You can tell the car hadn't been in country very long because the various branding bits of plastic were still with the car. This was an underpowered "gas saving" V6 version of this car, but there was no real need for a lot of power driving it around Leningrad. Still, I was not inclined to open the hood to show off the engine since the engine compartment was sized for an optional V8 and the amount of empty space was surprising. Much better for that would have been the 1975 Olds Cutlass I owned later in life that had a 455 V8 - it looked like power! And apparently it was around 255 horsepower (in the US way of counting) - a 7.5 liter engine. Where this car has a 3.8 liter V6 of (to me) unknown horsepower.

It was a pleasant enough car for the driver (assuming you weren't in a hurry) and the front seat passenger, but it wasn't great for the back seat passengers crawling in and out and with the limited windows. I did drive it once to Novgorod and back as well as to Moscow and back and it had to be driven to Finland several times for servicing, but it probably didn't end up being driven even 10,000 miles.