Editing GAZ (section)

===Postwar period===
[[File:GAZ-14 Tschaika Potsdam 2013 (cropped).JPG|thumb|[[GAZ-14]], produced 1977–1988]]
At that time, GAZ engineers worked to develop an all-new car model to enter production once hostilities ended. Called the [[GAZ-M20 Pobeda]] (Victory), this affordably-priced sedan with streamlined, fastback styling, entered production in 1946 and was produced by GAZ until 1958. (Licensed production under the name [[FSO Warszawa|Warszawa]] continued in [[Poland|Polish]] [[Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych|FSO]] until the 1970s). It was the first Soviet car with electric [[windshield wiper]]s (rather than mechanical- or vacuum-operated ones).<ref>Thompson, p. 52</ref>

GAZ also made [[GAZ-12 ZIM]], [[GAZ-21]] and [[GAZ-24]] [[GAZ Volga|Volga]] and the luxury cars GAZ-13 and GAZ-14 [[Chaika (car)|Chaika]]. The ZIM was the first GAZ car to feature the leaping deer [[hood ornament]].<ref>Thompson, p. 68</ref> The GAZ-21 made its public debut in 1955, with a three cars on a demonstration drive from Moscow to the Crimea, two automatic models and a manual.<ref name="auto">Thompson, p. 61</ref> It was launched in 1956 and became a symbol of the whole Soviet epoch. The car offered front seats able to fold flat<ref name="auto"/> and came standard with cigarette lighter and a radio<ref>Thompson, p. 62</ref> at a time when most American-built cars did not have a radio.<ref>Flory, J. "Kelly", Jr. American Cars 1946-1959 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Coy, 2008), passim.</ref> A small number of Volgas with the {{convert|195|hp|kW PS|lk=on|abbr=on}} Chaika engine, [[automatic transmission]], and [[power steering]] were built for the [[KGB]] as the [[GAZ Volga#M23|M23]], 603 were built in 1962–1970.<ref name="Thompson120-121">Thompson, pp. 120–121</ref> As the car's leading engineer Boris Dekhtyar recalled, the new version of the Volga had improved brake pads and reached a higher top speed of over 170&nbsp;km/h; it was well received.<ref>[http://www.gaz23.com/files/23.jpg Б. А. Дехтяр. "Хвостовые" автомобили ГАЗ. // Биржа плюс Авто. №36. 13.09.2001. С. 38] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223202134/http://www.gaz23.com/files/23.jpg |date=23 December 2016 }}</ref> The new engine produced 195 h.p. at 4,400 rpm.<ref>[http://www.gaz23.com/files/gaz-23_manual.pdf Легковой автомобиль ГАЗ-23. Инструкция по уходу. Издание второе. Горький. 1967. С. 114] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103232901/http://gaz23.com/files/gaz-23_manual.pdf |date=3 January 2014 }}</ref>

In the 1960s GAZ plant renewed its truck range by launching such models as GAZ-52, [[GAZ-53]]А and [[GAZ-66]]. In the 1960s and 1970s, the plant was overhauled and updated; 1962 saw it fitted with the Soviet Union's first automated precision shop.<ref>Thompson, p. 120</ref> In 1994 the plant started production of [[GAZelle]] light commercial vehicles.

The plant became ''AvtoGAZ'', with the integration of its various [[subcontractor]]s, on 24 August 1971; the same year, it was awarded the [[Order of Lenin]].<ref>Thompson, Andy. ''Cars of the Soviet Union'' (Haynes Publishing, Somerset, UK, 2008), p. 120.</ref> GAZ produced its ten millionth vehicle in March 1981.<ref>Thompson, p. 242</ref> In the late 1990s GAZ was deemed to be the best managed Russian automotive manufacturer.<ref>{{cite news|title=Mir on earth |url=http://www.economist.com/node/154769 |access-date=7 July 2017 |newspaper=The Economist |date=21 August 1997 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170621182544/http://www.economist.com/node/154769 |archive-date=21 June 2017 }}</ref>