The Romanian/WASR's so-called "shaky past" is largely just overblown nonsense thanks to the internet. I had 2 or 3 older WASR's and they were straight, tight and reliable, and I sold/traded them to buddies that still love them.
Sure, there were some canted sights and gas tubes back in the day, and some over-hammered rivets, and the laminated stocks were never much to look at, but genuine issues weren't widespread, even during the worst of all this. But stories get repeated and spread like wildfire on the internet, and now everybody and his brother think the WASR's are all garbage.
If you find one that's straight and looks well assembled, even an older one, it's probably a perfectly good rifle (and i say that as an AK "snob" that's owned numerous higer-end AK's, including a couple Polytechs.)
And the WASR's that have been coming in the past few years, (the one's with the solid wood stocks and brand new chrome-lined barrels), are actually very nicely done, and have been getting stellar reviews (including from me.)
But, that being said, I'm seeing WASR's on the used market in the $650-750 range lately, which is kinda crazy, since for not too much more you can often find nicer stuff like Arsenals, Hungarian SA85M's, various Chinese models, etc.