I just watched an old episode of Top Gear last night and they had on some Russian cars from the cold war. They were trying to decide if Russia ever made a good car under the Communist regime. Needless to say, no, they didn't. Sadly, they didn't do any cars from the immediate postwar period, as I would have liked to have seen those. They did do a Chaika, with a pushbutton trans, but when they tried to back up then go forward the forward button went through the dash, and they were stuck. The button just disappeared into the dash!
EDIT: Found them on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHeDBkMO9mIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vuq-iMjdtukThis Post was from: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=43718