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When Soviet-made cars roamed Singapore roads

remembersingapore.org

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Re: When Soviet-made cars roamed Singapore roads

#21

Post by somenameforme »

lnsru wrote: post #7
jojobas wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Export cars were made with some special care, for years buying a car destined for export was preferable to a brand new one built for domestic market, even if "scratch and dent". My father always carried a bunch of membranes for the fuel pump, a spare accessories belt, distributor, fuses and possibly something else. Every item in the list was a result of limping somewhere with a vague hope of finding the part in stock…

Probably it’s worth mentioning that the repair shops as we know them today didn’t exist in the world of Soviet cars. So everybody was responsible for his car and the owners were forced to spent weekends under the car in garage blocks sharing tools, knowledge and beer.

The manuals for the Lada were epic. In a quick search for an original one I came upon this [1] which is an English version one, which is even better than what I was looking for! It describes the entire car's operation and mechanism in extensive detail along with descriptions of how to replace parts, what might go wrong, and more.

I'm not sure that 'just send it to the repair shop' was an overall improvement in society in so many ways. In modern times those shops are infamous for exploiting people's ignorance and ripping them off to an absurd degree, and it primarily affects the lower socioeconomic groups within society, since the upper groups tend to cycle through relatively newer cars more regularly, in part to avoid having to deal with long term maintenance issues.

[1] - https://archive.org/details/manualzilla-id-6025672/mode/2up

Re: When Soviet-made cars roamed Singapore roads

#22

Post by ido »

eru wrote: post #10
gsf_emergency_4 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The related Trabi (made of paper, some claim) have had their value multiplied https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/living/2024/03/27/trabb...

The classic claim was that the Trabi was made out of cardboard. Of course, that's a myth: the Trabi was actually made out of cheap plastic. The Trabant was actually a decent modern car when it debuted in 1957. The problem is that they produced it until 1991, when it was far from modern. I was born in Zwickau, where the Trabant was produced. It's no accident that they picked Zwickau for the production, because that's…

The Trabi was made of duroplast. Sussita, the only Israeli car (similar vintage) used fiberglass (only slightly better). I guess both had the advantage of being lightweight (and cheap).

Re: When Soviet-made cars roamed Singapore roads

#23

Post by darkwater »

prmoustache wrote: post #17
usrnm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And then they just kept producing the same model, with extremely minor changes, for decades. That's not true, though. The first models were, practically, Fiats, but then they diverged and the second generation (produced in the 80s) had significant changes. Niva had nothing to do with Fiat from day 1, it was developed internally

The Niva was actually a very modern car when it was released. I think it was one of the first unibodied AWD.

I'm not sure when the Niva was initially made but I have memories of rusted Nivas from the late 80s to early '90s already.

Re: When Soviet-made cars roamed Singapore roads

#24

Post by brnt »

TowerTall wrote: post #3

We had a Lada 1200 when I was a kid. Mid/late 1970s. The car was a 1:1 copy of the Fiat 127 if I remember correctly. It served my family well for many years, and for us, it was "sort of" rock solid. That a Lada was "rock solid" was in no way the norm. People were saying that we had a Wednesday model, meaning it was assembled on a Wednesday. The saying goes that the quality of cars built on Monday/Tuesday was impacted…

There were Lada dealers up until the nineties here in NL, but few people drove them. I've never heard anyone describe them as reliable though. To the contrary.

Re: When Soviet-made cars roamed Singapore roads

#25

Post by croisillon »

eru wrote: post #9
optymizer wrote: post #6

We had a Lada Samara. It was considered a good car in the 90s. I have "fond" memories of helping my dad push the car to the nearest gas station whenever we ran out of gas - which was a few times a week, because we usually didn't have enough money to fill up the tank. Sometimes he'd drive me most of the way to school, the car would run out of gas, and then I'd walk the rest of the way. He'd then figure out a way to ge…

Which country was that in? I assume not in Singapore, because you'd probably have just taken public transport to school?

beautiful Moldova ;)

Re: When Soviet-made cars roamed Singapore roads

#26

Post by ACCount37 »

somenameforme wrote: post #21
lnsru wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably it’s worth mentioning that the repair shops as we know them today didn’t exist in the world of Soviet cars. So everybody was responsible for his car and the owners were forced to spent weekends under the car in garage blocks sharing tools, knowledge and beer.

The manuals for the Lada were epic. In a quick search for an original one I came upon this [1] which is an English version one, which is even better than what I was looking for! It describes the entire car's operation and mechanism in extensive detail along with descriptions of how to replace parts, what might go wrong, and more. I'm not sure that 'just send it to the repair shop' was an overall improvement in societ…

Repair shops are a necessity.

Not everyone can learn even the basics of car maintenance. There are a lot of drivers on the roads today who wouldn't be able to do even something as simple as top up the oil or change the tires. And actual repairs, even on older simpler cars, even with an exhaustive technical manual and modern learning aids like video tutorials or AR overlays? Fat fucking chance.

There are ways around that. You can keep the cars simple to repair and also expensive and unavailable, so that only the people with tech know-how and/or willingness to learn it get them. Make cars as tools for professionals and tech enthusiasts, like PCs were in the 80s or construction equipment is now. Or you can make the cars cheap and disposable enough that if one fails, you can just send it to a scrapyard and get a new one.

I don't like either of those workarounds, so repair shops are the least bad option.

Re: When Soviet-made cars roamed Singapore roads

#27

Post by noir_lord »

BohdanPetryshyn wrote: post #2

Loved the Lada jokes. "How do you double a Lada's value? Fill up its tank" could apply to quite a few modern cars with terrible depreciation curves

What do you call a Lada with a sun roof?

A skip.

Why do lada’s have heated rear windows?

To keep your hands warm while pushing them.

Ladas and skoda’s where reasonably common in the UK in the late 80s/early 90s, I always had a bit of a soft spot for them, seeing Skodas resurgence after VW took over was cool as well, Skoda went from a laughing stock to winning car of the year pretty quickly and now people generally like the brand.

Re: When Soviet-made cars roamed Singapore roads

#28

Post by timonoko »

My father got genuine Soviet Moskvich aimed for soviet domestic market in 1976. Piece of shit and pure comedy.

I tried to start when I inherited it, but eventually needed nearest Soviet Citizen to start it. All you needed to do is to remove a spark plug and pour some vodka in.

Quite obvious on hindsight.

Re: When Soviet-made cars roamed Singapore roads

#29

Post by fransje26 »

BohdanPetryshyn wrote: post #2

Loved the Lada jokes. "How do you double a Lada's value? Fill up its tank" could apply to quite a few modern cars with terrible depreciation curves

"Do you know why Ladas have a heated back-window? To warm your hands while you are pushing."

Re: When Soviet-made cars roamed Singapore roads

#30

Post by okaleniuk »

The Fiat 124 was actually a pretty good car for its era. Russians improved its suspension, refitted the engine, and messed up the hydraulics. Still, pretty good car for the 60s. And then, they continued to produce the same car with miniscule modifications until 2010s.

That's the problem with authoritarian regimes. You can buy a plant by a fiat (pun intended), but you can't make a decent car by a decree.

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