Ahead of its Time

[andyburns]

I found the following video incredible to watch. The first year of production of the w113 and only one year before my car was manufactured and driven around the streets of New Zealand. The video was taken in there Streets of Wellington the capital of New Zealand and represents what type of cars there would have been in the country at the time.

My car has been identified as being the first ever w113 imported new into New Zealand. An amazing piece of history. Have any of you got any other video footage of cars of the day in your country. I'd love to see them.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3yGysMM2wHg#menu

[Pawel66]

Here is the link to what was happening in my country, part of the Eastern Block. You basically have our designs from the 50ies (small "round" car), sometimes forced by the Soviet Union (bigger "round" car), then in the 60ies we tricked the Soviet Union and bought a Fiat license (125 and 126). We developed the 125 into something quite nice with the help of Mr. Giugiaro (you will recognize the design) in mid 70ies. All the trucks and vans are local development.

In 1963 and 64 - we had the small round car (Syrena), big round car (Warszawa), some of the cars from other Eastern Block countries, very few cars from the West and Fiat licensed factories under construction or agreements being negotiated. I do no think anybody seen Pagoda back those years... Fintails - yes, certainly, but not SL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZWFxVK33sE

[andyburns]

Very different again to what we used to looking at most of the cars in New Zealand where of English Origin with the occasional American. Funny your video reminded me of one of our first family cars a s k o d a 120 SL which is about as far removed from a Mercedes as you can get.

[Pawel66]

Skoda was one of the best Easter Block cars, also popular in Poland through 60, 70, 80 90 and today. It was difficult to buy, as all other cars (shortage of everything). 120 was, I think the 3rd evolution after Octavia and 1000MB. It was produced (and still is) in the Czech Republic, 50km from where I work in the Czech Republic now.

120L - engine in the back, light front, shallow trunk. We said you had to throw a bag of concrete to the trunk to drive straight.

[neelyrc]

I drove my new Pagoda to Genoa, Italy in early 1969. The video link below shows the summer vacation traffic in the Rome area in 1971.  The video is 2.25 minutes long but in the last twenty seconds you will see a couple in a Pagoda with the top down! Quite a contrast!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj9Gcqb6ujs

[450sl]

I remember back in 1977 a friend bought a brand new Skoda (he was a true believer in the brand/ and they were also cheap to buy) 
in his first two days of owning the car the doorhandle came loose ....  after that several other issues came up and finally he sold it.

[Pawel66]

Door handle getting lose was not that serious, come on! 

There were attempts to export most of the Eastern Block cars to earn hard currencies. I think the Ladas and Skodas were the most successful. Also initially the Polish Fiats, 125 and 126 were also selling well on some markets.

And most of them had smaller or bigger quality issues even though for export there were special procedures for manufacturing and special parts used.

In the communist countries - anything you got, you were happy you had it, regardless of small faults. If you were lucky to buy a new car from the state factory (you either had to wait several years or you could get a permission from authorities if you were politically correct), you could sell it for 5-10 times the money after several years of driving.

[450sl]

Yes , only  a handle coming of ; i know we are spoiled.

But then in the early seventees there were the famous CZ and Jawa motorbikes they were of a much better buildquality..

[Pawel66]

Yes, significant heritage in motorcycles building in the Czech Republic. These were a dream in Poland back then...

Lots of the in the Technical Museum I wrote about in another post.