Russian Iron (Jul, 1960)
Russian Iron
THERE’S a Moskvich in your future!
The Moskvich (shown in the above photo) is a small Russian auto which will be brought to the United States sometime this fall. The importer is Robert Castle, a Syracuse, N. Y. auto dealer who signed an agreement to import 10,000 Moskviches.
The little Moskvich retails in Moscow for 2,500 rubles. In the U. S., the price will be approximately $1,400. The Red cars will also come off the boat with a supply of spare parts.
The Russian rig is the first one to reach these shores. No American-made cars are sold in Russia at present. Pictured on these pages are some other Soviet and East European buggies which might also be imported—if the Moskvich earns enough rubles from the American auto-buying public. •
The Trabant went on to become one of the most infamous bad cars in the world. East Germans made jokes about them such as “Why does the Trabi have two exhaust pipes? So you can use it as a wheelbarrow.”
If Syracuse used road salt during the winter in 1960 it probably ate right through that Russian Iron. However you could dump those cars in Onondaga Lake and improve the lake.
Like the Yugo, you don’t drive it, you squeeze it in your tea.
Mike: They were as rust-resistant as any* comparable sized European car at that time.
* Apart some French cars: Simcas and Renaults of that era would rust instantly if you just breathed to them. Or that’s how my late uncle described them.
If anyone has driven a Lada they know why they didn’t succede.
@Stephen – East German Trabant joke. “How do you double the value of a Trabant? Put a banna in the back seat.”
My father grew up in Syracuse and I thought he lived there in 1960, the family had moved out of the city by that time and my parents didn’t remember hearing about the Russian invasion. However my father did go to school with Robert “Bobby” Castle. He or his family owned a few dealerships throughout central NY.
@Stephen: The Trabant was so bad that, as Germany was being reunited, former East Germans drove them across the border to abandon them on the West side!