(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Augusta Press.)
Over the past two decades, China has become one of the world’s largest auto manufacturers, and the cars are known for reliability; however, the history of Communist built cars is feeble at best.
During the Cold War, America and the Soviet Union had the space race and the arms race, but there was never a race for supremacy in the auto world.
There are several reasons for this. In the boom of the 1950s, America built a vast highway system while the Soviets were still repairing infrastructure destroyed in World War II. The Soviets had roads that were even a challenge for 4-wheel drive trucks.
In Russian cities, the public transportation system was adequate to ferry workers across town.
However, the biggest factor was the governmental set up of the Soviet Union. Communism calls for the nationalization of industry, there was no private ownership in those days.
Communist party leaders awarded supporters high level positions in industry, even if the person was in no way qualified for the job. Workers, on the other hand, were forced into the peon positions that paid a salary too low for many to afford indoor plumbing, much less an automobile.
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Even with cash in hand, the average person could not walk into a dealership and buy a car. There were no dealerships.
To buy a car, one needed permission from the government and that included a lengthy application process that took years to wind its way through the Soviet bureaucracy. U.S. President Ronald Reagan liked to make jokes about Soviet citizens waiting a decade to be allowed to purchase a car, but in many cases, it wasn’t a joke.
The Soviet Union spent billions of Rubles on the arms and space industry but very little on car manufacturing. The leadership also felt there was only a need for a basic car to get from point A to point B, so only the highest of government officials had anything that resembled a luxury vehicle at their disposal.
Engineers also cut corners wherever they could, meaning you might wait five years to be allowed to purchase a car only to have it rust out two years later.
Some cars, such as the VAZ-2102, had the gas tank located in the trunk and the fumes made driving in them extremely unpleasant, not to mention dangerous.
When there was a steel shortage in East Germany, the Trabant Company had to resort to making car bodies out of Duroplast, a plastic -like material made from recycled cotton and paper, according to Hot cars.com
Those Trabant bodies were fine until rained on, then they tended to melt away.
Needless to say, the Soviet Union never exported many vehicles. Only one manufacturer, Yugo out of Yugoslavia, managed to make it into the American market.
The Yugo was sold at around $4,000, making it the cheapest car on the market, and buyers were made instantly aware they had wasted 4k because the cars were not just bad, they were terrible.
Door handles broke off, the wipers could only handle a misty rain and the spare tire was in the engine bay which once the engine got hot, the tire could melt.
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Speaking of the engine, the little 1.1 liter powerplant made a measly 55 horsepower meaning most people could outrun the little car. The steering was so poor, the car tended to weave and the largely plastic car was so light a strong wind could blow it over, literally.
According to the Detroit Free Press, in 1989 a woman was killed when a gust of wind blew the Yugo she was driving off the Mackinac Bridge and into the waters of the Mackinac Straits.
So, Communists have not been making very good cars until now. As stated earlier, China has emerged as a major auto exporter and they have American engineers to thank.
Allegedly, China decided not to go the route of design and development, which takes years, and instead they just stole and copied American technology. The story goes that the Chinese purchased fleets of Buicks, Chevrolets and Fords, brought them to China and reverse engineered them by stripping the cars down to the chassis and noting every detail.
The Chinese cars look like rebadged Buicks and Chevrolets because that is what they are. Likely, China will not be introducing their cars to America anytime soon due to the likelihood of a flood of patent lawsuits that would head their way.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
