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I think this winter you should do a donut contest in a snow or ice covered parking lot. To see which of your fleet is the most fun on slick roads. Avoiding salt of course.
Hey! I'm from Bielsko-Biała - the town in Poland that manufactured these cars. My dad worked on an assembly line for these cars for 20 years. We also used to own a fiat parts store, and had at least 4 or 5 of the 126p cars. If you need anything (either some advice/troubleshooting, or parts mailed to you) please let me know.
"Maluch", as he is commonly called in Poland, was able to transport a family of 4 with 2 children on a 3-week camping trip. As well as 12 adults from the party at the fire station. I know because I had one in my family :)
when communist ruled Poland, in the country were a big deficit in everything. It was something similar to these days north korea. Only some could afford a car, and if there was a party, where one person had a "maluch", everybody wanted to drive home, instead of taking a bus, because it was way worse. @@Qoobon_
I'm Polish and this car is an absolute legend here, everyone here who was around in 80/90 has family stories and memories revoling around those cars, most often "first family vacation when 5 + luggage would fit in that car and make a 200 miles trip to seaside or your Dad fixing the car on the side of the road using moms stockings to raplace the V belt :)
uczyłem się nim jeździć jako dzieciak (ojciec kupił za 300zl od rodziny bo to w 2010 było haha) ale jeśli mowa o opowieściach z malucha to moi dziadkowie dachowali nim w drodze nad morze (auto pełne ludzi i toreb) i nikt nie miał nawet złamania jakimś cudem xD
The jokes, in some sense shouldn't be there. This car is kind of a joke to Americans, but imagine being a communist in Poland and then being able to get this car. Only someone who has never had to walk 2 miles to take a bus to a factory job where you are on your feet all day could ever not appreciate this car. Instead of leaving your house an hour and a half early to make sure you are at work on time, you can leave 20 minutes early and arrive dry and not tired.
@@tarstarkuszthat’s unfair. I appreciated the jokes for what they were: true appreciation. None were nasty or pointed, and it’s clear that Peter really loves this car. Jokes can just be jokes.
This may be difficult for some people to understand, but my parents told me that when they were children, the whole family traveled in a Fiat 126p from Poland to Bulgaria. there were 5 people traveling in a Fiat 126p for almost 2,000 kilometers on holiday to Bulgaria.
@@jacekm4707 Establishing a record of how many people can fit into a Maluch was a thing in Poland at some point in time. I think 17 girl dancers is the standing record. My personal experience - 7.
My Polish uncle has driven a 126p with 7 colleagues on board for work in czechoslovakia, but to achieve this all seats were removed. Still cant imagine how 8 adult men were able to be in this car at once.
My dad (a big, heavy lifter athlete) used to drive a Maluch in the 90s. One time he got into an accident and the car flipped on its roof, he got out of the car, flipped it over and kept driving. This car was indestructible and it’s still a huge part of polish culture!
@@StanleyKubick1 it was licenced to be produced in Poland, and was produced in Polish factories for Polish use since westerners were too, well, wealthy to drive such a piece of shit lmao well not just Poland, Czechoslovakia considered it legendary too.
I was in Poland for Vacation in 1999 and these things were everywhere. When they pass you going full throttle, they sound like a german ww2 divebomber, its hilarious! 🙂
Congrats with Your Maluch: Handful of useful tips: - Starter cable will eventually snap, take old broom stick, put to neutral and turn ignition on. Open the engine compartment and there is just enough space to trigger starter with the stick in there. Some kept on doing this for years...:> - In summer your engine will overheat, take discarded piece of the broomstick and use it as a wedge to keep the engine bay open by a few inches, some say it was not working and you disturb airflow - was for me no doubt. - Your overhead lining will eventually collapse on your head. Hope you still have remaining piece of that broomstick? Wedge it near B pillars across the sides and it shall keep headliner happy in a good shape. - Some electric component will break, do not bother checking bulbs or devices just yet, open front and give a good shake to a "floating connectors" 99% - instant fix! - Get ignition coil capacitor as a spare asap, unless you want to go back home 15mph max occasionally pushing over the hill with one cylinder only. Change takes few seconds and fixes Maluch to be as good as new! Hope it helps with your journey - I got 3 of those and totaled one :) good luck!
There is 2 important piece of advise missing 1. broom also will come handy when carburetor idle jet clogs up, you can pull one hair from the broom and it makes perfect tool to plunge the jet 2. It's highly recommended to keep pair of stockings in the car, so if alternator belt snaps, it can be easily fixed. At least, communism forced people to be creative. Great video Rob!
There are many jokes about Maluch in Poland, but I think this one is the best: A guy walking down the street notices Maluch in the tree, comes closer and asks the driver: - What happened? - I knew he was small, obviously he had no acceleration, but I had no idea he was afraid of dogs.
@@sahantharaka9295 “Maluch” can literally be translated as something small. It is mainly used to describe small, several-year-old children, but generally anything that is small can be described with this word.
I like this... I forgot for a second and was like "How did they do that so well? Why did they do that so well? I mean wait he showed the engine right? What was in there.... Wait...."
crumple zones are codswallop. if a car ends up barreling headfirst into a stationary object with no time to slow down, the driver has made a series of mistakes of judgement to get it there. Temper your ego, and drive like an adult, and you will never have reason to regret driving a car with poor crash safety. This coming from a guy who has crashed a few cars myself; none of those crashes happened on public roads with traffic around, because there's a time to drive like Senna and there's a time to drive like Nana.
I'm Polish and that was my first car, I got that as a gift from my grandad when I was 20. It literally opened the world for me, well maybe not the world, but whole mideastern Europe. Suprisingly, it could fit 4 people with luggage :) And I could make most of maintenance and repairing by myself, it was constructed very simply. Thank you for that vlog and resembling my happy days!
I have one right now. Just got it road legal again. But I do wonder. The 4 people okay, but where did you leave the luggage? I'm going for a roof rack next so maybe that?
I lived in India when I was a kid. My dad imported the first Polski Fiat 126p to India/Callcutta in 1978. It was the fastest car on the street lights then. I loved it :) We traveled all over India with our 4 people family then. It was a sensation!
It was kinda clarified already in the video, as the text appears at 2:39; "More accurately: Small _Displacment_ Car Factory (literary: Factory for Cars Small in Liters)".
Man, this thing is such an icon in Poland. Almost everyone here can tell you what maluch they had, in what color, with what engine and around million incredible stories connected to this car
@@SianaGearz because it was like a family shared car. You could have one for an household and all 4/5 or more people in household were driving and maintaining this. Or if a family didn't had one they probably were borrowing one from a friend. Basically if you wanted a car this was one of the most popular options. There were other cars like syrenka (siren) or warszawa (warsaw) later there was polonez and maybe you would see a trabant or lada here and there
In Italy this car was common but could never reach cult status, it will always be overshadowed by its historic "grandma", the Fiat 500. It's a bit like the 2CV and the Dyane for Citroen: the 2CV is celebrated as an icon, while the Dyane (which I like) only has a niche following.
@@SianaGearz So what? Every car has at least 3-4 owners during its lifetime. Fiat 126p was produced 1973-2000. Some "rich" man bought one when it was new. After 7-10 years sold it to somebody else. And so on. EVERY car went its way from being a new and shiny, 15.000 Polish zlotys to a piece of junk for 300 zlotys, first car for young people. Every Polish family had their Polish Fiat 126p. If it wasn't you or your father, then it was your borther, uncle or grandfather.
My favourite saying about the Maluch is that the front-end crumple zone ends right at the engine, just like in a Mercedes! Except a Mercedes would be front-engined, the Maluch is rear-engined, so the "crumple zone" includes the entire passenger compartment.
-What is the max speed for a maluch? -Depends on the tow truck pulling it. -How to double maluch's value? -Just fill the gas tank. -Is it true that maluch accelerates to 100km/h in 10 seconds? -Yes, but you need to start counting at 95km/h. -Say what you want, Fiat126p is a very safe car, its crumple zone ends right on the engine. -Why the rear window in a maluch has a heater? -So you won't get a frostbite pushing the car everywhere in winter.
Speaking of silly little death traps, there was a joke in Poland that the Maluch’s crumple zone was the same as a Mercedes, it ended at the rear of the engine compartment. ;-)
My grandpa drove a family of 4 (my mom and aunt) from Poland to Greece and back in that thing. (I know it, because she tells me that story every time i ask to turn on the AC.) Later my dad bought a bright orange one, and drove my mom to their wedding. seems like most polish people have some sort of story connected with this car. Crazy how a machine can be so meaningfull to so many people
I'm over 40, and yet I have vivid memories of my father driving out family of 4 from Poland to Greece in that car. I was the smallest and I slept above the backseats - on the shelf next to the back window - it was quite comfortable.
I'm British, now retired, and have owned several Morris Minors ... 2-door, 4-door, and Travellers. I went to Poland in a Morris Minor in 1994, and have been here until this day. I've owned two 'Maluchs'. The first was cheap because of a light front-end collision. I sorted it out and fully rebuilt the engine. The second was a later version in good condition. My partner and I travelled to the Netherlands and back from Warsaw (about 1100km one way) in each . I well remember people in Polish cars madly waving at us as they passed us on the ring road around Utrecht. No problems at all, other than some clutch slippage on German hills because of the weight of all the stuff we had bought in the Netherlands. I put recllning seats from a SAAB in the later Maluch. To do that, I had to remove the plastic storage pockets from the doors. I lived in a Polish forest for twenty-one years and spent six years teaching English in the closest town and surrounding villages. Modus operandi was a Maluch. Temperatures of anything down to minus 20C (that was typical in deep winter in Poland back in the day) ... no problem. 33C in summer? No problem. I never had a breakdown with either Maluch. So many fond memories. Glorious days! Cheers!
I had a Skoda 105 that I pulled parts out of that had Saab seats in it. Sadly rats had gotten into them. I suppose the old Saab seats were good, cheap and easy to modify into anything.
I love that from coast-to-coast, Americans can be united as a people by the fact that we all know and use the *exact* same car wash with the large kachunk-kachunk knob and the spray wand and foam broom. (And the fact that another Patreon supporter told me that this is a design by one company who has seemingly sold it *everywhere* and captured that whole market) Also this fun little baby car makes me happy and we're glad it makes you happy, too, Robert! 👍😁👍
Oddly, I live in northern Virginia just outside of Washington. This area consists of four counties with a population of 3.3 million people. I've never seen one of these car washes anywhere in this area. There might be some somewhere, but I've never seen one.
@@LeeBv9983I also live in NoVa, and this is the thing that shocked me the most. As the owner of two aging, leaky convertibles, it's also a persistent annoyance. It's a 45 minute drive to the nearest self service car wash for me. Like, why? Do people here not wash their cars?
I am Polish and I have learned to drive and passed my driving license on one of those in 1996. My uncle owned one and they were indeed very popular back in the day. After year 2000, they quickly became extinct because people in Poland were finally able to switch to real cars, so they would massively and with contempt get rid of this crap. Apart from "maluch", it was also called "kaszlak" (a cougher) because of sound it produced when starting the engine. This was designed as a small city car, but in socialist Poland it was used as a family car and travelled long distances, fully loaded with luggage, because most people could not afford anything else. As my mom said - it's better to ride uncomfortably, than comfortably walk. The reason why it was chosen to produce in Poland was economical - there were better options for a popular vehicle, but FIAT was the only producer to allow export and accept ready cars and parts as payment. It was crucial, because the socialist currency was worth sh*t on international markets and the country badly needed real money (like dollars, francs or marks) to buy all stuff which was not available locally or from Soviet "brothers". The car looks quite nice and friendly, but make no mistake - it's a brutal bastard and requires skills to drive. No safety, no luggage space, no real front lights, no power, no torque, no braking, no window defrosting and just as much room inside to smile. There were countless jokes about it, one of them about safety belts - never forget to unfasten, otherwise you may accidentally take the car inside with you, without noticing.
We visited Krakow 1996 with our graduation Class and we saw several times the most unique Feature of a the Fiat Polski: It could alter the reality of roads. A four lane Intersection became a eight lane Intersection. Seeing with awe as 5 Fiat Polski drive around the turn in an Intersection with only 2 lanes in each direction without Crash is a very found memory. And they flow around the bigger western cars easily.
English here. My dad bought two Fiat 126s and we put the best bits on one, throwing the rest away. The 126 was my first, and most loved, car. RUF 889R, I'll always miss you
With regard to the wheel covers. They should be attached with only 3 of the 4 wheel bolts. The bolt hole nearest the valve should have a wider hole. The idea is you can mount the wheel with one bolt, fit the covers and then add the remaining bolts. If you can't access the valves, then either the cover has been fitted incorrectly or somebody fitted valves that are too short. Hope this helps!
Fiat Panda’s made in Italy and later in Poland had these wheel trims. As explained elsewhere you can remove three wheel bolts and remove the trim. This was to discourage theft of wheel trims I believe.
I'm Dutch, so I'm not in a position to judge anyone. I like the Polish language, but omg, bardzo trudne! But am I right that the Ł wasn't that great, more of an L instead of a W? What did impress me, though, was the 'ch' sound in samochódow, a very difficult sound for most English speakers.
For those who didn't catch the joke "Struttura d'urto" is Italian for impact-absorbing structure. The spare tire is "ruota di scorta". My aunt in Italy had a 126 for a while. I'm 6'0 tall and fit nicely in the back seat.....mostly because she had removed the front passenger seat. My sister also lived in Italy and, omg, the dashboard in your Polski Fiat is nearly identical to the one in her first-generation basest of the basest Fiat Uno 3-door 900cc !
There was and old joke about Maluch, stating that it was as safe in a crash as any modern car - after all, it too had a crumple zone ending in the engine bay.
The ones like in the video were manufactured from 1985 to 1994, and this version was just called FL (face lift). And although all the changes (dashboard, interior, bumpers, all the black plastic parts of the bodywork, wheel covers) were designed in Poland, I always believed they were modeled after 1983 Uno.
It's also a surprisingly safe car! The designers were truly ahead of their time, because in an accident the crumple zone is completely in front of the engine!
As a Polish citizen age 46 I must say, you will be happy with this car. Don't change it, just enjoy your Sunday ride o whatever you want to do with it 😃
11:45 As a proud '88 Fiat Uno owner, I can explain. Those panels are modular, so you could have them with more, fewer, or different gauges, depending on the trim level. To avoid leaving a blank space, Fiat got very creative with labels. The tire pressure is a classic, but some cars here in Brazil have, instead of a rev counter, a reminder label for the seatbelts, or even a full analogic clock.
A clock? You lucky bastards! My Austin Allegro had what looked like a compass where the revcounter was on the sportier models. But compared to the Fiat 126 an Austin Allegro was a car with luxurious ride and powerful engine 😅
Another nickname for Maluch is "Kaszlak", which means cougher. Its because when you start the engine, it sounds like a cough of an old smoker. 😄 Great car, lots of memories.
We went to Poland in 91 or 92(can't remember exactly, i was like 9yo). It was a blazing hot, and the bad asphalt on the roads was melting, and our Audi 100 made tire tracks on the road. The 6 yo Audi was nothing special where Im from, but the poles looked at it like it was a Ferrari almost. I remember the polski fiats driving around with their rear hatch half open just to keep the engine from overheating.
If you haven't visited Poland since then, you should. You wouldn't recognize the country it was 30 years ago. Roads are flat like table, you would see a lot of expensive cars and fenced villas even in smaller cities and villages, not mentioning the biggest cities like Warsaw, Krakow or Wroclaw, with great and punctual public transport, clean environment, beautiful nature and welcoming people.
@@PureEvil92 I have been there a couple of times in the last years, Warsaw twice, and also Turek and Bydgoszcz. I like it very much, and it has changed a lot since then. Warzaw is very nice in the summer, and they have rebuilt the old town very beautiful!
This car had many nicknames in Poland. The most popular was "Maluch", which means toddler, but there was also "Kaszlak", which meant a person/thing that coughs.
Kaszlak does not come from coughing but from kasza (porridge), i.e. the food the baby is eating between breast milk and solid foods. So it's still about a toddler.
@@berlineczka Maybe you're right. If you have a source, I'd love to read it. As far as I know, the word "kaszlak" comes from the word cough (poor engine sound). Just like the Silesian word "kaszlok". Sometimes one word can have several meanings and different etymology. And remember that we are talking about slang, which may have a different meaning depending on the region.
My GF owns a maluch and the best thing about this car is that when you drive this around town, you make so many people smile at you :) and yes, it is a deathtrap.... but a cute one
I think you should contact the nearest Polish embassy to collect your honorary citizenship for this purchase, as it is customary for every foreign buyer of a 126p
You are gonna get a lot of new Polish subs, I assure you. For some reason we love seeing westerners enjoy what was arguably “if communism was a car” - the car. Also I was thoroughly impressed with your pronunciation of “fabryka samochodów małolitrażowych”. How many takes did it need? 😂
@@samuelayers3429 In the UK that joke was reserved for Lada and Skoda. Which doesn't make any sense because you wouldn't push either of those with the rear glass.
Your pronunciation of FSM in full was masterful. Polish is difficult to pronounce for English speakers, but as far as I could tell (from my own experiments with Polish) you nailed it.
Not quite, especially with "fabreeka", but oddly he gets better the further in he goes. Fah-BRICK-ah Sam-oh-HOD-oov Ma-wo-leet-rah-ŻOH-vih where Ż is the sound of the s in pleasure or measure or the g in genre (depending on your accent).
Maybe you missed it, but he also had a go at plural- said ‘Maluchy’ at one point (ch is pronounced as h, the c does nothing, but the y ending is the plural.
I have nothing but respect for those tiny little things that did exactly what they were supposed to do, for an honest price. The fact that so many are still alive to this day when 70 000$ monstrosities sold 8 years ago are already at the junkyard tells me everything I need to know. 💙 Thanks for sharing.
I'm sorry to disappoint but they were not high quality cars and they broke down all the time. There are stories of them having issues right after driving out of the dealership but people really had no other choice back then, it was either this car or no car. But some are still working till this day because they were very easy to fix, even by yourself.
I inherited my after grandpa died. 40+ years of use, ranging from standard city drive to pulling a trailer full of onion. Still works very well, and if anything breaks, I know I'll be able to bix it with a stick and duct tape.
Big car companies ripping us off completely… polish people are really smart and they’re doing great things without having huge amount of money. It’s a shame that they don’t get enough recognition and respect worldwide
The very few cars let you start them in the winter by pushing by yourself (running in the open driver's door) and then jumping in and realease the clutch on the 1st/2nd gear when car is still rolling to start the engine. I practiced it quite often :)
So here's a story for you from my dad: back in 1986 when he was doing his army time in Hungary, he had an army buddy who was freakishly tall, around 205cm (that's 6'8-6'9 in american), and had a Kis Polski (btw, "kis" is pronounced like "kish", not like "kiss"). He didn't fit into that vehicle, so he opted to remove the driver's seat and sit on the rear seat while driving and also cut a hatch into the roof so he wouldn't have to bend forward to fit his head. So when you saw a Polski coming with a head sticking out on top, you knew it was him.
I know a similar story from Poland. In my home town back in the 80's and early 90's we had a great basketball player named Wójcik. He was like 210 or so (6.11ft) and he also owned the Maluch and also removed the front seat to be able to drive it. But he struggled to get in and out of the car due to his size.
My parents had one when I was little (late 80s), although they were quite popular as a "first car" right up until like 2004-5ish down here. They are remembered quite fondly but I'm sure most of us are happy its days are behind us.
It was a superb vehicle for the time. Eastern Europe was recovering from war under CCCP, people literally had nothing. A car like this was a luxury vehicle like a Mercedes or BMW today.
I remember in the 90's seeing a lot of them driving heavy loaded, most of the time even with 4-5 people in it too, on the german Autobahn on the east/west axis. The status of the suspension - high in the front, really down low in the rear - became somehow a meme, we called it "polnisches Keilfahrwerk" - translates into something like "polish wedge chassis". ^^
> They are remembered quite fondly but I'm sure most of us are happy its days are behind us. I have two stories to support that: 1. When I got mine, my parent _DID NOT WANT TO_ drive it, even for fun. 2. A friend of mine, a Brit, who spent 25+ years in Poland finally got his Polish citizenship a couple of years ago. I gave him keys to my Maluch as a "gift" so that he can get part of that "real Polish" experience. He parked the Maluch at my driveway the very next day and told me it was enough :)
My neighbour in Poland had a Maluch, and I remember him being out pretty much every day throughout the summer working on that thing. I think I've seen it being worked on more than actually being out driven.
In the summer a lot of drivers would drive around with a completely open engine bay for cooling and just used a small rope or something to tie the cover up so that it doesn't fall off I guess. Also, the noise it made was just unbelievable (from both inside and outside) and unmistakeable. Much love to Poland from Hungary!
Yeah I almost forgot the noise when there was more than couple of them it's almost unbearable. Still, I have nothing but respect for those little, great cars
I almost cried when I heard the engine (10:21 here), it's the sound of my childhood. My family owned 3 of those, one after another, and yes, we used to go on vacation with it (family of four), with a little help of a roof rack ;) I remember the excitement when one time we went 115km/h (downhill, of course!). And yes, there was no rear seatbelts and me and my sister did not have child seats either :) Good thing my dad was a good driver :)
True, respect for preparing the material as well as multiple attemps to pronounce Polish words! BTW, another popular name for this sweetie was "kaszlak", wchich translates into "cougher", that was due to the sound it gave off while starting;) Greetings from Bydgoszcz;)
btw, the older versions of the Maluch had a starter lever right next to where the heater and choke levers are. The winsheld washer fluid use to be a manual pump on a dash, where you would push a rubber extrusion with your thumb, as kids, we would sit in it, empty a whole reservoir playing with it ;) And yes, we use to fit mom, dad (who was over 6'tall) my two borthers and myself in this can! I"ve got so many great memories wrapped up in this little car! 🥲
Well in the late middle ages, an Italian princes became queen of Poland (krolowa Bona) and she brought most vedgetables to Poland. One word for veggies in Poland to this day is "Wloszczyzna", wich basicaly means "that stuff from Italy".
more than just the 126, FIAT was the company Poland signed with to essentially motorise the country in the interwar, the FIAT Poslki factory in Warszawa that made the 126 (and 125) was the same that built the 508 "Balilla", 518 "Ardita", and 500 "Topolino" in Poland before the second world war (among other models)
Mate, and this is coming from a pole, I really admire your pronunciation of our words! I know ours is a hard language and massive respect for learning to say the words so well. Loved the video, loved your vibe, keep it up mate!
Ok, next time you're both in the same area we *need* a collab with Garbage Time! Seeing Wade rant about all the electric nuggets and you do your thing with all his 'an car's would be amazing!
That car is legendary here in Poland, as you said, it wasn't good at anything, but it could do anything. My grandpa had one and frequently drove me to school with it, so I have very fond memories with it. Seeing the interior again on this video made me feel so nostalgic, thank you.
The 12:25 tire covers mystery - when you bought a new maluch when they where new, you didn't have tire covers - that was a luxury. So if you did have them, that probably meant that you where a higher Party member or someone prominent and you had people to attend your tire pressure checks... sooo you didnt care about that :)
My uncle had a Maluch untill it finally broke down god knows when. He was a tall heavy set guy and as a kid I never saw the comedic juxtaposition. Despite its size it never felt cramped, and zipping through the narrow streets of Czechia, even as a passenger, was a lot of fun. There were no issues finding suitable parking spots or worries over break ins. I guess that's also where my love for fun little cars comes from. You, my friend, did not only get a piece of history but a pretty nifty toy. I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun with it, just as I had way back when ❤
My wife and I toured Poland with a choir back in ‘85, and these little Polski Fiats were everywhere. Being a gearhead, I loved them… So it’s nice to see one here in the States, and local to us as well. Thanks for another excellent episode!
It was my dream car when I was going to kindergarten in Hungary in the 80's, and still holds a special place in my heart. If I had the time to take care of it properly I'd most certeanly have one. :-) 🇭🇺❤️🇵🇱
You made my day, mate ;) I'm a Pole, my parents owned one Maluch for over 15 years, so as a child i grew up in one. Strangely, it almost always worked, few hiccups here and there, but it took us all over Europe those days. I really adore your humorous style, but on top of that you nailed really hard pronunciation of Małolitrażowych - awesome.
My friend put a snow plow in front of his Maluch... and it work great. Me and few of my friends carry our PE teacher's Maluch and put it in center of our schools football field, I was 15 yo, this car almost has no weight. Most of the time when something broke up, you could find makeshift replacements parts in your girlfriends purse. Seriously this car is legendary.
I appreciate your care for proper polish translation :) Tiny disclaimer - małolitrażowy means literally "small displacement", so fsm was for "small discplacement car factory". Getting to 60mph was a bit of lottery - some maluch's could reach up to 110km/h, some barely drove 95km/h.
I visited Poland in 1992 with my Rally team for the Polski Rally. As we rushed all over the country side in the service vans ( uprated Iveco Turbo Daily with a tonne or so of spares and tools ) we would catch up to numerous of these little things. given our speeds and the local habit of just pulling out onto the main road, assuming everyone was going to be moving at a snails pace, we had some VEEEEERY close calls.
Such a nice video to watch! Im Polish and Fiat 126p was my first car after I passed my driving licence! You could buy parts in junkyard and fix it for super low cost! Even replace front window was super easy! just push window with you feet, put string inside rubber and new window and by puling string window was placed itself in rubber ;)
I love this channel... Robert is one of the best at producing humorous, tongue-in-cheek content about whatever he decides to share with us. My only complaint is that he does not put out more videos... I guess his motto is: "Always leave them wanting more"! Please, sir... I want some more!
650 E - as far as I am aware, "E" stands for "Economic" which means that car apparently had factory-tuned carburetor & engine so it would burn slightly less fuel. the variant with electric ignition system had "EL" at the end.
I sold mine to guy who rucked up in a Jaguar XKR with his teenage son, he drove it, announced that he'd pay top money for it, £500, and that it was a gift for his son who had successfully crashed several hot hatches because he didn't seem to understand the relationship between velocity and fixed objects. This would remove one of those variables. His son looked very dejected. Fun video, thanks for the memories!
I bought the water-cooled version in '91 and, at 6'4'', I was a perfect fit. Being significantly less flexible now I doubt I would be able to get in. Back in the day I had to reach under my knee to be able to reach the door release and I had to rotate the window winder to be able to close the door. I have very fond memories of the opening quarter light and still think that all cars should be fitted with them today. Load capacity was brilliant with the seats folded, but this probably assisted the cam chain breaking when I was loaded down with concrete paving slabs....
Oh man, I laughed, and I laughed! And then I watched it again, and I laughed some more! It's like a blast from my past, but in a good way. Your review is spot on. My first car was a '77 FIAT 126, grass green and genuine Italian, and I loved it! I'm 193 cm (6'4") and when people ask me how I got in and out of the car, I tell them it's just like getting in and out of a sweater. A very tight sweater, but all the same. Which was almost true. What I originally wanted was a Mini, because small and cute, but hey, this was smaller and cuter! I've even parked and gotten in and out of the car in places where Minis had to give up squeezing in. It would do 105 km/h (65¼ mph) on a good day, though after it blew the head gasket and effectively ran on just one cylinder it would do 115 km/h (71½ mph) with ease! Sadly I had to fix that. Don't ask me how we managed to fit myself and four passengers plus baggage in it; I have no idea, but we did! Presumably Euclidian space folded in on itself a couple of inches from the car. It was also a chick magnet! Even if I wasn't. No less than two women said they would marry me for it, though they both backpedalled on their word once they realised I'd be part of the bargain. But I'll take it as a good thing; I was eighteen at the time and didn't know diddly about women yet anyway. I'm fifty-four now and I still don't, though I did somehow manage to marry one… who just happened to hate the car. So eventually, when the 126 had run out of breath and mileage, we replaced it with a turquoise '78 Ford Escort, which I liked but she hated even more. Believe it or not, thirty years and several cars later we're still married. But I do miss that car.
A family going for a vacation to Yugoslavia mostly filled up the car with stuff they needed and the rest was in suitcases strapped to the roof. Pretty janky but they somehow made it work.
I'm Polish and that was my first car. I have many nice memories associated with this car. Easy to repair, as a young man I could repair many things myself with basic tools. Unfortunately, the annual insurance was more expensive than the value of the car. The car could not be deregistered and left as a sentimental piece in the garage - it was a deliberate policy of the European Union to buy new cars, mainly German ones.
When I was a child, my dad took us to school every day in a Fiat 126p like this (it was even red, like yours!). We lived in a harsh climate in the mountains, and when there was a lot of snow, this Fiat was the only car that could drive uphill without any problems. Other cars slipped or had trouble starting. I have driven many many thousands of kilometers in this car and it has been the most reliable and easy to repair of all cars.
Dude, this was thoroughly entertaining. I really enjoy watching you talk for 15 minutes about an old, cool-in-its-own-unique-way... car. Your delivery and humor are quite on par with what I enjoy. Keep it up man. Thank you.
I was born in Poland and my uncle used to own one of these in the 80's and it was always fun to see how grown men were trying to squeeze themselves into this little tin can -- and I'm am sooo looking forward to when you (hopefully) let Doug DeMuro review this car so we can watch thim trying to get into the back row... :-D
My first car was a Fiat126. I loved it as a 17 year old as it gave me freedom. It didn't go, and it didn't stop either but it was incredible fun. Thanks for reminding me of my great memories.
2:38 I'm impressed with your pronounciation. Almost like a native! We moved to Germany in one, and my mother used to carpool a school run with two other kids in the village. Judging my the noise, everybody knew who's turn it was this week X) Oh, the memories!
@@jkb2016 @PuerRidcully Okay guys, sorry, maybe i overreacted. it was good because you could understand it, albeit with subtitles, but you can understand it. Most americans would either just give up and don't say it or butcher it so you won't understand a single bit even with text. The thing that got me, i guess, "mad" was "almost like native". It was kinda impressive when i think about it now xD
@@tytusel Mmmhyeah... the statement "like a native" was meant relatively. I grew up among Germans trying and failing at the pronounciation and then with the internet listening to English and American speakers having their try so I may be too generous? But still, hardly anyone comes as close as in this example here, I think.
Love your content , following your journey for many years now. Greetings from (east) Germany, where Trabants are still everywhere. You should really check out a "Simson", a moped made in the GDR. They are making a huge comeback where I live. Let me know if you need help sourcing parts for your Trabant! Cheers
