I grew up in former Yugoslavia, and we had all of the above including some of our own production cars (Yugo and Zastava). Common denominator for summer afternoons: most of parking lots would have at least few mid age man trying to repair their own car, while seniors would play chess on the bench in the local park and making fun of those desperate self-taught “mechanists” between few matches. Then Bosnia started producing Golf (WW) in late 70’s and slowly those horrible cars were replaced with more reliable machines.

Kids would make fun of anyone whose parents owned some of those east European cars. My dad owned Skoda 120ls, and it sucked big time. Rear engine, no reliable cooling system...forget about roads approaching hills and mountains...it would overheat within minutes. Refilling of water cooling system was mandatory during long trips. In one hand, it was annoying for my dad, but for me it was little adventure each time we stop in the middle of the mountain on the way to the sea coast.