Interesting Photo

[LarryInMichigan]

I remember hearing in the late 1970s or early 1980s that Ladas were being sold in Canada.  I wonder if the US Customs gave drivers any trouble when they tried to cross the border into the USA.

Larry

[twocvbloke]

My friend Paul had a Lada in Québec in 1984. It had an electric starter but still had the hole in front for a crank.

2CVs are like that, the starting handle also works the jack and can be used to undo the nuts when changing a wheel, but most people only start their 2CV (Or Dyane, or Ami, or Mehari, or anything else based upon the 2CV platform!!) with the handle for fun, rather than using it in an emergency, after all, there's a starter motor bolted onto the gearbox...

[Contempra]

My friend Paul had a Lada in Québec in 1984. It had an electric starter but still had the hole in front for a crank.

 




I got myself a Lada in 1981. I did not like this vehicle at all... the only thing that was good in this vehicle, it was the comfort of the seats. The rest, boff!

[DavePEI]

Another soviet block item which was commonly seen in Canada was the Belarus tractors from Minsk, Belarus if I remember correctly. When they first came out, many farmers bought them on the Island, as their price undercut the cost of North American tractors! But this trend didn't last long, and the top seller changed over from Belarus red to J.D. green and yellow Many Belari had air cooled engines and their parts were scarce, and lacked the quality of North American brands. Seems in less than ten years they became popular, then largely dissappeared!

Later, a North American distributor began distributing them but they never seemed to regain the popularity they had in the early days.

It would seem to be much the same story as with the Lada.

Dave

[Contempra]

the 4 X 4 trucks Lada were popular..the cars, I don't know ...

[LarryInMichigan]

Here is another picture of comrade Krushchev holding the handset of his very non-Soviet British (imperialist) GPO phone.

Larry