I'm buying this classic...

[Flybrian]

How cool is this?

1960 Volga GAZ-21M

[razoredge]

You like that Fly ? I guess its pretty cool, its got that 1950 look in 1960. The hood is really kinda nice, interesting grill, headlight fenders, I suppose its probably nicer than Rapier.

[ApolloBoy]

Heh, you should check out the official site...

http://www.gaz.ru/eng/avt/volga/31105/index.asp

I can't believe they still sell these...

[balthazar]

'Volga GAZ' sounds like an intestinal problem.

Ahh the good old days when all the imports were a good decade behind the U.S. stylistically (among other areas of comparison).

[ocnblu]

That's an interesting looking car. The color scheme is different. That little blue and white thingy at the end of the row in razor's post is kinda cool too.

[Sixty8panther]

How cool is this?

Not very actually.

My family left communist Eastern Europe in 1987 so that I'd never have to look at Russian POS cars like this. It was 12 years behind in styling and 24 in refinement and quality. But beyond all that what makes these POS cars disgusting to me is what they stood for: oppresion, hypocracy and ignorance.

If you lived in a country where you had to give some communist F***er a B.J. just to earn the "right" to get on the WAITING list to buy one of these inferior crapboxes you might not be a big fan either. I know the styling is actually interesting, the hood ornament is awsome and there's some intriguing bits to it but to me it still represents the Hammer & Sickle.

My next door neighbor (V.I.P.) waited a few months for his 1985? Volga to arrive.... he would have waited like 2 years but he bought a rolling chassis and dropped in some engine he had laying around. Probably out of a M.B. diesel. What a POS those things were. Sad really. Looked like it was trying too hard to be a mix between a 1962 Chevrolet Impala & a mid 60s Falcon wiht awkward proportions.... but in the 80s. No joke.

Still better than a Trabant though. Those 2-cylinder/two-cycle paper machee crapboxes were the rock-bottom of tragic mediocrity.

[Flybrian]

Um...okay...well, since I'm from here, I don't care and damnit I want one. Or one of those massive ZIL limos with a 3-speed automatic. Whatcha say about that, Motor Trend?

[Sixty8panther]

Communist countries in eastern europe outlawed convertibles back in the day. Too unsafe in a rollover. I think it's safe to say not one hardtop was ever manufactured in Russia EVER.

Love the AMC door handles on the new GAZ.

[LosAngeles]

How cool is this?

1960 Volga GAZ-21M

This, from the man who didn't see the appeal in an early 70's Nissan Bluebird....

[ocnblu]

I have a feeling it's not the car, it's the person posting it. And that's from both sides. I'm guilty of disregarding a post to focus on the poster as well, so I'm not innocent, just saying.

Differences of opinion make a forum great, but building up prejudices against certain people is not productive, imo. We all have common ground somewhere, eh?

[Robert Hall]

I found this description amusing on the Gaz website:

"The Volga passenger car has always been characterized as a car with simple, even austere design, profound and majestic. It embodies yet today the ideas of dignity and prestige."

[razoredge]

I think its absolutely volga, dirty, nasty, raunchy, sick & twisted..........hey that sounds like I was describing my ........ never mind.

the car ?

center stack sucks and it has cheap plastic

no 12 speed slap shift automatic on the floor with a clutch

no V24

wheels are too small and tires too skinny

hood ornament is not larger enough

its got 4 doors and a post

slots in grill could be 2 mm narrower

headlights could be more squarish

hand grabs on back of seat should be body colored

windshield trim should be monochromated

steering wheel should be grey and where in the hell will they ever put an airbag with all that chromie stuff in the way ?

windshield wipers do not line up properly

I could go on but we've seen all this critique before

I've seen much much worse and if you like it Bri all I can say is

Joe that new wagon has some attributes I find appealing in todays mass of look alikes. tailight bezels, the way the rear window wind deflector is part of the body - with trim, bumpers should be chrome though. Locking gas door, chromed rear hatch handle

[Flybrian]

This, from the man who didn't see the appeal in an early 70's Nissan Bluebird....

To me, that Bluebird looked like a dozen other generic Japanese cars, and that's not a result of the poster...its a result of a dozen other generic Japanese cars.

[Sixty8panther]

WMJ:

Yes they do have RWD and abundant Chrome.

I guess I AM prejudiced when it comes to Russian cars. I've met and know several Russain people and have nothing against them personally but their conntry did some horrible things to my native Slovakia. My family back in Slovakia does not have a good histrory wiht our Russian oppressors, starting in the early 1940s when they destroyed my Grandfather's life/business/financial stability by stealing his brand new Mercedes truck at gun point. My grandfather had saved up whole life to buy that truck with his brother so they could really start doing well with their Delivery business. They sold their Clidesdale (sp?) horses and almost anything of value other than family members to afford it, only to have some snot nosed soldier with a rifle take it away.

My grandafather was one of the greatest people I have known. A kind, gentle, forgiving soul wiht a heart of gold. He used to say all the time how the German soldiers were respectful and never really bothered them but most of the Russian soldiers were scumbags.

So, yes when I look at this car I think of all that crap, and all the innocent people the Russians killed but are not recorded in history books because their slaughter was not a part of evermentioned holocaust. Stalin, as I'm sure some of you know killed more people by far than Hitler.

I don;t judge people I meet who are Russians for their countrymens' mistakes but this is a car from a dark era. An era that most of the people on this forum can probably relate to only from movies but my relatives lived throught it. These stupid cars were reminders of their oppression by the Russians and thet's why to me it's never going to be an appealing car, desite some appealing features it borrowed from American cars of the 40s & 50s.

Razor:

You crack me up!

Ocnblu:

Me and marcia were looking at houses again the other day & I thought of you. The combination on the lockbox at one unoccupied house was: O C N.

Edited January 30, 2006 by Sixty8panther

[ocnblu]