Рыночное разнообразие: отличите одну марку от другой! Советские автомобили пятидесятых

[onb2017]

Иллюстрация рыночного разнообразия- в довесок к недавней статье.

Напомню, что в той статье я поздравила потребителей с разнообразием товаров, втюханых им посредством рекламы. А вот о том, какое оно, это разнообразие, нам расскажут ветераны жития-бытия при щедром рынке- граждане развитых капиталистических стран. Например, вот этот бро собрал

Comments

[matrixmann]

As far as I can see about Soviet car and load trucks industry, they didn't have any of this mumbo jumbo of today like a "yearly model of the vehicle"; if there was really a new one with a new type number, then it always had some significant change. Like - 4 seats instead of 2, different engine, corrected common problems of the car, new features, or like the change from the basic wood frame body construction to the - still common - full metal one.

If regarding the outside design of the cars, at least for the 50s and 60s, I must say, during that time episode Eastern and Western block didn't differ that much in their ways how they designed their vehicles. Curves and round objects were common on both sides during those decades.
Deem it the "overall taste of the time", or something that has to do with "a development path needing to unfold". - In that point, neither one of the blocks was really that much ahead of the other one. It was an expanding industry overall at the time.

In the West, the vehicle design, from ca. the 70s on, slowly changed towards a more angular form. That lasted until... about the middle of the 90s.
Affected all kinds of brands, but, what you have to admit about it is that each big car brand had some sort of its little own version of that basic design. Like one started it and all the others followed because "oh, this sells good, so let's jump on that train too!".
And, admittedly, the engines still had their differences under the hood.
Like, as a well-reputated example, Toyota Corolla cars from the 80s and up until the middle to end of the 90s were pretty reliable cars with few knick-knack (if they weren't totally ridden down) - later, the traders who shipped cars to Africa were totally eager for these because of those features. Somehow they sort of suited the demands down in Africa pretty well...
And - but that might be a feature of all cars from former times up until about the 90s -, they were build in a way that you could repair a lot by yourself and didn't need a car service station. Even these Western ones. (Cars from socialist production were solely designed like this, if they had nothing severe.)

(I don't own a car, but I know that far from catching things from documentaries, some bits of industrial design history that appeared shortly in art class at school and through infor that people who are fans of old vehicles post next to their photos of them. - And from the old man, what kind of cars my birth kin had throughout the years. - It started with a red Lada (because he disliked that Trabant only had two doors and you needed to crawl in if wanting to sit on the back seat), then it went on with a couple of Toyota Corolla models (some of them more car corpses than something living; well, the kind of stuff that flooded the car market after the West German annexion - common phenomenon back then!), when Toyota became too expensive and unreliable in comparison to former times, it turned to Honda - which turned out, at least, to be similarly relatively reliable engine. Now it's what he got stuck with for as long as it remains affordable and maintains its quality.)

(Btw, as going through a bit of paper stuff when the old lady died, I found an old operation manual for one of the former Toyota car models the kin once had. I kept it for nostalgia reasons and because I think, if well-maintained, it's a very presentable car. Somehow I like the shark jaws that BMW (?) coined...)

[onb2017]

Yeah, I think it is a matter of functionality vs new models for the hype of buying a new car. That's why older models are so sought after sometimes, they are possibly lacking only some comfort features but way superior in everything else to the cookie-cutters that are produced nowadays.

[matrixmann]

Indeed they're something you can get creative with because you can repair them yourself if you have the replacement parts or contacts into the respective car scene to get them. Additionally, sometimes you can put in some features on your own, if you have the skills.
That's not really possible with the current car models anymore. (Mind you, remember the international scandal about VW's cheating software? This kind of stuff also doesn't sleep in the old cars. If they're mud-slingers, they don't lie about it.)

[onb2017]

Thank you for reminding me I vaguely remember this scandal...well, agree, the new designs are pretty much impossible to modify on your own. The same as with the phone batteries. I remember some guy was sued by Apple if I am not mistaken, for repairing the batteries instead of chucking them in the landfills. And they are kind of impossible to replace because if a consumer tries to replace it on their own they risk screwing up the entire device.

[matrixmann]

Some cars come with some very questionable modifications... Like - some don't even have a spare wheel by default (perhaps if you pay extra?), or even the bulbs of the front headlights are build in a way that no amateur could ever reach them, you've got to remove some part of the car in other to reach it (which, of course, service stations can do, but not you on your own). At least that's something I heard that more current cars can be designed like.

Regarding the batteries - as far as I know, supposedly all batteries in smartphones are firmly soldered into the electric circle/onto the board. So that's why you can't just take them out anymore and replace them, in case they're broken oder worn out.
(I can't completely lay down proof of that as, until now, I don't have one of theee Stasi telephones myself. - As far as I know it from the practice, all phones which are designed and build like just classic base mobile telephones, they still got a removable battery. Even if they've been produced in the recent years.)