These automobiles had vertical rear lights, two or four round headlights, a front bench seat, and a 4-speed manual transmission with column mounted gear lever.

It had the same engine and transmission as its predecessor, but an updated body fitted with rectangular headlights and horizontal rear lights, with triangular turn signal markers mounted on tailfins.

[4] The rear door was split in two halves, top and bottom,[4] while the solid sides were corrugated,[5] rather than smooth as was typical in Western deliveries.

In 1969, after a complete revamp of the body design occurred, the company introduced new taillights, tailfins and somewhat thicker interior dashboards.

Moskvitch designed a prototype fastback convertible in March 1964, the M-408 Tourist, with aluminum body panels and vertical taillights.

[6] The car had modern features for 1964: squared-off body with flat roof panel and sharp tailfins, panoramic rear window and semi-panoramic windshield.

Since the layout of the first prototypes was created on the basis of the preceding M-407,[7] the rear end design of the pre-facelift models inherited such characteristic features of the previous Moskvitch series as tailfins decorated with chrome trims, narrow taillights, a recognisable trunk handle, and a fuel tank flap in the middle, behind the number plate.

The interior featured a stylish trapezoidal instrument cluster, column-mounted gear shift lever (until 1973), effective heater and had a then-common practical artificial leather (vinyl) upholstery (colour-coded).

This Moskvitch was the first Soviet-built car to have deliberate safety equipment (since 1969): crumple zones, a safer steering column, a soft grip steering wheel cover, soft interior parts, seat belts, a padded dashboard, and a split circuit braking system.

In order to make it more competitive, the car was often upgraded during the time of its production and equipped with better gearboxes, more powerful 75 hp (SAE) motors, hydrovacuum brake boosters, etc.

The car was sold in France as the Moskvitch 1300, as the Moskvitsh Elite (408)/Elite De Luxe (408E)/Elite 1300 in Finland and as the Moskvich Carat in Norway.

Since late 1968, the lever was floor mounted because a newer gearbox was used to improve performances and make a better use of the new engine and bucket seats were adopted.

First M-412 series, between 1967 and 1969 are a rare sight today, because they were manufactured in lower counts than M-408, and it was more expensive and barely exported as the UFA motor plant could not supply enough 412 engines.

Starting in 1971, a spin-off series called "Izh Comby" was developed in Izhevsk and independently exported to Moscow and the rest of the USSR.

It featured a 5-door hatchback and a windowed 3-door "trip car" (based on the panel van) that were not included in the original lineup.

Exported cars (with an -E suffix, i.e. Moskvitch 408E) usually had higher-compression engines, a small increase in power, up to 54 hp (40 kW), slightly reduced emissions, additional chrome trim and four round headlights instead of two (until the change to rectangular lights in 1969).