Car Ownership And The Mystery Of A Soviet-Era Garage

Car garages in the USSR. Car ownership in the Soviet Union. How expensive were Soviet cars?
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[@UshankaShow]

My Soviet cars playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLNq3y0OU1_BaHuNpVgwUbY-BKHZyqLc77 Hello, friends! My name is Sergei. I was born in the USSR in 1971. Since 1999 I have lived in the USA. Ushanka Show channel was created to share stories as well as my own memories of everyday life in the USSR. My books about arriving in America are available on www.sputnikoff.com/shop (Russian or English versions) or Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B08DJ7RNTC Please contact me at [e-mail] if you would like to purchase a signed copy of “American Diaries” Fan Mail: Ushanka Show P.O. Box 96 Berrien Springs MI 49103, USA You can support this project with tips by clicking a "heart" under this video, or: Via Patreon here: www.patreon.com/sputnikoff Viia PAYPAL: paypal.me/ushankashow Ushanka Show merchandise: teespring.com/stores/ushanka-show-shop If you are curious to try some of the Soviet-era candy and other foodstuffs, please use the link below. www.russiantable.com/imported-russian-chocolate-mishka-kosolapy__146-14.html?tracking=5a6933a9095f9 My FB: facebook.com/sergey.sputnikoff Twitter: twitter.com/ushankashow Instagram: instagram.com/ushanka_show/ Reddit: www.reddit.com/user/Sputnikoff

[@TheRealBamboonga]

Just curious - if you get on the 'waitlist' to purchase a car in, say, 1980, and wait the 10 year waitlist until 1990, do you pay what the car cost in 1980 or today (1990)?

[@UshankaShow]

I believe it would be the current price. Fan fact: I read many stories about people not getting a model that they ordered. But they were so desperate, they bought that car anyway

[@TheRealBamboonga]

@@UshankaShow So by the time your name comes up, you might not have enough money anymore...jeez. Interesting to know that 'bait and switch' existed over there too lol.

[@UshankaShow]

@@TheRealBamboonga Chances not to have enough money were pretty slim. People had plenty of years to save up or at least borrow from relatives or friends

[@Donaldperson7]

Maybe do a video on Soviet Pets? I see bears, tigers, pumas, cats, dogs etc.?

[@Exquisitec0rpsy]

I think all of your videos are high quality, and to be able to upload so many is a great skill and gift, thanks for providing a window into your life Comrade John Wayne Cheeseburger!

[@UshankaShow]

Glad you like them!

[@StagnantExistance]

For some people back in the day, the process of fixing the car was more important than the actual driving.

[@gate7clamp]

My ex was surprised that I wanted to see those metal garages near her apartment when I was in Kyiv, she wanted to go shopping and I wanted to look for lada she think I was a complete Cold War nerd

[@bodyloverz30]

Even a Rolls Royce in the early 80's, was less than $100k.

[@Thrakus]

I found online that some are making mini homes out of them like in the USA mini house movement, did anyone do this back then?

[@UshankaShow]

Some people built living quarters above the brick-style garages.

[@johnnyzippo7109]

Mr. Ushanka , I have been enjoying your content for about 2 years or more . My core area of study and specialty during college was these very topics , I find your content very refreshing and informative , as well as entertaining . Thank you for putting yourself out there, that combined with your genuine honesty , we’ll just phenomenal , keep up the great work. Had I been able to access this type of perspective during my student career , wow , I really would have knocked some professor's socks off.

[@markvickroy6725]

Mr. Sputnikoff 😂

[@americansupervillain4595]

During the 70's and 80's there were a lot of great cars to be had new for less than$10,000. We had two cars one was a 1982 Chevy Malibu Classic Station Wagon, new it sold for $8300. Cold AC, cassette deck with Dolby NR with a small block V8. Lots of room, real nice cloth seats. The second car was a 1977 Volvo, I do not remember much about that car, what I do remember is how nice the interior was, real comfortable seats front and back. We had the Volvo for such a long time, my dad did not want to get rid of it, I think it was because it had and 8track tape deck.

[@lukdhguirg7121]

Did you needed an insurance for this cars? In ussr there was no insurance.

[@gertvanderhorst2890]

@@lukdhguirg7121 I think insurance was in the gasprice, in Hungary that was the practice. One insurance 'company', off course state-owned.

[@26betsam]

Sergei, excellent content. I find it interesting as it fills in a lot of the the back ground I wish I had earlier in my career. In 1976 I'm a newly commissioned 2nd Lieuentant in the USAF. My "2nd Lieuentant car" is a 1976 Pontiac Tras Am. I recall the cost new was around $6000. Contrast that to what a 2nd Lieuentant in the USSR could have bought. By 1978 in a co-pilot on a B-52 pulling nuclear alert. Target somewhere in the USSR. At the time the USSR looked 10 foot tall. After viewing your series I see now they were a poor country with good hearted people ruled by a paranoid, oppressive government.

[@justdustino1371]

In 1988, the union shipyard workers were probably making about $10 per hour here, and I think the list price on a base model Ford Ranger, manual transmission and 4 cylinder engine, was about $6995. That was a VERY Popular light truck in the 1980s and 1990s here in the US. It is very difficult comparing Soviet and American buying power in the 1980s, but I think a shipyard workers could've bought 2 Ranger trucks with his salary for a year. Maybe with some money left over....

[@jamallabarge2665]

The Soviet bureaucracy consumed a lot of value... a lot duplication of resources and micromanaging that stifled efficiency.

[@michaelmckenna6464]

There is more to “wealth” than just looking at the actual take home pay (after taxes). One automotive factory was paying its workers half of what the average worker was making so the unions stepped in and were quickly told where to go by the workers. Those underpaid workers had free day-care, dental and medical care at the factory. When an employee wanted to buy a house, the factory would pay part of the mortgage costs. So in the long run, those underpaid employees had a far better deal than those other workers who had to pay everything out of their pockets, including union dues.

[@gary6576]

@@jamallabarge2665 that is why projects like OGAS are so tragic. They could have really optimized the command economy and have taken it to the next level

[@jamallabarge2665]

@@gary6576 "They could have really optimized the command economy" Optimized with respect to what? When full employment is your goal how can you reduce head count? Reassign people? Yes, that is one way of doing it. Training is expensive and some people don't want to relearn their old comfortable ways. The Party could demand volunteers for new venues of work in order to accommodate head count reductions. Did they do this? Did they recruit for new occupations? I do not know but they should have done so. Schools for reassignment, complete with stipends and incentives, should have been part of the system. To allow for changes in head count. The alleged mission of the Party was to steward the Proletariat and its interests. To grow Society towards an ideal of perfection called Communism. Their real goal was to retain the power of the Party. GOSPLAN, the KGB/MVD and everything else was intended to keep the party in power. They did this because of the perception that they had enemies AND because the Party gave itself special privileges. They were always looking for enemies, even to the point of creating them out of thin air. Stalin created "centers" and conspiracies. I became an enemy of all Parties because of my Class Origins. I was doomed no matter what, and I am still a worker. I am paid an hourly wage. I ought to be the kind of person a Party would want. I think, I can lead and I can follow. I know how to work. However I am blemished by my Class Origins. I am not that rare, and by its own ideology, the party created an enemy of me. The Party put its member first. They had to incentivize membership. They went too far. The Party gave itself special breaks on schools for their kids, hard currency stores, special resorts and privileges for even the most junior members. To be in the Party was to serve the proletariat, not itself. Marx would have said that their efforts contained the seeds of their own failure. I think that the Party and GOSPLAN proved von Hayek's idea of the Limits of Knowledge. When a country starts a committee to "solve the problem of nylon stockings" we're seeing a big big problem. Nylon stockings require a committee? Buy some machines from the west, reverse engineer them. Plan for a demand, sell the excess to "allied nations". The USSR had abundant oil, feedstocks for nylon. Make too many stockings? Donate them. When a nation has to create a committee to handle stockings, to allow women to reveal their legs while concealing blemishes, you have a problem. We are seeing similar problems in the West, with centralized planning of the money supply, medical services and so on. Pretense of knowledge.....

[@jamallabarge2665]

@@michaelmckenna6464 "Those underpaid workers had free day-care, dental and medical care at the factory." They were not free... they were not paying an individual fee for a service. We hear this song and dance about government paid medical services. Nothing is free.... taxes or paying a bill. "So in the long run, those underpaid employees had a far better deal " Sure looks that way on the surface. Was it, was it really? There was a movement in the early days of industrial capitalism called "Paternalism". The owner of the factory would pay for everything. This did not lost very long. Workers compared their work to what they got, and did not like how the Factory Owner rigged things. In the US we had something called "The Truck System". You were paid in company scrip. You could only spend that scrip in the Company Store. You rented a company owned house. Out of it you paid for your lodgings, food and even your equipment for work. Miners would buy drills and blasting powder out of their own wages. Reached the ridiculous point that "Coal and Iron Police" would raid homes of workers (the company owned the houses) to ensure that everything was bought at the Company Store. Some people were making beer and whiskey on their free time, selling it to 'outsiders'. The C&I police would confiscate their "ill gotten gains". If you annoyed the Company, they sent the C&I to put you on the street. Go find a job somewhere else. The Truck System was outlawed in the US in 1965. No more company store. This is not so new.....

[@DRAINTVofficial]

I binge watch alot of your videos it's quite fascinating. My parents grow up in in soviet Czechoslovakia. All my family was working class. It's interesting to see the differences between Ukraine and czechoslovakia during soviet Union

[@felixtheswiss]

When my Dad from Switzerland visited his Penpal in Prague with his SAAB96 they got it in the Ambulance Garage of the Hospital where his friend worked as a Doctor. Mainly because SAAB96 just won a Rally and was on the front page of a motoring magazine in Czechoslovakia.

[@kobra6660]

I would've liked to own a GAZ nice looking and intimidating vehicle

[@PNL-DJ-1]

Your videos are fine. Short ones, longer ones, they are all great. Keep them up!

[@UshankaShow]

Thanks, will do!

[@FiveStringCommando]

One of my favorite parts to your videos is the “Comment of Shame” in the beginning. Content is amazing, but this is the cherry on the top. 🤣🤣🤣

[@UshankaShow]

I appreciate that!

[@RogerThat787]

AS DO WE. SUCH AN UNDERATED CHANNEL ON THE CRAZY KZbin.

[@faithlessberserker5921]

Hey sergey i have an idea for you in case you want to take a break from your regular style videos. There is a game called crisis in the kremlin that is about trying to keep the Soviet Union alive for as long as possible starting in the 1980s. Even if you are not a gamer you might appriciate it. The game is mostly text based and doesn’t require you to be good at video games. You can play it in Russian or English. It’s a very fun and informative game where you have to balance the political and social things going on in the Soviet Union. Would be fun to see your review of it. I would be happy to buy it for you.

[@tomdave42]

I love to see that you put your critics up front and on spot, I love this KZbin channel I also live in Michigan And I've always enjoy learning about the USSR and the experience of living there

[@UshankaShow]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@markhall6306]

In America, they have barn finds, when farmers store old cars in their barns

[@peterzerfass4609]

On an exchange in the 90s to St. Petersburg I was wondering why all the parked cars didn't have window wipers. Our exchange peers told us that people put them in the trunk to prevent theft and only mount them when it's raining.

[@UshankaShow]

Correct! Except, wipers were usually stored in the glove compartment, not trunk.

[@joshdenton611]

awesome video man! i was wondering what all of those metal sheds were.

[@UshankaShow]

Glad I could help!

[@sergiom9958]

So basically, these poor people had to work and save expontially harder and longer to get a fraction of the goods and life style that at the other side of the wall...

[@MrDOUG575]

Exactly.

[@clavichord]

Actually, if you were poor in 1970s Soviet Union, you starved homeless. If you were poor in 1970s America, you starved homeless...

[@wilfamos7314]

Another awesom video. Who knew this stuff? Thanks for posting. Really enjoying your content 🙂

[@nated9075]

This is my favorite channel. They’re all so interesting.

[@thomasbeerman5500]

I am in Pittsburgh USA and there is some of those metal garages in our town but not at those prices,my 1st car was a 57 cadillac for $250 in 1969!

[@ashrudawski6031]

Very informative and funny. Even funnier cause cooperative garages still exist. Not a week ago I bought one in the back of the apartment block I live in, in Poland. I will have to look into how feasible is to add a cellar, seems like a very cool idea.

[@UshankaShow]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@UshankaShow]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/aWSnfKuJrpVgfMk

[@ashrudawski6031]

@@UshankaShow Thanks! Much appreciated 🙏

[@mantassapalas3810]

ah man its nostalgia for me when i with my friends walked through those garages, and found old cars, even around my neighborhood there is 9 OLD SOVIET CARS in lithuania. like there was 2 uaz 469, 1 uaz 452, one zaz 968m,vaz 2106 i guess gaz 51, gaz 21,old tractor,..

[@gate7clamp]

6:57 great idea I’ll put my equinox on the roof

[@herzogsbuick]

I live in Alaska, and for work some years ago I was driving a van between Anchorage and Seward, where the cruise ships come in to shuttle folks back and forth. I picked up a Chinese family, and the dad sat next to me up front. This is a 3 hour drive, he's an engineer, and I dabble, and we had a great conversation. He was probably about 10 years older than me, so, born sometime in the 70's. He grew up during the 80's and 90's as things opened up, but before there was much travel. I brought up how, me growing up north of Philly, me and my friends in highschool would just hop in a car and drive, you know, 1,000 miles to Florida or Chicago for kicks. It was expensive for us of course, but, we could do it. And I asked him if he did anything like that. During the 3 hour drive, this was the only time where he got quiet and forlorn. He looked out the windows of the van and...ya. He did not have that. He was taking his family (including grandma!) to Alaska now, but...man. That was rough. I did not mean to put him on the spot or ask him something painful. I was just curious, because I don't know. If owning a car in the USSR was that onerous, like, for fuck's sake. Ya. Just sharing that story.

[@jmi5969]

One rarely seen but quite common feature of Soviet garage were their underground "facilities". Often, these were merely crawl-in pits for servicing the transmission. Sometimes, there were concrete cellars for storing seasonal summer fruit, sometimes - proper basement rooms spanning the whole length and width of the garage. When my father "obtained" his, around 1980, we excavated a three-meter deep pit and made a steel caisson - around 2 meters wide, 3 meters long and 2 meters wide. Plus a meter-high entrance tube with two sealed manhole doors. Good for a fallout shelter. We had cut and drilled the sheet sheet and L-beams at out dacha, almost 100 kilometers from the city, then hauled it back to Moscow, assembled on site, welded and sealed the seams... all this for storing no more than a hundred kilos of apples. The beauty of planned economy: spend a truckload of material and a month of work ... to same a few dollars on food. Except that there weren't any dollars, and there wasn't much food on the store shelves.

[@13aceofspades13]

In 1969 A Corvette with a L-88 427 and a four speed rock crusher transmission cost a little over $4,000. That was a top of the line American sports car with a 560HP V8 and a racing transmission. a really nice car from the late 60s to early 70s could be purchased for less than $3,000 brand new... and a decent car could be obtained for around $2,000.

[@ctdope]

Btw, great videos. Interesting to see how things are over there. So glad to live here in USA. ❤❤❤❤

[@Thiswasmeanttobeeasy]

Have gone full circle now, my first Ushanka Show video was about the Invalidka.

[@zanizone3617]

Wasn't there a Soviet comedy movie about a meeting of the members of one such cooperative? I believe the plot was about a sudden reduction of the boxes available and the struggle on who was going to be thrown out.

[@UshankaShow]

Yes! kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqLWkmerZZV6jq8

[@zanizone3617]

@@UshankaShow thank you!

[@mahekorvenoges550]

There is also an Estonian movie made in 2015 showing many uses that people have found for these cooperative garages nowadays. Movie trailer: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZpLHZ4xjjculjKs&ab_channel=TheAllfilm

[@ardennielsen3761]

those garages look about the same as the shop space i use in Canada, i have rebuilt engines welded broke axle shafts even made wheel bearings including fixing large parts on 12'000 pound trucks... tools just piled up can hardly fit everything in their. "work day = looks like a fully scattered mess... but stuff gets done for really dirt cheep repair prices that hold up for a good long time"

[@vitoprashad5670]

I'm a car enthusiast from the mundane to the exotic so anything car related I enjoy Love the video

[@UshankaShow]

Thanks

[@patricksmodels]

That was very interesting!

[@xmanhoe]

Interesting concept 🤠

[@edward9674]

I'm so glad i subbed to this channel 1-2 years ago. Such a interesting channel.

[@rrenfrow5071]

keep up the good work. more videos the better ! love it when they are about simple stuff that russians would think is not a big deal, but I love seeing how they lived, shopped, and mowed their lawns!!!

[@thelovertunisia]

the ratio is similar to what we still have in Tunisia today. A VW Polo, a small car is worth 2 years of an Engineer salary!

[@dogwhistle8836]

Really enjoyed this story, very informative and interesting

[@UshankaShow]

Glad to hear it!

[@Alin-rl3nq]

in Romania we had Dacia 1100 made in collaboration with Renault after Renault 8 and Dacia 1310 made after Renault 12. in Romania we also had Oltcit which was made in collaboration with Citroen after the Citroen Axel, this was more for the young people the ARO was also manufactured in Romania, which was a 4x4 car that was one hundred percent Romanian

[@Heywoodthepeckerwood]

Great info. Great channel..

[@RogerThat787]

Criminally underrated channel

[@michaelgroob3760]

The garages in the Pripyat ATX2 yard have basements! I think the garages have been since welded shut because it is/was going to be a kind of museum.

[@silverman482]

I still miss Moscow Nights and the guy on the wagon.

[@denpobedy7881]

speak to me. I love gaz 21, moskevich 412, gaz 20 pobeda. wife still wants sky blue gaz 21 living in Volgograd currently. We met owner, cool dude.

[@vladanlausevic1733]

ZAZ (Zaparozhec) was made in Soviet Ukraine

[@paulj2948]

Very prestigious cars!

[@adinko7]

Fun fact: You had to take off your wipers from your car when you parked anywhere, and you had to carry them in your pocket and put them back on when you got back to the car, becouse they would get stolen.

[@stevematson4808]

Some factory repairmen make more than young factory engineers, and I'm delighted.😂

[@firefox5926]

9:02 honestly that just sounds like leaseing or renting lol

[@Mrgunsngear]

Thanks

[@mattheweburns]

That’s crazy, imagine today if you worked at a cash register or bagging groceries part time at the same rate, you would have something in Lamborghini territory

[@N0die]

I like that body style though, it would awesome if one could swap out the engine & maybe a few other parts 🙌🏽

[@jarikinnunen1718]

Just after Estonia got independence, they bought every lada`s, which they got hand on from Finland. It was really big business. Here almost hated cars disappeared in two months.😌

[@AlfaGiuliaQV]

Yep, i remember an old (in his 80´s) relative had his Samara parked outside their house in the Helsinki area and one morning 2 estonian men knocked on the door and offered good cash for the car. They made a deal in 10 minutes and the same day the samara was on it´s way to Tallinn haha. this was in 1992

[@wildbill9919]

I've seen some of these garage complexes on Google Maps satellite images.

[@joevespa3157]

I worked on cars for 35 years ASE certified mechanic and engineering degree I have worked on a Yugo before

[@Donaldperson7]

Partying in the garage!

[@garyfff4757]

Great vid,really enjoyed it.The content re the guy who used a crane to put his Lada outside his apartment ,reminds me of a story my lady friend told me,when she was a kid a friend she hung out with ,Father.won a Motorcycle and Sidecar, I guess a Ural.because he didn't have a License to ride the bike he dismantled it and carried it up the flights of steps to his apartment.i asked why not use the lift? She said there was no lifts only steps,lol.Greetings from England!

[@garyfff4757]

Ps, She was born and raised in Siberia .

[@myriaddsystems]

Actually- many people would be glad of a garage like that...

[@TheRealBamboonga]

I'm John Wayne Cheeseburger and I approve this message...

[@ElijahDecker]

The wage comparison is interesting, given many of these Soviet cars were also exported to the West where they were among the cheapest economy cars and had an abysmal reputation. This all puts into perspective how little the Soviet Union actually cared about its workers that it paid them so poorly. It really does sound like slavery with extra steps. Sure, the state provided workers housing, healthcare, and basic nutrition, but so did slave owners.

[@johngorentz6409]

Is that the kind of garage that was the subject of Eldar Ryazanov's movie, "Garage?" I had somehow thought that movie was about a parking garage at the workplace, but now I wonder.

[@TheMrMatas]

Yes, movie was about the cooperative garage, not a garage at the workplace.

[@UshankaShow]

Yes, but they never showed actual garage, right?

[@johngorentz6409]

@@UshankaShow No, it was never shown. Because of that I had thought this was one of the low-budget films of the late 80s that featured cheap sets and a lot of talking. But I checked just now, and Wikipedia says it came out in 1980. In 1980 there were a lot of films yet to come that were not obviously low-budget affairs, including some by Ryazanov. So much for my assumptions. Anyhow thanks for this very informative video.

[@UshankaShow]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/b3OUcqeBga2Fhac

[@downychick]

In 1984, my 1st car was a 5 year old Chevy Malibu, which was $1,800.

[@cuckerdoddle183]

I want one of those wagon Lada’s

[@infinitecanadian]

So sad to see all those rusted cars.

[@LeftistUprising]

Hey Sergei!!! I'm really curious about the Kulaks of 1920 who migrated to other countries, like the USA. Have you done any show on them?

[@olgajoachimosmundsen4647]

"гараж, with the actor from Office Romance, Irony of Fate and Cruel Romance. He is a good actor, and still alive I think

[@HHH-so9ro]

This was not the case in the Soviet Union only, buying a car in the socialist countries required waiting several years as if the car would get it for free!!!

[@rabbi4skin666]

I see those garages in a game called escape from tarkov. I thought it was storage units all this time

[@jamallabarge2665]

There are videos on the manufacture of the Trabant. While this is East Germany it's a similar ideology. Lots of hand fitting. Lots of hammering and bending to get final fit. I also saw a lot of people standing around.... that's a huge no-no in US manufacturing. If a company paid people to hand fit and to bend, and to stand around, yes, a car will be quite expensive.

[@jamallabarge2665]

US made TVs sometimes also caught on fire. We had our quality problems in the early days too. The US Bradley IFV would catch on fire if you hit one with an RPG B40 rocket or better. We elected to build it out of aluminum metal. Stopped bullets and artillery fragments. When the Bradley first came out a lot of us were annoyed about it. I have no idea if the new ones can still catch on fire.

[@americansupervillain4595]

How did someone get parts like tires, belts and hoses (besides stealing)? Was there a soviet Autozone?

[@UshankaShow]

Yes, we had Auto Parts stores and black market, of course.

[@americansupervillain4595]

@@UshankaShow That would make a great video. Thank you for the reply.

[@Seregium]

At least, there were "посылторг" posiltorg - selling things from catalogues cash on delivery by state post office, but it in reality it was not going well.

[@fishgaming280]

Cheers

[@UshankaShow]

Appreciate your support!

[@RogerThat787]

We appreciate you Comrade!!!

[@nicholascortez728]

For 280K you are looking at Jaguar XJ220 but that was 1992 or a Ferrari F40 but those are purpose built race cars for the road. Even something like Bentley or Rolls Royce wasn't that expensive.

[@michaelmckenna6464]

The LADA was patterned after the FIAT. So many LADA owners would replace their LADA engines with FIAT engines.

[@xmanhoe]

People used to take their wiper blades off at night 😎

[@UshankaShow]

Usually Soviet drivers always stored wipers in the glove compartment and had them installed only during the rain

[@dagnt8145]

Bought the finest Buick in 1984 for less than a years salary , right before reaganomics destroyed life as we knew it .

[@edschultheis9537]

Now you can thank Bidenonmics and his high inflation for ruining the rest of your life.... and permanently if you vote for Biden again in 2024.

[@andriandrason1318]

@@edschultheis9537 🥱

[@eerokutale277]

GAZ-M-23 and GAZ-24-24, V8 powered KGB cars are very interesting vehicles, kinda like #Soviet versions of American muscle cars.

[@NorceCodine]

Its the same concept in America, the bank owns your house, you have the right to use it continuously. Stop paying the mortgage, then you find out who really owns it.

[@Alin-rl3nq]

it meant that in communist Romania the people got along better than the other communist states, people received the house from the state, we had a guaranteed job and you could afford a car, the nasty part was that you had to wait 7-9 years sometimes for it

[@kempaswe4022]

I want a uaz 4x4.

[@Commentator541]

I mean if you calculate it like that a Bentley costs 300000, and an average salary jn Europe is 18000 a year, for a top tear car you need to work for 17 years to get it. Or even the cheapest cars are around 15k. You need to work at least two years to get a new car.

[@grokster9ontheroads174]

And I first bought the Balkan Sobranie in a white tin in the seventies as a high schooler. We only used tobacco to mask the smell of pot because even though it was illegal for people under 18 to smoke,they still had a smoking area for everyone because they realized it was easier than to try to catch kids smoking in dangerous places and it wasn’t unusual for kids to smoke back then. Even in Germany,where I grew up with my grandmother until I was 8 and came to america, I had cousins my age that got caught smoking in the closet! Remember it like it was yesterday. She passed a few years back from lung cancer. I didn’t smoke habitually as a kid,we didn’t inhale it,just to smell like cigarettes rather than weed,but I started a smoking habit in my mid twenties and I quit for years,periodically,but finally quit ten years ago and use vape instead of putting tar from burning chemicals into my lungs. Don’t even smoke weed,just vape it and I can smell and feel the difference. Took six months for me to stop coughing up brown stuff. And stay away from flavored vape,only pure nicotine extract because the flavor chemicals are even more cancerous!

[@epiculo2]

Down in Italy i had to pay 20k for a 5x3 meters garage, and i've been lucky because now garages in the same complex come for no less than 50k. Every year i'm forced to pay more than 200 for condominium fees plus city taxes. My consideration is that so-called Western Europe is slipping to a USSR destiny.

[@jomama01]

Ugly garages, ugly cars. Makes perfect sense.

[@Phiyedough]

In 1984 in USA if you were on minimum wage you would make about $7000 / year and if you bought a new base model Chevrolet Cavalier it would cost you $6222, although I don't know about added costs such as tax and registration.

[@NorceCodine]

Except you would pay $4000 a year rent, $2000 a year for food, so it would take six years to save the money for a car, just like in the - wait for it! - the Soviet Union.

[@Phiyedough]

@@NorceCodine I quoted those figures because the ones quoted in this channel for US income appear unrealistic to me. USA had plenty of poor people, just like USSR.

[@andriandrason1318]

@@NorceCodine But you didn't have to wait, and car was of much higher quality 🤦

[@NorceCodine]

You clearly never had a British car in the 1970-s or 80-s. You drove out the car from the lot, and when you felt a bump on the road you stopped, got out from the car and picked up the car's front bumper that just fell down.@@andriandrason1318

[@rezagha2528]

Quantity is Quality Some person said this once in USSR I think 🤣🤣🤣

[@wilcoautomotive545]

Thank you for making more boring and uninteresting content always look forward to it. Is there a vintage and antique car club in Ukraine or russia?

[@SAarumDoK]

That was quite interesting. I didn't thought that everything from the car to that sorry escuse of a garage was so expensive. Was it possible to increase your monthly pay via bonuses?

[@UshankaShow]

NESUNSTVO was the most efficient way to increase one's monthly income ))) kzbin.info/www/bejne/gKuXnXdta9OVmtU

[@martynasr.6718]

What bonuses?! For being so naive to work harder you would get paper diploma and maybe medal (gold colored aluminum) for being hard worker. Maybe you will get permit to purchase vacuum cleaner faster than others. But not money.

[@UshankaShow]

@@martynasr.6718 Workers were getting PREMIYA - bonus. I took pictures of my dad's work book, one time he received a watch, some other time - money.

[@losarpettystrakos7687]

There were not many possibilities to increase the monthly pay for average workers/employees. The best you could hope was a yearly bonus of 1-2 monthly payments. If you wanted to earn significantly more than an average worker, you could chose one of the following career paths: - Become a highly skilled machine operator (e.g. lathe or milling machine). About 300-350 rubles per month was possible. - Hard manual labor in a mine or in oil/gas industry. Up to several hundred rubles was possible, but very hard working conditions and most likely you had to live in some remote shithole. - Sailor or international airline pilot. A lot of bonuses and opportunities to visit capitalist countries and make good business by buying/selling stuff (you had to be very careful not to do anything highly illegal like trading foreign currencies, but if you traded stuff like jeans, nobody really cared). - Military officer career, especially in the air force. Good pay and bonuses, and if you're discharged and get a civilian job, you get the military pension and a salary at the same time. - The highest paying jobs in the USSR were high ranked state/party executives, directors, professors, generals etc, but of course only few people had a chance to become one of them.

[@HorrorGraphicHensley]

My word what did they make the cars out of pure platinum that’s insane! Yeah that’s beyond absurd. The saying dang that’s over priced is saying dang that’s overpriced Lols 😂 I’d be like Cameron’s dad in Ferris Bullers Day off and never drive it 😂

[@anthonynicholich9654]

As a Serbian I love our slavic people but we could not design or build nothing good. That is Fiat design thanks to the Italians.

[@pheorat9439]

$169k car in the US in 1984 was a Rolls Royce or a Ferarri.

[@zachhoward9099]

A Lamborghini Countach was $100k in ‘84 a Ferrari Testarossa was around $90k. That’s so insane how much a Soviet worker had to pay for a basic and ugly car that was already outdated by time of delivery and in the West by comparison you would have not only the top of the era super car but tens of thousands left over

[@troytrexler5459]

Why can’t we get quality garage kits like these today in the USA. They look very sturdy.

[@mfreund15448]

Everyone in the US want low cost not high quality. It is a balance.

[@FlintIronstag23]

So here is a little comparison of what average income and car prices were in the US in 1984. According to the US Census Bureau, the median household income in 1984 was $26,430. That is HOUSEHOLD income so it could be made up of two wage earners. The average new car price in 1984 was $11,374. That means it would take an average household a little over 5 months of income to purchase a new car. Even if the household income was made up to two equal wage earners, it would take one person less than a year's income to afford a new car. Obviously, the Soviet Union prioritized public transportation and not private car ownership.

[@kirbyculp3449]

Prioritized restriction over freedom.

[@sharonrigs7999]

I still prefer late model all manual vehicles that I can fix myself

[@mattheweburns]

Invalidka ok the word “invalid” in English means someone who is not capable of doing anything at all, feeding themselves clothing themselves going to the bathroom.

[@JenniferinIllinois]

Chaining up your car so it doesn't get stolen - just like bicycles here. Hehehe...

[@hufficag]

Instead of comparing engineer's salaries you could compare the minimum wage, for like factory workers or Walmart workers. I think minimum in 1980s was 100 rubles, so 39 months. A worker in Walmart I think earns $1000 a month, so that would be $39,000 for the cheapest car.

[@UshankaShow]

Soviet factory workers could be compared to US factory workers and it will look UGLY for the Soviets. Meanwhile, anyone who worked in Soviet retail, as well waiters, taxi drivers - those were the richest people in the USSR although their salaries weren't that good. Can you guess why?

[@hufficag]

@@UshankaShow theft haha. Heaven for unskilled workers, no point studying for a career.

[@UshankaShow]

@@hufficag More general answer: access to the goods. And yes, retail and food service was a gold mine

[@jamallabarge2665]

Allegedly there was a version of Soviet car that had a peculiar problem. If the driver heard a certain noise the Operator's Manual advised them to immediately pull over and abandon the vehicle. It was fixing to catch fire. Allegedly Soviet TV sets were sometimes prone to catch fire. Owners were advised to unplug them when not in use.

[@Deerwiener]

Pripyat is the ghost town not Detroit