End of Communist Dream Car Production

Published: 26 September 2000 y., Tuesday
The last model of Poland's most popular car, the boxy subcompact Fiat 126, rolled off the assembly line on Friday nearly 30 years after the first one was produced, the Polish unit of Italy's Fiat said. The tiny two-door car, affectionately called maluch, or "the little one," by Poles, was during communist times a dream for most families. Now, its bargain price of only ZL 12,000 (USD 2,647) and low maintenance costs attract mainly young buyers. Poland's pre-1989 communist government ordered the production of the car in 1973 after receiving a license from Fiat. Twenty years later the Italian firm bought the nearly bankrupt Bielsko-Biala factory for a symbolic one zloty. Fiat produced more than 3.3 million maluchs, but decided to end production after the auto group's newer designs, especially the subcompact Seicento, started to outsell the 126.
Šaltinis: centraleurope.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.

Facebook Comments

New comment


Captcha

Associated articles

The most popular articles

Paris fashion week ignores economic pinch

European cities may still be feeling the pinch of the global recession. more »

EBRD supports private ownership in Kazakhstan’s oil and gas sector

The EBRD Board of Directors has approved a $50 million convertible loan to Petrolinvest to finance the completion of exploration works at the company’s main oilfields. more »

Car safety: European Commission welcomes international agreement on electric and hybrid cars

The European Commission welcomes the adoption today at the United Nations in Geneva of the first international regulation on safety of both fully electric and hybrid cars. more »

Lithuania’s rating outlook raised by fitch on budget

Bloomberg has today announced that Lithuania had the outlook on its credit rating raised by Fitch Ratings after the Government implemented an austerity program to curb the budget deficit. more »

Eurostat: Lithuania shows highest increase in retail trade

In January 2010, compared with December 2009, the highest increase in retail trade in the EU-27 Member States was observed in Lithuania. more »

Globalisation fund: Parliament backs aid to Germany and Lithuania

Three thousand former car, refrigerator and construction workers in Germany and Lithuania will get €7.6 million in EU globalisation adjustment fund aid for training, self-employment and job guidance after Parliament gave the green light on Tuesday. more »

Tourism: upbeat prospects for 2010 season

Some 80% of Europeans continue to travel for their holidays according to a new Eurobarometer survey on ‘The attitudes of Europeans towards tourism 2010’. more »

Consumer protection under discussion by MEPS

The EU's internal market will be under scrutiny Tuesday when a series of reports will be debated by MEPs in Strasbourg. more »

EU to provide 45,000 micro-loans to unemployed and small entrepreneurs

EU Employment and Social Affairs Ministers today agreed on a new facility to provide loans to people who have lost their jobs and want to start or further develop their own small business. more »

MEPs set to vote on help for German & Lithuanian workers

Over €7.6 million in financial aid for training and self-employment could be available to former workers in German and Lithuanian if MEPs back the measures Tuesday. more »