Photo: The main features of microcars (Getty Images) Author: Konstantin Shirokun
“Topolino”, “Izetta”, “Trabi”, “Malyukh” and of course – “Zaporozhets”. Probably more than one generation of automobile historians wondered why small cars – simple, imperfect and often not very beautiful – so often become the people's favorites and objects of cult worship.
Read about why people all over the world are fascinated by old microcars in the RBC-Ukraine article.
Every country has its own nostalgic cars. Compatriots search for them, restore them, collect the rarest versions and create entire museums. But for some reason it so happened that for the most part these cult objects turn out to be super-compact class babies, or even what in our country were called motorized carriages.
Perhaps the point is that small cars were originally, a long time ago, not cult, but simply popular? Actually, we see as many as three reasons.
Nice looking
Designers of budget and simply compact cars, of course, always understand that their brainchild will have a difficult fate. On the one hand, if they are lucky, there will be popularity and people's love. And on the other – a considerable portion of irony and ridicule from snobs and wealthier citizens is guaranteed.
That's why designers have always tried to give compact cars cute, cartoonish features that will disarm the evil hearts of haters and will evoke maximum sympathy. And if the artist has coped with the task, these sympathies remain to this day. Take a closer look at cult retro cars, for example, those that we mention in the first lines of the publication – they really do have a cute “face”.
The first car
A budget car often becomes the first car of a particular person or a young family. This means that memories of this model are associated with those same “good old days”. When a citizen was young, healthy, cheerful and carefree, when the grass was greener, beer was tastier, girls were prettier – and so on down the list, which does not differ much from generation to generation. So how, please tell me, can a man or a woman not love such a car?
Inexpensive
It would be more accurate to say this: they are dear to our hearts, but quite affordable from the point of view of the wallet. A car that was inexpensive and widespread in its youth is most often widespread and inexpensive in the status of a retro car as well. Of course, with an adjustment for the half-century interval. Therefore, almost everyone who feels nostalgia for the times of their youth – or, say, the youth of their parents – is able to join the club of fans of the miniature retro car.
Short
In conclusion, one important remark should be made. Owners of retro cars, who give their rarities time and money, in fact never choose a retro car based on the principle “like everyone else”. This can be easily verified by asking the owners of real historical cars at any retro festival. The choice of a car in the “ for the soul “ category is motivated by very subtle, even intimate considerations; everyone sees something of their own in the object of their love. Therefore, it is very significant that in the end, citizens of one country love basically the same vintage cars – this confirms that the choice of objects of worship is by no means random.
In preparing this article, materials from the museums “Wheels of History”, BMW Museum and Audi museum mobile were used.
Let us recall that RBC-Ukraine recently reported why pedestrians are not always right.