Word: zhiguli
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...line last week at the great Fiat-built plant in Togliatti on the Volga. Thus the Soviet Union passed an important milepost on its slow and bumpy journey into the automotive age. The new auto, a four-passenger sedan, is based on the Fiat-124. Its Russian name is Zhiguli, after the rolling hills across the Volga from Togliatti, the city whose name was changed from Stavropol in honor of the late Italian Communist leader...
Since the 124 has already been in production for four years in Italy, the auto would hardly cause a ripple in the West. But in Russia, where there exist only about two million passenger cars, most of which are poorly finished and unimaginative, the Zhiguli is creating a sensation. In Moscow alone, there are 42,000 people on the waiting list for new and used cars of various makes. No new orders are being accepted. The Zhiguli will cost 5,500 rubles ($6,105), which is the equivalent of five years' wages of the average Russian worker...
Midi to Padded Jacket. In its reincarnation as the Zhiguli, the 124 has undergone considerable modification. Among other things, it has been given a sturdier suspension system to survive Russia's potholed roads, and a number of other features, such as a battery that loses little power at 58° F. below zero and warmed door handles, to cope with the bitter cold Russian winters. As an Italian journalist in Moscow put it: "A sexy Italian maiden in a midiskirt and high heels has been sent off into the Russian taiga with boots and padded jacket for a hard...
Actually, it is just as well that the Zhiguli is not coming off the line in greater numbers, for Russia is still woefully unprepared for the impact of the auto. Soviet authorities frankly express their apprehensions. "By 1980, we will be struck by transport paralysis," says A. Zhukovsky, the chief of the Leningrad Transport Department. "Leningrad will have over a half million cars, while road construction is already twelve years behind present needs." Yevgeny Trubitsyn, Minister for Highway Construction of the Russian Republic, summed up: "We are just plain short of roads...
...auto-hungry that they will pay twice the list price to those who win new cars in the state-run lottery. A cartoon in the Soviet humor magazine Krokodil shows a swaddled infant in a carriage, howling, "I want a car!" at the sight of the new Zhiguli. Even when the Togliatti plant reaches full production, it is scarcely likely to meet the demand. According to one estimate, even if Russia should succeed in producing 7,000,000 cars a year, it would still take 18 years to provide one car for every one of the Soviet Union...