R12 did look sad and tired car even when new, add to that 200kg of hauling potatoes for 20 years and you get Romanian Dacia look
But I believe it was mostly looks and good road performance/handling that were not so good in that car, cheap to run and service, does not need lot of parts, those were perhaps always good points in that car.
70&80's were different times for many countries, here Triumph were luxury car that only very rich could get.
We don't have too many Ranges either, them being out of reach to all but most wealthy.
In Romania things have been even worse.
BTW when I did born my family did have R5/R4 (can't remember which, they look same) it was replaced by R6 and that by Ford Escort Mk1 wagon, many others did have Ladas
Certainly all those cars would been very nice to put up in storage as they all are very rare these days.
Beautiful fencing and buildings in those pics from Romania, here we used to have such beautiful countryside too, but it is almost lost tradition now, effective boring styling has taken over, also electric cattle fencing has replaced beautiful old beautiful wooden fences.
It is progress that comes with stress and rush, when before people had time to make such fences now there are no time, magic box at corner of room consumes all time saved with more efficient methods, people are not so much together, working together without pay is something nobody will do anymore.
In Romania that is perhaps soon reality too, it is last times to see those beutiful places and old Dacias travelling without hurry, respecting horse wagons.
In all honesty, a Trabi is cramped, loud and smelly - but it's smaller than a 66 still, and thus perfect to park. A Smart car? Urgh - and only two seats. A Toyota IQ? Way out of my price range, and no boot. The Trabi electric car? Maybe, if they keep the size, and adapt the design a bit ... (pretty ugly right now: http://www.speedheads.de/artikelbilder/ ... t_nT_2.jpg)
) but we went for Austria... Flexenpass, been there, done that. After that, we decided to go for Italy. So we ended up having pizza at the top of the Stelvio pass. After that we couldn't return the same way we came from, so it was down the Italian side of the mountain roads... And we never regretted our choice. It was quite a scenic route. And we were back at our Nürnberg hotel at something around 2 AM... tired but happy.
