Here We Go Again
Aaaand, welcome again.
I’m actually quite sad that not many people are posting nuggs. Maybe it’s no longer possible in the US or in Europe.
Luckily, for this hungry audience, I’m from THE THIRD WORLD !
So, I came back with something. Unfortunately, the First Car in this Post has been already sold. May that 2024 Fiat 1 be happy with it’s new owner. Well, it might have also gone to the Scrapyard.
BUUUUUUUT, as always, when something ends, another thing begins, and that’s exactly what happened when I looked today at the same Website: MercadoLibre, where I found THIS masterpiece.
It’s an Oltcit Club ! The Romanian Version of the Citroen Axel ! I haven’t seen one of these since at least 2 years ago, when I last saw one in pretty bad nick. Aaaaaaaand this one doesn’t seem in too good of a nick either. To be fair, Oltcit was never a popular brand here in Colombia… mainly because without advertising of almost any sort, how was it going to catch on in the first place ?
Well, it has a special place in my heart at least.
I can say, it hasn’t moved from that garage in quite a while, and has been stuck there for that amount of time. How long ? I don’t know. But what I do know, the restoration process of this thing is going to be a legal and literal nightmare. Because, for some very awkward reason, Import Cars (and Parts) aren’t allowed into the country unless new, very old (“Classic”), or used by the diplomats. Great Job, Colombia. Shattering even more people’s dreams (hey, I mustn’t be the only weirdo in the country who likes this sorta stuff, right ?)…
However, when I researched deeper, I found this picture, and two others, which, you may now understand why I didn’t share a link to the website this time, because they have personal information about the car’s owner (names).
I wish these things (or actually, any other of the Eastern European Cars) would’ve been popular here. If the retail price of these was so low, people would’ve literally mobbed the dealers. However, as always, commerce constrains, lack of publicity, and a lack of general interest meant these things are as rare and desolate as they are.
Hopefully this car finds a new owner, and with it a new life. Hopefully not as Scrap Metal.
As for inconsistencies, well, there’s only one. There it says it’s a 1.4l, but, this is a 11E model, with a 1.1l engine. Maybe the owner swapped it or something ? After all, it’s way easier to source engines which were locally made, say, engines from Renault 9s, Chevrolet Sprints, and Mazda 323s.
Oltcit was the “primary” brand of this project, although the project was entirely Citroen’s IIRC. Basically, Citroen had an unnecessary, delayed small car project (from before the takeover by Peugeot), which they sold to Romania, but they decided that they want to sell some of the resulting cars themselves too.