Pagoda SL Group
Off Topic => Other cars => Topic started by: Pawel66 on October 31, 2023, 21:24:10
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For those interested, I came across this footage: https://fb.watch/o1aeFpjUi9/
Certainly - voiceover not useful, but not difficult to figure out what is said.
This is the Tychy factory (today they produce Jeeps there, before Fiats 500). The other Polish factory, in Warsaw, was manufacturing Fiat 125. No longer there.
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First Fiat I knew of, that was manufactured in Eastern Europe was the 124 sedan. It was marketed in Germany as a Lada?
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Yes. 124 license was sold to USSR and it came as Ziguli (VAZ 2101), called in export markets Lada 1200. I think they still produce cars based on it today.
Poland bought Fiat 125 and Fiat 126 license. A major technological advancement for Poland for all industries at that time. Well, that was the idea, communists were quite clever there...
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For our U.S. friends: As the 124 Spider is fairly well known here, the 124 Sedan probably not so much
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Yeah, looks more Soviet than Italian.
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I think the 125 was quite pretty. Particularly the early one, with chromed grille.
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…124 license sold to USSR and it came as Ziguli (VAZ 2101), called in export markets Lada 1200.
I remember years ago when Car&Driver magazine got their hands on a Lada 1200 and tested it. The conclusion was something like “it wasn’t much good as a Fiat when made in Italy and it’s worse as a Lada made by communists…”
And then America was served by yet another communist Fiat clone, the Yugo. Sold new for $3,990. The conclusion there was buy a used car instead.
Of course they are all bizarre collectors items now.
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Yes, turbulent history of Fiat in the US. Both Ladas and the two Polish Fiats sold fairly well in the Western Europe due to price - for some time. But the key export markets were other Eastern Block countries, Middle East, Far East and Africa.
Needs to be said the 126p and to some degree the 125p motorised Poland in the 70ies.
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…Needs to be said the 126p and to some degree the 125p motorised Poland in the 70ies…
No matter how [arguably] bad these Fiats and there clones were they were light years ahead of a Trabant!
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Tell me about it! My dad owned two. I remember him removing engine from the car on the parking lot, bringing it carrying with a piece of string upstairs to put it on the kitchen table to replace crankshaft ball bearings (!).
As for Fiats - they were very reliable in the 70-ies. In the 80-ies quality severely deteriorated.
The 70-ies were very rich years in Poland with lots of loans drawn in foreign currencies. Those had to be paid in the 80-ies and that is when everything collapsed, leading eventually to strikes, Wałęsa, Polish Pope, Perestroyka coming all in the same time and ending communism. Summer 89.
Both 125p and 126p were produced through these decades until late 90-ies. Practically not changed - degree of modifications might have been similar to the one between 230SL and 280SL. Simply: there were no resources in the economy to undertake massive modernization or start of a production of a new car. Fiat 125p was replaced by one modification - Polonez with car body by Giugiaro but chassis, engine and suspension form Fiat 125. There were many prototypes of fairly modern cars built, but none of them made it to the production line.
Then in early 90-ies the Warsaw factory was bought by Daewoo and the Tychy factory (on the footage) by Fiat. In essence - Warsaw factory went down together with Daewoo, Tychy factory prospered, winning quality awards and now is part of Stellantis. They manufacture Jeeps, Fiat, Fiat 500, Abarth, I am hearing about Alfa Romeo, etc.
Other than that Volkswagen, Citroen, Peugeot vans are produced in Poland, Opel Astra and plenty of all sorts of trucks and buses (MAN, Scania, etc.).
Form our patio: Mercedes opened a couple of years ago a super modern engine plant in Jawor, south west of Poland.
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In my Youth I had the Spanish Fiat 124 a SEAT 1430 Especial 1600 1973, it was a much more luxurious car then the Fiat and Lada, it had all around tinted windows, plush upholstery, chrome on the wheel archs, bigger tail Lights and twin headlamps from from FIAT125, it was extremely rare in Sweden as it was a private import from Spain, that was rare at the time.
The brand SEAT was totally unknown ed in Sweden and I found the car at a used car dealer in 1977 and it was very low priced, compared to FIAT 128 that was the kid brother to the 124.
I had the same color and spec as the car on this link
https://www.seatenrodaje.es/seat-1430/