When the Swedish carmaker decided to build a stretched version of its popular 200 Series model, it – probably – didn't expect that almost all of them would end behind the Iron Curtain.
Contemporary emerging Europe is a hub of car manufacturing, although with the exception of Škoda in Czechia and Dacia in Romania, the overwhelming majority of vehicles produced in the region are adorned with the badges of foreign brands.
The concept of a national car seems largely to have been forgotten, although Poland’s current attempt to get back into the game with its all-electric Izera model bucks the trend.
In the not so distant past, however, things were very different. Most countries in the region wanted to produce affordable vehicles themselves, giving rise to some iconic models which are today fondly remembered, their unreliability largely forgotten.
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