Segment: Compact
The only exceptions were Hungarians and Bulgarians. In Poland, the Government already had a deal with Fiat since 1932 so they went on and continued their business after WWII. In the mid '70s, Fiat and the Polish Government worked together and made a new generation of vehicles, called the FSO Polonez. Production started in 1978.
The base FSO Polonez Kombi prototype was shown in 1998 and the production started in 1999, under a joint-venture between FSO and Daewoo. The engine was based on a 1987 Polonez 1.6-liter unit, but with fuel injection. Strangely, the fuel-injected version had less performance than the original carbureted version. It was even worse than a Daewoo 1.5-liter engine. It had 80 hp and only 125 Nm (92 lb-ft) of torque. The car had a weight of 1160 kg (2557 lbs) and it had limited success.
By 2002, only a few Kombi models had been made when the factory closed down. Daewoo stepped back from Poland and the company shut its doors. FSO remained a former glory of the Polish automotive industry, even though it failed to produce anything better than a good, for 1978, vehicle.