Posted on 04/18/2002 2:44:38 PM PDT by yankeedame
The Renault R5, aka leCar, was a brilliant little thing that got 40mpg and could cruise all day at 80. Click and Clack are nuts to put this little wonder on their list. This was actually a good car, just not for Americans. It's older cousine the Dauphine was an absolute dog .. but that should not prejudice people.
The Pinto could be a very sweet running car. It was built with good (mostly English, but some German) components from the Ford World Parts Bin. It was crappily constructed, but you know, they ran pretty good, and having no resale value, were definitely an excellent used car buy. Some tendency to explode when hit from behind, but for that kind of money, so what?
Nothing illustrates the wimpiness of the American Car Buying Public more than the universal disdain in which the YUGO is held. They were assembled in the old Yugoslavia on worn-out FIAT machinery, from a happy marriage of running gear from the 50's FIAT 126 and the 60's FIAT 128 engine and trans. They were a dirt cheap utility vehicle, overpriced at $3995 (Especially since Bricklin was buying them for $800 cash from the Commies.) But on the used car market, hey $200-300, and you got wheels, pal. Yeah they needed a little work, but if you thought of them as a "Car Kit" rather than a total car, you'd be all right. I especially liked the way little fuzzballs from the always orange/yellow/mustard brown upholstery stuck to one's clothes ... a badge of ownership, or shame. Parts were dirt cheap, what with the junkyards full of them, and the FIATS that shared their components. Equipped with TIGAR Radials, which were 50's-type Pirellis, the YUGO was actually a bit sporty. (TIGAR Radials, @$100/set of 5, including tubes, mounted and balanced, were dead-on perfect for my MGB's, too.) It's kind of sad that the 5-6-year Golden Era tradition of Yugoslavian car and tire manufacturing is over now. Oh yeah, the Yugo had one other attribute that made it a natural Balkan Best-Seller. It was, and remains the only vehicle an Albanian would not steal.
BTW,I just saw an AMC Gremlin Station Wagon in perfect condition. It looked darn good! So take it off this list of shame, too.
Other than that I, as usual, agree with the Magliozzi Brothers.
EBUCK
This list is lame. The VB Bus rocked. I'd say it was one of the top 10 Best Cars of the Millennium.
If I could find a stock, straight VB Bus for a good price I'd pick it up in a second.
These are mostly Americans and Europeans and other mostly civilized people who have thus not had any experience of or even heard of a Trabant.
Of course there is also the DAF, a Dutch motorcar that had rubber belts in its transmission.
My dad had a Chevy pickup with that engine in it. With less than 70,000 miles on it, the cranshaft broke in half. Go figure.
I heard the same thing, that the B210 run forever.
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