I believe the Marina (always badged as Morris in the UK) was an attempt by British Leyland to out-Ford Ford. They weren't making money on the relatively sophisticated but difficult-to-make front-wheel drive cars like the Mini and 1100/1300, so they produced a simple rear-wheel drive car that would make them some money. It had certainly similarities to the old small commercial J4 van. At least it had the same A-Series engine, live rear axle with cart springs and awful lever-arm dampers as the top link of the front suspension.

As a rust factory it wasn't quite as efficient as the Alfa-Sud but not far behind. I understand it didn't stand up to the rigours of the north America winter. Well, it didn't stand up to mild winters in the UK very well either.

Do you remember the Moskvich?

To get things back on track, here's some tripe that I browned over lunch:



Tom

Aha, that explains the Trabant then.

No, Trabants were plastic.

Tom

I'll take your tripe and up it with chippy dinner: chips, mushy peas, curry sauce and a smack. I'd scoffed most of it when I read your post. I was trying to be good, but the builders all went to the chippy for dinner and I was hypnotised by the aroma, M'Lord!

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Who smacked you?

Or did you shoot up?

Tom

I thought they were cardboard.

You're thinking of the Marcos. That was plywood with some plastic on top of that or the Reliant Sabre which was also plastic, with (mostly) plywood floors, as opposed to the Elan, which was plastic with Al floors.

But of these three things, the Marcos was the closest to looking like it was made out of cardboard... handled and crashed like it too.

That was made out of shoes.

No, only the styling was taken from shoes. Particularly the Luton Gullwing. The Mini Marcos was a bit like a kid's shoe, but fast.

Or cardboard? Someone who had one told me that it wasn't a joke as I initially thought, it was for real.

But my point was that the DDR thought they figured out how to fix the rust problem.
And they were kind of cute.

“The Trabant is the best Car in the World. Victory to the DDR”
~ East German Ministry of Propaganda on The Trabant

It was a phenolic resin with a natural fiber, wikipedia says Cotton, but I think I remember reading that they also used linen stalk at some point. Google "Duroplast".

Linen chaff is used today by many European mfrs to make parts like interior door panels, dashes and other large bits of trim.

The Trabant did actually solve the rust problem, for the non metal bits. By the end the exhausts were made (new) out of such thin and crappy steel that you could actually argue that there wasn't any metal in them either.

Totally. And Wartburgs.

They might have solved the rust problem but not the rat problem. Trabis got notoriously chewed up by rats.

Well they weren't expected to care about people dying anyway.

My uncle had a red Skoda (100?120? I don't remember the model) he was very fond of; He sold it at the end of the '90s but only because he couldn't keep it the garage anymore. Nostalgia.

Oh, and I remember the VW "frogs", Fiat 600 and 850 - (some of them were produced in Poland?, not sure though) there were many of them.

hehe, I was asking myself the same thing

No, I was thinking about the Trabant but as you pointed out it was Duroplast and as Wikipedia says: "The use of a fibrous reinforcing material was partially responsible for the misconception that it was made of cardboard."

But you remind me that there was a lovely example of a Marcos at the Morges show this year. It must be a regular visitor as it's in this selection of photos from last year. It's red and third from the bottom of the page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel...06637309/page2

Hey guys.. me again! Relieving myself here isn't it what internet is for, besides posting unpalatable food pics?

Going back to the original topic: It's not so shocking that immigrants/expats/whatever term you'd want to use, find it hard to cope with a new country. That happens everywhere and is typically short lived state of frustration/depression lasting a few months. Particularly in winter months, the OP may be forgiven for venting it out a bit. Dejected mood, anti-societal thoughts, "Food tasting like plastic" are clinical symptoms for depression - beware and be kind!

That said - what's shocking though is how the expat community here finds it imperative to put on a show of best behavior, and won't publicly admit to anything said against their new homeland Brief study of other forums like inter-nations in other countries, however, shows a different picture. People are quick to (or find it comfortable enough to openly) bash other places like Denmark, Croatia, Berlin, Delhi, Thailand, but for some reason, keep their mouth shut when it's Switzerland. Netherlands is in stark contrast here. The Dutch have actually rewarded an entertaining criticism on their own nation. I wonder if the author will have any success here in CH - even though he's sure to find plenty of material here to comment on. Very likely, he'd even be banned the entry.

Regardless of whether the things observed/posted by OP are true or not, they're simply his/her experiences (s)he had here. For such a terrible life experience, fault could be on both sides. We don't know. I'm just wondering why people are so quick and confident in taking sides?

You forgot about UK-bashing. I feel left out...