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Cars You Never See Anymore

Did they ever officially import Wartburgs to Britain? If they did they can only have sold a handful of them.
I remember my neighbour (Vernon was his name) having one when I was a child.
This one, same or very similar colour.

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It was shit.
 
One of these drove past me when I went shopping earlier:

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A Peugeot 309 - or, as it was originally going to be called, a Talbot Arizona.

:)

friend of mine has one as a classic. certain bits are the same as a 205 from the same era, so I did give him some of the spares i'd had for the puddymobile after it got written off

Did they ever officially import Wartburgs to Britain? If they did they can only have sold a handful of them.

think so - there are adverts aimed at the UK market and they made right hand drive models

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one of mum-tat's neighbours (think she hailed from somewhere in eastern europe) had at least one - think it was similar to the above. may have traded it in for a later model in the 80s
 
The name is from a castle in einsenach where they were made.so maybe not so weird.

anyway, the one i checked out has the 1.3 VW in it - not one for the 2 stroker fanatics, but like the last model of the trabi, they chucked away the smoker and chucked a 4 stroke in - with normal floor box- I seriously have the urge for one of the later ones that i have checked them out
 
The name is from a castle in einsenach where they were made.so maybe not so weird.

anyway, the one i checked out has the 1.3 VW in it - not one for the 2 stroker fanatics, but like the last model of the trabi, they chucked away the smoker and chucked a 4 stroke in - with normal floor box- I seriously have the urge for one of the later ones that i have checked them out
Go for a papier-mâché Trabant.
 
there was also this in the back of beyond in Croatia. Must be 80s I think - Was a Slovenian made R4 - wanted EUR 125 for him but the family started crying when i started talking of changes to holiday return plans

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there was also this in the back of beyond in Croatia. Must be 80s I think - Was a Slovenian made R4 - wanted EUR 125 for him but the family started crying when i started talking of changes to holiday return plans

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There's an active R4 enthusiasts scene in Portugal. Even magazines about them. I fancy one as a second car. Surf boards on the roof ...

My father had a 1966 R4 and a Morris Mini of same age in the 1960s. We were a two car family!
 
one of these the other day - it was a 1990 or so model with the DDR manufactured ex-VW 1.3 rather than the 2 stroke ( with something like only 7 moving parts). I quite got the feeling for it - am keeping my eyes open for one

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Wartburgs weren't actually that bad for commie cars. They certainly weren't significantly worse than the equivalent British shit (Austin 1100/1300) of the time. The Wartburg 353 engine is a popular transplant into the Trabbie (which is a piece of absolute ☭garbage☭) .
 
dacia denem / r12 still running about in turkey- made until a decade or so ago

I didn't realise they were still making them that recently in Turkey. In Romania Dacia moved on to more modern cars about fifteen years ago IIRC.

One of the scariest experiences of my life was a ride across Brasov in a rickety old Dacia taxi driven by a drunken maniac. I thought my last hour had come at pretty much every junction!

On the subject of recycled Renaults, albeit on a different continent, I believe the Renault 18 is still a pretty common sight in Argentina:

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Haven't seen one in the UK for years.
 
They are becoming quite rare. Maybe we should be buying them now while we still can.

A good first-generation one would probably be worth snapping up now. If a classic car enthusiast doesn't, a banger racer probably will...

Ditto with - and at the risk of the most predictable post ever, coming from me - these:

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There's a battered old 240 estate a few streets away from me still serving as a painter and decorator's wagon, but aside from that I don't often see them. Old age, banger racing and a 25mpg thirst have done for most of them. That said, this immaculate example was parked near my place last summer:

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I think it must be an import since it's a 242GT, which I don't think they ever officially sold in the UK. It's right-hand-drive, though, so perhaps someone's such an enthusiast they've had it shipped all the way from Australia.
 
A good first-generation one would probably be worth snapping up now. If a classic car enthusiast doesn't, a banger racer probably will...

Ditto with - and at the risk of the most predictable post ever, coming from me - these:

12475470.jpg


There's a battered old 240 estate a few streets away from me still serving as a painter and decorator's wagon, but aside from that I don't often see them. Old age, banger racing and a 25mpg thirst have done for most of them. That said, this immaculate example was parked near my place last summer:

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I think it must be an import since it's a 242GT, which I don't think they ever officially sold in the UK. It's right-hand-drive, though, so perhaps someone's such an enthusiast they've had it shipped all the way from Australia.

There's two 240s on my street, both owned by aging academics.

Coincidentally i have a new Volvo being delivered to me in about an hour, so excited. I won't still have it in 30 years though.
 
Mondeos, especially new ones. What is Mondeo man driving these days?
I was talking to a mate who has his own small engineering supply company. There are two of them on the road selling stuff, they always had Mondeos, but they have just got two Kia Stingers!
 
That's news to me! I'm in a couple of classic Volvo owners'/enthusiasts' Facebook groups and most of the members seem to be my age or older.
That's probably because it's a group for enthusiastic owners rather than trendy wannabe
 
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