In October of 2014 I spent a few days in Warsaw, visiting with family. I managed to find a little time to aimlessly wonder around that city that I was born in, and moved out of at the age of ten. In between the familiar buildings, tourist traps, museums, unique stores, amazing bakeries, and decent restaurants, I found cars. Those cars are unlike anything we see in the United States and not much different than the “living and dying in Poland” series I’ve been running here for years. Enjoy.
In my father’s Old Ursynow neighborhood was this dying 420SEC. One of the best looking MB cars ever was not sold in the US with that engine. I asked about the owner and my father said “who knows, maybe he died? Maybe he bought a Toyota? Maybe he’s in jail?”
I love E46 BMWs, I’ve owned two. I hate this one; not the hatchback, the headlights.
Late model Zuk is being used a vegetable stand.
I later learned that Chrysler manufactured those in Europe, too.
Left to die. In this part of this city you can park almost anywhere and unlike in most U.S. cities, there are no regulations for the amount of time a vehicle is parked, or if it has license plates.
These camping trailers were quite popular in Poland, and exported widely, too. They were designed such that they could be pulled by tiny Fiat 126p. I think James May used one in an episode of Top Gear where he transformed it into a hot air balloon.
What a beast. It’s mesmerizing actually, I couldn’t look away.
Proper.
You can request tours of Warsaw in this 80s/90s FSO 125. In the 80s there were two kinds of cabs in Warsaw; privately owned once which you’d hail, or state owned ones which you could request by phone, if you had a home phone, which many people did not. This one is themed to look like a taxi from popular Polish TV show.
Ugly, IMO.
French. Not sure if ugly or not.
No one in U.S. would buy the new Ford Ranger. NO. ONE.
No one in U.S. would buy a VW pickup. NO. ONE.
Interesting.
View down from Warsaw’s Old City of the below road that goes into a tunnel under the Old City. When I was a kid I would stand in this very place and I would watch traffic go by for what seemed like hours. I did the same thing in October.
Ford Transit. Why didn’t American Ford sell this in U.S. decades ago is beyond me, it would have fitted nicely under the Econoline.
Old Polish Autosan bus still in service. I took the pic from a trolley.
Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do when come for you in a Peugeot? Laugh?
Sweet Cruiser.
I was very disappointed that this restaurant was closed.
For Bradley.
Daf!
Wagon. RS4. Drool. Not digging the look, but still…
Wagon. Manual. Alfa.
Wagon. RWD. AMG.
I was buying some flowers when I turned around and saw this. Old lady selling me the flowers asked why am I taking pics of this heep. So I explained to her how I remember these from my childhood, how I live in the U.S. and how interesting it is to me. Then she charged me double price for the flowers. Ugh.
V.I.S.I.T. – Random Cars of Warsaw
About
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-The Ranger and Amarok wouldn’t sell well in the US, not when you can
get a full-size, V8 powered pickup for less than 20 grands with
discounts and what not.
-The
white Polonez pickup reminds me of an identical one i see from time to
time; they were sold here during the 90s-early 00s as the (i kid you not) Daewoo-FSO Truck and powered by a n/a Peugeot diesel.
-That Alfa is one of only 1174 manual-equipped 156 GTA Sportwagons (out of a total production run of 4651 GTAs); the sedan was more popular, and in both cases, very few opted for the crappy automatic. And the engine looks great too, BTW.-
Only driven a Selespeed equipped Alfa once, and it jumped into neutral every time the traction control noticed even a hint of wheelspin. Not exactly ideal on a track. It was a stripped and caged 147 2.0 Twinspark, and I couldn’t even complete a single lap in that car.
Absolutely love the “competizione” autobox in the Abarth 500, though. Which is sort of the same thing. I seem to be in the very tiny minority that prefer automated manuals to DCTs. I thinks american Abarths get a boring traditional automatic. -
How to know the GTA is a manual from the exterior photo?
Thanks to Kamil too for the great work: never off duty!-
He wrote “Wagon. Manual. Alfa.”
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That’s what Ford wants you to believe and it’s bullshit. In U.S., even the slowest selling pickup trucks sell well, for instance Honda sold more Ridgelines each year than all vehicles Mitsu and JLR sold combined. GM has the new Canyon/Colorado, Toyota is coming back with a new Tacoma. They will sell each and every one. They will sell then for $25-$35k, whereas a new full-size pickup sells for $35k-$50k.
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Ford Transit was not on sale in U.S. because it was more expensive than Econoline.
(Notwithstanding Ford Transit was one of the best vans/panel trucks ever made).-
If they brought the tooling to North America they could have made it here cheaper.
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The pre-facelift Ssangyong Actyon Sport looks rather intriguing with its shark nose and a camper shell that pronounces its slippery snail shape. It’s an extremely odd car.
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The Alfa wagon is nice. I originate from the land of the Yugo and they used Zastava police cars so they were even slower than that Peugot
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