Phil,
Bet you preferred the Mark II Cortina did'nt you!! I do recollect quite a lot of East European cars being sold in the 70s, when I started to drive. Moskviches were quite common at one time but they rusted so rapidly that I havent seen one for years.
Another was the Lada and FSO Polski Fiat, Russian and Polish built versions of the Fiat 124 and 125. One of our teachers at school bought a Lada in about '74 when they first came out, I remember for some reason we used to call it a push me pull you car as it sort of looked the same from the front as the back, boxy.
A Lada and Polski Fiat were amongst the first care I ever drove after passing my test in '77 and I didnt dislike either of them although I thought the gears on the Polski were stiff and awkward.
The early Ladas were more or less identical to the Fiat 124 but the later ones they renamed the Riva and made a half hearted attempt to make them look a bit more modern by putting black bumpers on them, which I thought made it look awful.
Your Cortina must have been one of the early Mark IIs if it had the long direct gear lever as this was a carry over from the Mark I. The Mark II had this until a mid term facelift in '68 changed to the remote linkage with the short lever, as on the then new Mark I Escort, and I think this was carried over onto all subsequent Cortinas up to and including the Mark V. At the same time, on the Mark II, the grille was slightly changed and was partly painted black, the early ones were completely chrome.
My first car was an Austin A40 Farina, new in '67, GBV 659E, which I bought in '79 when I was 19 and ran it for five years, I loved that car, it was very reliable, even though it had 170,000+ miles on by the time I sold it although I had to do quite a bit of work on the body over the time I had it
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