I read that with an accent.
āI just never liked dealing with the dealers. I donāt want to give a guy 25-grand in an envelope [for the privilege of buying one].ā He likens the Ferrari purchase experience to ārich guys who go to a dominatrixā to get the crap kicked out of them.
Hereās the YT video of that if not on Jalopnik. Worth a watch: Leno compares Ferrari dealers to McClaren dealers.
I assume the Moskvitch was never available in the UK, so it wasnāt included.
I have ridden in a yugo. Once. Once was more than enough.
An 80s acquaintance was yugoslavian, and her father insisted on buying yugos. It was awful. Small as I am, I felt gargantuan in the hard and minuscule back seat. The endless loud rattles rattled me. She had a hard time shifting - dunno how much of that was proportionally down to the carās feebleness and her possible lack of skill. 
The suspension was stiff AF. Everything in the interior was so poorly made and fitted, I was afraid Iād break something. I avoided touching things.
Russia apparently decided to dubiously reward Jamaicaās communist government by making the Lada available there. When we were frequently visiting The Island during the 90s, we often saw Ladas of many colors - multiple panels had obvs been cannabalized from several others. These naturally included many who were black/gold/green and red/gold/black/green, which I must assume was deliberate.
A friend of ours owned one, and we had the pleasure of taking a ride in it. It was actually much better than the yugo, and when I told him so, he laughed and laughed. Mom was horrified that Iād ridden in a yugo, so I had to tell that sorry tale, which much amused them.
The back seat was stiff and uncomfortable, as was the ride, but both were still better than the yugo. Despite being decades older than the yugo, there were also far fewer rattles. Dave had no problem shifting, and once again I donāt know how much of that was due to the car and how much of it was Daveās skill.
Good man. 
Uh! clears throat Point of orderā¦ a Yugo was NOT a āsovietā carā¦ And Yugoslavia was not ābehind the iron curtaināā¦ 
okayā¦ back to your regularly scheduled cars under socialism analysis!
We had one for a while. I remember it being a not high quality, but solid enough car for what we paid for it. Not great, but not entirely awful eitherā¦ though I donāt think we had it very longā¦ I will also say that they seem to be talking about the Yugo in Yugoslavian markets, not the American version, which were of different qualityā¦ If people havenāt read it, Iād recommend this book on the topic, since he does a great job of figuring out how bad the American yugo was, and if it was really as bad as we all rememberā¦
[ETA] Correction - he makes the point that the Yugo was worse in Yugoslavia than in the US, in part due to specific standards it had to meet to get into the US market in the first placeā¦
Itās a fun book, and he starts each chapter with a funny yugo joke!
Yeah, well, Youguslavia was always sorta perceived as āSoviet Bloc Lightā in my neck of the woods. The bit of the iron curtain you could crawl under, there and back, for cheap holidays.
Oh sureā¦ but I think itās important to point out that they were not in the soviet bloc, primarily because Stalin kicked them out because Tito would not bend the knee to him. they were the only socialist country to get Marshal plan funding, and Tito was instrumental in forming the non-aligned movement.
With regards to vacationing in yugoslaviaā¦ when my parents lived in West Germany, at one point my mom had wanted to go to Yugoslavia with a friend, and apparently my dad said noā¦
Tito could have taught a masterclass in working both sides of the the road.
And if your dad was stationed in West Germany and/or held any level of security clearance he probably had the right idea.
Indeed, but the third world countries werenāt wrong about where the threat to the world rested during that timeā¦
I donāt think he held a very high level security clearance, as he would have been a private at the timeā¦ I suspect it was more about a young husband being overly cautious of his young wife and daughterā¦ They would both have been 20 or 21 at the time.
If Germans were going on the regular for trips, I donāt know how dangerous it could have been, though. The 70s were a relatively stable period there, from what I recall from my readings of that period (mostly stuff by Sabrina Ramet).
Ideal candidate to try to hook and reel in with just the right mix of coercion and reward, and then cultivate over time. DƩtente or no dƩtente, everyone one was still playing their usual intelligence games and Yugoslavia was a very suitable playground.
When I was a kid, the general look of cars such as these completely turned me off. Back then, as opposed to now, I didnāt bother to consider and appreciate the artistry and aim of the designers. Another Leno find and restoration, his story on this one (perfect body color for the coachwork, btw), involves a couple of Boston cops.
Iām reminded of this magazine cover thatās been permanently etched into my brain after seeing it as a kid:
For what itās worth, $3990 in February 1986 would be worth $11,675 today. (According to the CPI calculator. Which is astonishingly still working.)
The cheapest new car today is apparently the Nissan Versa, which starts at $18,330. (Or $6264 in 1986 dollars.)
Itās crazy how few cheap cars are available in America right now, and I certainly hope that changes soon. The Ford Maverick had the right idea when it first came out but it didnāt take long for them to hike up the price and stop including the hybrid drivetrain as the cheapest, standard option.
That said, at least the cheapest new cars today are generally safer and more reliable than the cheapest new cars from 40 years ago. I bought a base model Honda Fit and got 330,000 miles out of it before it died. Most cars from the 1980s didnāt make it anywhere near that long.
I think I have seen 1, 2 (1&2 gen), 3 & 4. I think there is like one 1 in Finland because the one I saw had the same licence plate that all pictures I have seen of Polestar 1 in Finland.
Iām glad they didnāt set off the fireworks too soon.
