Yes, but you can also ask the question 'how many can afford one of the new Hornby A4s', but that doesn't address the very similar price of the Heljan & Hornby class 35s - in the first case a well-engineered model and in the second a toy using 30 year old mouldings and drive technology.
I can appreciate there will be a market for pocket-money toys, but that suggests to me they should be aimed at those with pocket-money rather than being pitched at a similar level to much higher quality items.
OT, and a nitpick, but no Skoda was FIAT-derived. The rear-engined cars had a fairly distant design relationship to the Renault 4CV, but as that was itself derived from Tatra designs I think it's fair to regard rear-engined Skodas as of Czech design.
*Correction* not a Fiat! I was just thinking about that and I was pretty sure the old Skodas weren't Fiat derived, in fact weren't derived from any other manufacturer's designs.. However I could be wrong as they might have used some parts during the last years pre-VW (see
Unfortunately, none of these were actually up to the quality of the originals. A lot of FIAT's clever engineering (and it was clevr) got left out to make a simpler, more rugged product. And this is where the parallel breaks down completely, as I doubt if anyone would describe the engineering of the old Lima range as class-leading...
NO I was defiantly NOT thinking of Lada's or Polski-FIAT / PZL or Zastava / Yugo but something like the Skoda S100L or S110L
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The Skoda models were, following the 2nd World War, soon falling way behind in terms of style / engineering to it's other European counterparts. Their solution was to 'borrow' old designs from the
1960's similar to the Fiat 1100 / 103
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My first car was a 'L' reg. S100L. Ran through two bad winters despite a doggy distributor which could only be set within about +/-
10 degrees, could get up hills in the snow no other car at work could, cost me =A317.50 for a new exhaust and two rear tyres. Bought it for =A3250 and sold it for =A3230 after almost 30 months of motoring.
The main point is despite it's lower engineering and 'unique' style it got me too and from work when my pride and joy motorbike was not safe / comfortable to ride due to the ice & snow or rain. OK some model loco's or rolling stock are not perfect but to many of us, including my son, as long as it works he's happy.
If everyone wanted 'perfect models' we would all be paying =A3400 to =A31500 or more per loco. We all buy what we can afford, I would have loved a Ford Escort Mexico as my first car but the Scoda was a better buy.
Which had no design relationship to any FIAT. The engine's in the opposite end, for one thing.
There /is/ a vague design relationship between the 100/110 Skodas and the Renault 4CV->Renault 8->Renault 10 line, and IIRC there was some technology transfer there. OTOH, the Renault 4CV's design ancestry ran back via Volkswagen to the Tatra T97, so there's a Czech connection there.
The Millicento was a conventional front engine/rear drive design with a beam back axle. The Skoda was rear engine/rear drive with swing axle back suspension. The engines were unrelated. The designs were unrelated. =There was no FIAT input into the rear engined Skodas. Renault, perhaps; FIAT no.
Perhaps because they are *Collectors* and we know they buy anything. especially if it is a poorer model, that is going to sell less well and is therefore rarer and maybe eventually worth more.
Who cares anyway, it is their choice & money. You buy the one that suits your needs the most.
Brand loyalty is fine, providing it is justified, but when there's a similarly priced alternative which offers better quality then I believe in those circumstances that brand loyalty is akin to blindness.
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