Axon’s Automotive Anorak: Former Iron Curtain carmakers ‑ post Berlin Wall collapse

For the second part of this review of the former Iron Curtain car makers, this week I am taking a look at the marques that desperately tried – but failed – to survive the harsh commercial realities of adapting and competing in the post-Communist Capitalist era, with a nostalgic trip through the Socialist horrors that you may well have lodged in the back of your minds, hoping to have forgotten about many years ago. So let’s relive the nightmares and review the motoring casualties of the collapse of Eastern Bloc communism that began when the Berlin Wall came down 30 years ago this week, on the 9th November 1989.

Tatra, 1897-1999

Tatra has long been admired as one of the world’s long-established makers of distinctive and advanced motor cars, as well as its very tough trucks. Happily Czech Tatra still exists today as the maker of world-class heavy commercial vehicles, a number of which have dominated the HGV class of the grueling Dakar rally for some years. 

After building passenger cars alongside its trucks for over 100 years, however, the collapse of East European Communism lead to the demise of Tatra making its Hans Ledwinka-inspired low-volume, rear-engined V8 luxury saloons, as the Czech government wanted to be seen in the latest BMWs, Mercs and Audi from Western Europe once socialism had been caught-out, rather than the imposing but unusual ‘local’ Tatra limousines.

The last of a bold and proud line of rear-engined Tatra V8s was made in 1999 in the form of the highly-individual T700 model. it was a great loss for motoring enthusiasts the world over.

FSM, 1971-1992 

FSM was the smaller brother to Poland’s leading car maker. FSO (formerly Polski-Fiat, as below), built the ex-FSO Syrena family saloon, plus the popular rear-engined Fiat 126, which now enjoys a cult following today in Poland, nicknamed the Maluch (baby in Polish).

FSM briefly survived the Polish fall of Communism but folded as a stand-alone Company in 1992, when Fiat acquired the FSM factory in Tychy. It was rebranded as Fiat Auto Poland. 

This Tychy factory is where the hugely successful second-generation Fiat Panda, plus the current Fiat 500 (and Abarth 595/695 derivatives), the Ford Ka MK2 and Lancia (nee Chrysler) Ypsilon were (and are) built. The latter Lancia is still sold in Italy only, where it accounts for more sales alone than the combined European volume of all Alfa Romeo models!

FSO (Polski-Fiat), 1948-2011 

FSO (Fabryka Samochodon Osobowych, or Passenger Car Factory in English) began car production post-World War II, building the contemporary Russian GAZ M20 Pobeda under licence in Poland, branded the FSO Warszawa. This was followed in 1953 by the smaller Trabant-style Syrena saloon which continued on until the late 1980s (the last examples being assembled by FSM).

In 1965, FSO signed a deal with Fiat to produce the then-new 125 model under licence, branded as the Polski-Fiat 125p. This model remained in production in 1991, the 125p being the cheapest new car on sale in Britain that year, undercutting considerably smaller cars. The 125p was joined in 1978 by the Polski-Fiat Polonez, jointly developed by Fiat and FSO, using the 125’s mechanicals and base, clothed in a more modern hatchback bodyshell. 

The Polski-Fiat brand name was replaced globally by FSO in the early 1980s, with Daewoo taking over FSO operations as the car maker was privatised following the fall of Communism in Poland in 1989. Daewoo itself went bust in 2000, leaving the revised Daewoo-FSO in a zombie-like state as it soldiered on for another 11 years, making ex-Daewoo models (Matiz, Lanos and Aveo, plus a revamped Polonez) before going under for good.

GAZ (Volga), 1932-2010

Better known for its rugged commercial vehicles than its passenger cars, Gorky-based GAZ once built Ford Model A models under licence in the 1930s when USA/USSR relations were rather healthier than today. 

By the 1950s GAZ had developed its own Ford sedan copy, which morphed into the respectable Volga M21 and M24 by the early 1970s. This Volga then soldiered on for years, driving by minor-league Proletariat, KGB and Kremlin types, and refreshed once every ten years or so in a futile attempt to at least try and make the M24 appear modern against decadent Western rivals. 

After 40 years-plus on the market, the Volga M24 was eventually replaced by a series of other dated and unappealing models, the last of these being the short-lived Siber of 2008, which was based on a defunct 2001 Chrysler Sebring. 

The model was a flop, prompting GAZ to stop passenger car production for good in 2010 to briefly concentrate on more profitable trucks and vans. These also soon came to an end, with GAZ facilities now used to assemble some General Motors and Volkswagen models for the local Russian market.

Moskvich/AZLK, 1929-2002

In the mid-1960s, a British family motorist could buy a brand-new Moskvich 408 with the interior space of a Ford Cortina, but for less than the price of a new BMC Mini, and with a lot more standard equipment than both. Standard specification included disc brakes, reclining front seats and a comprehensive tool kit. Handling and styling were not strong points for the car, but the price (substantially subsidised by the Soviet Government) made the Moskvich a tempting choice.

By the early 1970s, Satra Motors (the Brooklands-based British importer for Russian vehicles) was becoming more audacious in its marketing and confidence, with two later Moskvich 412 saloons competing surprisingly well in Group One of the British Saloon Car Championship (BTCC’s forerunner), with racer Tony Lanfranchi beating the far more powerful (and agile) BMW 2002s and Ford Capris more than once.

This helped to put Moskvich on the map here, just as similar motor sport activities had done across the world, but by the mid-1970s the car’s dated styling and demanding dynamics through lack of funding and development took their toll on much-needed export sales, with Moskvich virtually forgotten on the capitalist side of the Iron Curtain within a short time frame.

The mainstay of Russian motoring for many decades, the early 1970s arrival of the ‘upstart’ VAZ Lada hurt AZLK/Moskvich sales badly throughout the Eastern Bloc, from which it never recovered, even with its later and more modern Aleko family hatchback, which had more than a passing resemblance to a Chrysler/Talbot Alpine.

Once the communist dream/nightmare was over and the Russian State was no longer buying Moskvichs to keep the now-independent Company afloat, sales collapsed, and this once mighty car maker was no more by 2002. 

Trabant, 1957-1990

Almost a legend in its own lunchtime, the Trabant 601 has become synonymous with the former DDR, the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the failed East European socialist experiment. 

With very patchy build quality, a smoky 600cc two-stroke engine, a very un-ecofriendly body made of ‘duroplast’ recycled cotton waste and nasty phenol resins, the Trabbi had little in its favour. This didn’t stop an average waiting list of 13-years plus for this slow, smelly, unreliable and uncomfortable car though, with used 601s selling for twice the price of a new one in East Germany’s heyday to avoid the lengthy wait.  

In 1989, as the Berlin Wall fell, the first (and only) significant change was made to the Trabbi when the 601’s archaic, polluting two-cylinder, two-stroke motor was replaced by a modern 1.1-litre engine from a VW Polo. The small Volkswagen hatchback itself was soon being assembled on the former Trabant production line in Zwickau after almost 3.1 million Trabbies had been made. Now the plant that has since been fully modified and today builds other Volkswagen models, including a recent major refurb to gear-up for VW ID.3 electric vehicle production from 2020.

Wartburg, 1956-1991

With origins dating back to the late 19^th Century, Wartburg was an East German vehicle pioneer, building cars on and off in the Eastern town of Eisenach until the early 1930s, including BMW’s first sports car, the 3/13 DA-3 Wartburg. Following the post-war division of Germany, the Wartburg name was revived in 1956 to primarily service the Soviet Iron Curtain markets.

Exports to the UK and other free-world countries commenced in the early 1960s, with the two-stroke Wartburgs building up a small but loyal customer base over the years. Official British imports stopped in the mid-1970s due to appallingly high engine emissions, although ‘unofficial’ sales of LHD models continued via some dedicated specialists advertising in Exchange & Martwell into the 1980s.

The larger ‘premium’ model of the two cars built in the dark days of the former DDR (the other being the smaller Trabant), local Wartburg demand (with a waiting list stretching into years rather than weeks or months) remained high until the Berlin Wall came down. 

Demand instantly frittered away as soon as much of the Wall was rubble though, and despite Wartburg ditching the smoky old two-stroke engine for a modern VW Golf motor, and tuning specialists Irmscher creating a remarkably stylish body kit for the car, sales of the East German smoker evaporated, with production grinding to a halt by 1991. Opel soon took over the Wartburg factory to produce Vectra and Insignia models in Eisenach for pan-European consumption.

Zastava (Yugo), 1953-2008

Founded in the former Yugoslavia in 1953 to build Fiat cars and commercial vehicles under licence, Zastava (later known as Yugo) began exporting Fiat 600 and 128-derived models to western Europe in the early 1970s with some success (despite the cars lacking the verve of their Italian originators). 

In 1980 Zastava launched its first home-grown model the Yugo 45, a pleasing hatchback based on tried and trusted Fiat 127 mechanicals, but selling at a much more advantageous price than the Fiat. This was one of the few Communist-era cars to be sold in the USA, where it’s low price instantly attracted a sizeable customer following (and now a comical cult status).

Just as Zastava (changed to Yugo for most exports markets by the early 1980s) was getting into its stride as a serious vehicle producer, the Balkan Crisis hit, affecting production, with export sales halted by 1992 due to trade sanctions again Yugoslavia, and with the main Zastava car factory being bombed during the Kosovo War in 1999. Once the hostilities ceased, limited Yugo production resumed in 2003 for the now disbanded home markets, with exports set to resume once trade sanctions were lifted in 2000. These never really got going, and despite Fiat agreeing to Zastava producing its first-generation Punto Classic in 2005 (branded as the Zastava 10) by 2008 all vehicle production had stopped with the factories closing permanently.

ARO, 1957-2003

State-owned ARO (an abbreviation of Auto Romania) was a specialist producer of basic but functional off-road 4x4s (as they used to be called, pre-SUV). ARO’s earliest 4x4 was a crude ‘jeep’ based on an even more rustic Russian GAZ-69 4x4, this model being superseded by a modern ARO 24 Series in 1972, a capable and quite stylish 4x4, briefly sold in the UK. In 1980 the smaller Renault 12/Dacia 1300-based ARO 10 joined the range (confusingly sold as the Dacia Duster in the UK, long before the current model).

In 2003 the now ex-communist Romanian Government sold the majority shareholding in ARO to a questionable American operation, with the company bust within a very short time frame, sealing ARO’s fate in a tough post-Cold War free trade market.

ZIL, 1956-2014

ZIL grew out of the previous ZIS (1931-1956) as a top-level maker of limousines. In the finest Communist tradition, ZIL was strictly the preserve of few ‘haves’ and not the majority ‘have nots’. The cars were reserved for top communist State officials and the KGB in the former USSR until the inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. 

Moscow featured ZIL-only lanes strictly reserved for people that you wouldn’t want to mess with, unless you fancied a long stint in Siberia or propping-up a Moscow bridge! The sight of a ZIL passing by would instill terror in all on-lookers, and Russian drivers certainly didn’t risk veering into the special ZIL lanes in their rusting Moskvichs and Ladas. 

ZIL still exists today as a legal entity, but it has not made any vehicles for at least eight years, the old, iconic ZIL factory being turned into residential housing in 2014.

Communist Cold War cars may now (thankfully) be a thing of the past here in the UK and Western Europe, but it is only a matter of time before a fresh onslaught of Communist machines invade our shores; this time coming from the Peoples’ Republic of China. Here’s hoping that they will be a major improvement over the old Iron Curtain cars of the 1960-80s (they couldn’t be much worse!).