: the problem was, that it was produced for too long. It was designed in 1957 and mildly updated in 1964 then produced well into 1990. If you compare it to small European cars of the same era i.e. a Citroen 2CV or a Fiat 500, it’s a solid piece of German engineering. And it’s not significantly worse…

I’m sure, that there will be a manual, at least here in Europe, because you can’t really sell cars with only autos aviable. We even have cars like an E-Class or an Audi A6 with manual transmissions.

No, you don’t want a Zaporozets. These were so awful, that nobody bought them even in the 70s Hungary. And there was a serious shortage of cars back then. You had to wait 2-5 years for a car, depending on what you ordered while these were immediately aviable, because there was no demand for it. When I was small, there…

Everything is relative. For me it was my dad’s 1984 Mercedes W123 230E. Not a really powerful car even for the era’s standard, but for me something like 130 hp was ubeliveably high. It was in 1989 in Hungary. At that time I had (and still have) a Trabant 601S and the most powerful car I’ve driven was a spoiled friends…

Here in Hungary we have to pass 3 exams to get the license: theoretical, driving and first-aid. The theoretical and the first aid are easy, most of the students can pass it first time. On the other hand more than half the students fail their first driving exam. We have to drive at least 30 hours and about 600 km (cca…

It was not a new idea, it was an old thing carmakers forgot. Just look at the 2cv, the 1957 Fiat “nuova 500", the Opel Olympia Cabro-Limousine and several other cars of the era. Even the russians made their own Pobeda cabrio in this style.