Friday, July 27, 2018

ZAZ Zaporozhets car in Latvia

While not nearly as notorious as East Germany's Trabant automobile, the ZAZ Zaporozhets deserves a place in the automotive hall of shame.

Mrs. Marathon Pundit traveled to Latvia last month and in the town of Ilūkste, which is near the Lithuanian and Belarusian borders, her keen eyes spotted this tired old Zaporozhets parked with other junks.

According to Wikipedia, "The name Zaporozhets translates into a Cossack of the Zaporizhian Sich or а man from Zaporizhia or the Zaporizhia Oblast." Kinda like naming a model of a car in America  a "Wrangler."


Isn't she a beauty?

On the plus side, many Zaporozhets were manufactured specifically for people missing limbs, including of course World War II veterans, or what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War. So the car wasn't all bad.

Vladimir Putin owns a Zaporozhets. Since all of them were equipped with manual transmissions, it appears that Putin knows how to drive a stick shift car. Who knew?

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