The Renault 12 based Dacias weren't that bad, apart from the 4-wheel-drive based on them.
The Skoda had a certain charm - the early Octavias were built like tanks (like the Volgas too), the series one coupes looked wonderful, tha last series of coupes were wildly acclaimed by some motor mags as handling better than the then current Porsches, the iron-head alloy block engine was very tough, and they won the 1300cc class on the MonteCarlo Rally a huge number of successive years (I think it might have been 13). THe shells (before rust set in) did not need any reinforcement for the forest stages of loose surface rallies.
Ladas had many virtues - pretty well all those of the Fiat 124 they were based on - and also the Fiat tendency to galloping rust. The Niva was a GREAT little offroader with wonderful axle articulation - I believe much favoured in the French-speaking parts of the Sahara (where rust was not a problem) as "tres solide". The 2-litre Fiat Twin-cam was a bolt-in job so long as you fitted a remote oil cooler, and Guy Croft tuning (still I think in Rochester Kent England could get about 200 bhp out of one.
I also liked the Polski-Fiat, based on the Fiat 125.
The Moskvitches looked awful, but totally dominated their price class in group 1 UK saloon car racing for several years. I think the engines were fairly closely copied from a BMW design.
The Trabant on the other hand, and the Wartburg, with their 2-stroke engines...