Wheeling and Dealing

It is a nasty blot on the good name of socialism in Eastern Europe: the waiting time for purchasing a private automobile is frequently longer than a five-year plan and seldom shorter than the Berlin blockade. Only those with access to foreign currency seem to be able to drive away from a showroom with a new car minutes after walking in. For humbler folk who have the cash to spend (but precious little to buy), the wait can drag on for as long as seven years. Although the Polish government is trying hard to meet consumer needs, the fierce demand for wheels outstrips the supply. To beat black marketeers to the punch, Poland's Communist leaders employ an un-Marxist solution: used-car capitalism.

Every Sunday beginning at 7 a.m., a procession of cars, ranging from almost brand-new models to well-traveled klunkers, wheels up to a parking lot in the Okecie district of Warsaw. Often the line outside the 150-car lot stretches for more than a mile. But it is worth waiting for a spot because, after paying a fee of $1.33, the drivers go into the used-car business. Most of the car owners are already government-sanctioned smalltime capitalists--garage proprietors, auto mechanics, private doctors--with a well-cultivated taste for profit.

Car Mart. And profit they do. All the used cars fetch higher prices than the sticker cost of a new car. Buyers in tailored overcoats roam among the aging Fiats, Opels, Czech Skodas and Polish Warszawas, checking out the odometers and the prices, which are listed on hand-lettered signs stuck behind the windshield. On a recent Sunday, for example, one man was trying to sell his 1977 Lada (a Soviet-built Fiat), with 6,000 kilometers on the clock, for $11,000; new--when available--the car sells for $5,570. "It's crazy," said one visitor to the car mart, adding, "a lot of things are like that in Poland."

In addition to the Warsaw operation, the government has permitted similar gieldy samochodowe (automobile exchanges) in Gdansk, Wroclaw and Lodz. For some Sunday salesmen, business could not be better. At the Warsaw mart, one enterprising Pole had already sold five cars for profits ranging from $150 to $1,000. He needs the money. In the best capitalist tradition, he is working his way through college.

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