I wish there was a plot of median US income v. median Big Three car price, but if it exists, I haven’t found it.

MZ, CZ, Ural, Junak, Pannonia and Dnepr where all available(ish) before the wall came down.

Even behind the iron curtain they were still a breed apart. I knew an East German mechanic who, years after the fall of the Wall, still rated the ‘60s Jawa he rode as a young man as the best machine he ever had.

Not everyone needs a body-on-frame truck built to tow a yacht.

Amen

The Clarity is certainly a whole lot more DS than the sad chromed-up crossovers PSA is trying to sell us as “DS” 😔

To be fair, the placement of the unibrow means it’ll always reflect the road surface...

I’m honestly glad you like the Sonata, but I have to say that it leaves me quite cold.

Proportions are off, especially at the rear.

Great granddad is way ahead of you there:

Are these things still based on the Hilux, or does it just look that way?

That Cartman King reminds me of Italian futurism:

Your mention of the Figaro juggled something in position in my jumbled mind: the Nissan Mint is simply the latest in a whole genre of small, friendly, stylish urban runabouts. See also the Honda CRX, and a whole slew of Bianchinas and Vespa 400s, probably going all the way back to the equally minty Nash Metropolitan.

The design is the first to take a modern FWD drivetrain and package it behind the seats. Yes, Ford did try something similar more than a decade earlier with the Mustang I concept but that was with a longitudinal drivetrain out of a Taunus.

One very cringy Torchlopnik post coming up.

🎶 Rudolf the headless Reindeer🎶

Except that Citroen is modern Dutch, and Baguette came from Italian Bacchetta. Bordeaux is proper French though: likely Aquitanian (similarish to Basque) in origin via Latin. 

I know what you mean about the mid century ad stylists, and what they did to sleekify fairly frumpy sedans. Especially in Europe.

Or an Alpine A110, to keep it mid-engined (and powerful)

Just a little further back, in the '40s and earlier, the staff up front could perch on leather, but The Boss in the back would recline on the finest broadcloth.