LP.org/poll:
The Obama administration has taken control of General Motors. What’s your favorite car from a government-run car company?:
Yugo (Yugoslavia: Broke down frequently, “carpet” was a feature)
Zhiguli (USSR: Air conditioning not offered)
Trabant (East Germany: Plastic car, no brake lights or turn signals)
Zaporozhet* (USSR: Loud engine, tended to explode in collisions)
*Actually, I would transcribe this one Zaporozhets or Zaporozhetz. -paulie
10 responses so far ↓
1 Nate // Mar 31, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Never been to the USSR, or any of its current bits and pieces, but I’ll wager you don’t really need air conditioning through most of it. Besides, air conditioning is bad for the environment and many cars manufactured in Europe don’t have air conditioning in spite of European cars being ahead of US cars in roughly all categories except gas guzzling. There are certainly areas in the US where I’m glad to have air conditioning, but for the most part I think it’s an extravagance that nobody needs.
And the Trabbis (Trabants) were cool. I’m not saying they were good cars, not at all, but there’s just something about a car that required you to step on all three pedals at once sometimes. For all you Americans, the third one’s the clutch, another thing almost all European cars have. Learn to shift gears, people.
2 mdh // Mar 31, 2009 at 6:32 pm
This is a bit mis-leading. They haven’t taken control of GM in a truly socialist manner, but simply placed demands and restrictions upon them. This is something the government has been doing to lots of companies for lots of years. Nothing new here.
3 Mik Robertson // Mar 31, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Didn’t US car companies make cars with loud engines and some that tended to explode in collisions, and even some that tended to rollover?
In the 1980′s I had a Renault, which easily got 50 miles per gallon on the highway. It took a while to get to highway speed, but who’s in a big hurry all the time?
I recall when I lived in Poland in the early 1990′s there were running jokes about the Polski Fiats, like the rear window defogger was there to keep your hands warm while you pushed it, etc. The Russian Niva, Jeep-type vehicles, we used where I worked were actually pretty good.
I do remember visiting Budapest and seeing Trabants being pushed around everywhere or people trying to start them with the crank in front. I don’t remember there being any significant car problems I noticed when I visited Vilnius in Lithuania, Grodno in Belarus, or St Petersburg in Russia.
4 Michael Seebeck // Apr 1, 2009 at 12:35 pm
This is a poll WHY?
5 libertariangirl // Apr 1, 2009 at 1:30 pm
because its stupid and meaningless like most of the LP polls Mike . LOL
6 Akston // Apr 1, 2009 at 11:59 pm
I think it’s funny.
7 paulie // Apr 2, 2009 at 12:00 am
Zhiguli.
Made in my paternal grandparents’ hometown.
8 Steven R Linnabary // Apr 2, 2009 at 12:08 am
Wasn’t there also a “Lada” made in the USSR?
FWIW, I seem to recall that the Trabant had a 2-stroke engine, which requires mixing gas & oil.
PEACE
9 paulie // Apr 2, 2009 at 12:12 am
Wasn’t there also a “Lada” made in the USSR?
Same as Zhiguli.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AvtoVAZ
10 Steven R Linnabary // Apr 2, 2009 at 12:15 am
I think it’s a bit misleading to claim that GM is now government controlled. The government may be the biggest current investor, but that isn’t quite the same as government controlled.
OTOH, if it IS government controlled, that should be very scary for anybody still employed there. Recall that fifteen or so years ago the IRS took over control of the “Mustang Ranch” in Nevada. The IRS is not allowed to put people out of work when they take over a profitable business, and yet they managed to run it into the ground.
If the US government can’t make money with a whorehouse, how can they be expected to run a car company?
PEACE
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