Tell me about it! My dad owned two. I remember him removing engine from the car on the parking lot, bringing it carrying with a piece of string upstairs to put it on the kitchen table to replace crankshaft ball bearings (!).
As for Fiats - they were very reliable in the 70-ies. In the 80-ies quality severely deteriorated.
The 70-ies were very rich years in Poland with lots of loans drawn in foreign currencies. Those had to be paid in the 80-ies and that is when everything collapsed, leading eventually to strikes, Wałęsa, Polish Pope, Perestroyka coming all in the same time and ending communism. Summer 89.
Both 125p and 126p were produced through these decades until late 90-ies. Practically not changed - degree of modifications might have been similar to the one between 230SL and 280SL. Simply: there were no resources in the economy to undertake massive modernization or start of a production of a new car. Fiat 125p was replaced by one modification - Polonez with car body by Giugiaro but chassis, engine and suspension form Fiat 125. There were many prototypes of fairly modern cars built, but none of them made it to the production line.
Then in early 90-ies the Warsaw factory was bought by Daewoo and the Tychy factory (on the footage) by Fiat. In essence - Warsaw factory went down together with Daewoo, Tychy factory prospered, winning quality awards and now is part of Stellantis. They manufacture Jeeps, Fiat, Fiat 500, Abarth, I am hearing about Alfa Romeo, etc.
Other than that Volkswagen, Citroen, Peugeot vans are produced in Poland, Opel Astra and plenty of all sorts of trucks and buses (MAN, Scania, etc.).
Form our patio: Mercedes opened a couple of years ago a super modern engine plant in Jawor, south west of Poland.
