Established in the late 1960s in collaboration with Fiat, AvtoVAZ, or VAZ is the largest company in the Russian car industry. All told, it builds about one million cars a year. One of its most popular models back in the day was the 2101, which was basically a reengineered version of the Fiat 124, but tailored for the Eastern Bloc nations. Built from 1970 until 1988, early versions even had a starting handle for cranking the engine manually if the battery died in those ever so wonderful Siberian winters.