One of the best (but not always well advised) parts of growing up is the freedom to acquire what was so cruelly withheld from us in our childhood. In 1988, my family went to the local new car auto show to research what would be the first car purchase since I’d been a toddler (my parents tend to keep vehicles forever). Exciting times indeed for me at least. Initially I had visions of a big American land barge with a V8 to replace our Datsun 510 station wagon, but those thoughts where quickly abandoned as my father had a self-imposed budget of ten thousand dollars Canadian. But among the sea of Escorts, Cieras, LeBarons and other dull stuff, I found an exotic foreigner that I fell hard for: the Russian Lada Niva.
The Niva which was unlike anything I’d experienced before. I remember climbing through the interior with its separate gauges each in its own pod and three sticks between the front seats. One stick was of course the gear shift and at the time I didn’t know what the other two stubby ones were for but they were exciting and fantastic (transfer case and diff lock if anyone is wondering). My father seemed interested as well but I suspect he might have just been humouring me. None the less, the memory stuck with me and I always admired Nivas from afar.
So it was the biggest automotive disappoint I had growing up was when my father finally brought home a shiny new 1988 Ford Tempo L two door sedan. The extent of its positive attributes was a five speed transmission, red colour, A/C and two doors for vaguely sporty styling. But I was crushed for what could have been.
But I learned to drive a stick shift on that Tempo (by then with an almost shot clutch) so I do have some retroactive fondness for it. But my crush on the Niva never really left.
Years and years later I finally acted on it, and got my Niva. Actually I got three of them briefly, as one I owned for mere hours as I stripped it before it was crushed. The first one was a 1995 with the higher Cossack trim level. This included sunroof, carpets, nicer seats, roof rack, alloy wheels and some body trim. More importantly being a 1995 it had the larger 1.7L engine with GM sourced fuel injection.
It was in very poor shape with smashed front window, half missing dash, poor tires, missing brake parts and a general dirtiness. I traded a beater K-car for it so I wasn’t in too deep yet. This of course led to the purchase of a second 1991 example which was reputed to have a good windshield (it didn’t) and new tires (it did). It also had an incomplete parts vehicle of its own. The snag was of course it was 500kms away and didn’t run. No problem! I’ll just drive up, strip the parts car, and tow the other down all in one day. A hotel stay would add a good additional percentage of cost to a Niva. Perhaps a story for another day but I did manage to do it all in one day with a huge help from the seller.
In the end I did end up fixing up the 1995 to quite reasonable condition. For those of you not familiar with the Niva, they are about the same size as a two door Suzuki Sidekick/Chevrolet Tracker. Despite their mixed reputation, mechanically they had quite good quality and for the most part were engineered well. The front brakes are a good example of that, with a three piston design. One piston operates any time the brakes are applied and the other two operate only when greater pressure is applied to the brake pedal, resulting in progressive brakes.
Suspension is very similar to the classic Ranger Rover with long-travel coil springs all around; independent suspension in the front and a five link live axle in the rear. The Niva features full time four wheel drive with a lockable center differential and a two speed transfer case. The engine and gearbox are Fiat based and the spare tire in the engine compartment is another Fiat inspired touch.
The interior on the other hand is best described as functional. The side panels used some of the thinnest, cheapest plastic this side of Happy Meal toys. One of my favorite features was the ability to hand start it via a crank handle. Yes, you can crank start one just like an old Ford Model T. I can’t think of another mainstream vehicle that featured fuel injection (1995-1998 in Canada) with a hand crank start.
So what is it like to drive one? Well given the short wheelbase, the ride is a not Cadillac smooth of course, but I’d say it was quite similar to the Ford Bronco II we owned years before. With no power steering ever offered, you have to use a little bit of arm muscle when parking, but it isn’t too bad due to the small size and relatively light weight. Power wise, with the 1.7i the trucklet was quite zippy at low speeds. It runs out of stream at higher speeds however. The carburetor feed 1.6L engine is certainly down a bit on power and smoothness compared to the injected engine.
My 1995 had a five speed gearbox compared to the four speed in the others which provides some relief from high revs on the highway. There are some tricks to keeping the somewhat fragile five speed alive however. Lada found themselves needing a fifth gear but instead of designing a new gearbox they just re-used the four speed casing and stuffed in a fifth cog. Lada owners generally overfill the fluid in the gearbox and avoid lugging the engine in top gear to keep it alive.
I got the parts truck running and cleaned up as well. Selling it was an interesting experience. Generally I’ve found the cheaper the vehicle you sell, the more oddball inquiries you get. Apparently the effect is doubled when you are selling a rough shape Russian 4×4. I had one lady who asked if I’d trade her for a huge supply of South American beads. Being more interested in cash I declined. After dealing with a series of loonies and flakes I finally sold it to a nice gentlemen who understood that non-functioning brakes meant he had to bring a trailer.
In an odd twist months later when I liquidated my left over pile of Niva parts, I sold them to a lady who bought my old Niva from her brother, and she was the one who had made the beads-for-Niva offer many months ago. Sometimes life is stranger than fiction. I still wouldn’t mind owning another Niva someday …
David, the Alberta plates on the red one give it away.
Datsun 510 lasts until 1988? Lada Niva doesn’t explode into a heap of rust immediately after leaving dealer lot? Must be from Alberta or BC interior.
I too looked at these with my father, but once the original Canadian Lada importer went under (taking warranty coverage with them) people were very gun shy about buying them and they quickly lost sales momentum.
Yes indeed it was Alberta. It was a 1978 Datsun 510 then he traded in early 1989. I did see it around for a few years after too.
I know EXACTLY who that importer was, a Mr M.T. who was infamous in the car business.
I remember a display of the Niva in a mall in Victoria, circa 1987. Every single one had a drip pan under the front differential.
He also brought in the Samara, which he claimed had a five year warranty. He sold a bunch of them and then simply walked away, leaving the owners will awful cars that didn’t run.
The really funny thing was Mr T had done exactly the same stunt with the Lada a few years before. He sold a load of them to Granola Women and then skipped town.
Another odd-ball here in North America. I do love the odd-balls for some reason. That weird facination has always made me stop and stare at the occasional Lada, Diatsu, or Citroen that made it to the states.
I wish I could’ve seen more European cars besides VW, MG, Mercedes and an occasional Volvo or Citroen, but I hadn’t seen my first Japanese car until I arrived in California enroute to my air force base in 1969!
To date, the only Russian car I have ever seen is the beat-up Trabant at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.
The weird stuff I kind of gravitate to, whether I would ever buy one or not. Go figure…
Trabant is not a Russian brand. It was made in the adorable city of Zwickau, in East-Germany. The technical base of Trabants came from pre-war DKWs. Nowadays, the workers assembly Volkswagens in the former Trabant plant.
Correction noted. Well, it was a communist-built car, so in my little mind, it counted as “Russian”! I guess that’s because I’m Russian by birth. Go figure – I still refer to the sirens used as storm/tornado warnings properly as “air raid” sirens, too. A child of the cold war.
The truth is that I am a young Hungarian from Budapest. That’s the reason why I can’t be able to write proper in english and why I know the Trabant and other socialist cars better than te average.
In their heydays, circa 300.000 Trabant and more than 600.000 Lada (Shiguli, or “Zsiguli” in hungarian) ran on the roads of my country. The average waiting time for a new Trabant was 6-8 years in the ’80s – though everybody got it somehow. Ladas were more modern and sophisticated cars – mutatis mutandis man had to pay much more for them.
JustPassinThru is right about the quality of these cars. There were just a handful American car in those times in Hungary – even the worst models of the Malaise Era impressed the people who were accustomed to 26 bhp Trabant or 45 bhp Skoda Estelle. Dacias rusted so fast that you could find holes on the rocker panel or fender after you had just received the new car from Merkur, the state-owned dealership network.
Ergo, all cars built in Europe are American, since capitalism is the predominant economic system in the EU.
Here in Ontario,if you have the misfortune of your vehicle breaking through a frozen lake and sinking, you are legally obligated to remove it,at your expense.
I personally witnessed a Niva going through the ice. The guys in it were not part of our group. With a little help we got them back to the cabins,wet, and cold,but otherwise, okay.
So later that night they came over to our cabin,with a gift bottle of Canadian Club to thank us. No mention was made,about “how ya gon’na get this thing out of 90 ft of water”
I figure that was 13, or so, years ago. To the best of my knowledge its still at the bottom of the lake.
Mikey, that sounds like a scene out of “Grumpy Old Men”!
Did the car wind up with a dead fish in it?
More likely live fish, as it was at the bottom of a lake! 😉
Never owned a Lada. As an American, I couldn’t. But I DID own a Communist-bloc car of castoff Fiat origins…a Yugo.
That’s a long story, of a two-year-old car at an unbelievably-low price that turned out to be a ripoff…everything imaginable went wrong with it; went wrong in cartoonish fashion, and generally cost lots of money and stomach-acid to get repaired. Generally, said repair would involve getting the damned thing out of the intersection or off-ramp or parking ramp; places it seemed to enjoy self-destructing.
Bottom line, though, is…as poor as we make out GM and Chryco cars to be, at times…they’re infinitely better-engineered than anything that comes out of a State-owned automobile factory. That’s true of Yugo; of Lada; of British Leyland or Renault in its France-owned days.
It isn’t hard to understand why: Zastiva, like most of these State-run concerns, was one giant employment project. The need was to get bodies into the plant and have them doing some semblance of work. And if they showed up drunk, or had an attitude…face it; in those societies, Yugoslavia or 1980s Britain or the Soviet Union, everyone had an attitude.
Including the State managers, who gave ZERO thought to the end user. What, is Comrade Boris going to go to his local Commissar and COMPLAIN about the QUALITY of his Lada? There were nice little communities in Siberia, intended for people just like him.
That kind of attitude toward the customer in a free-market, just doesn’t fly.
FWIW…I’ve spent extensive time in Canada; seen exactly three Ladas. One was dead in a service plaza on the QEW. Another was on a wrecker’s hook. The third was for-sale in someone’s front yard…good luck with that.
Renault state owned? Still is and has been since 1945. Guess you can say they own Nissan too.
Well at least in France you can buy a brand new Lada for around 8,000 euros.
Comrads unite!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault
“Privatisation and the alliance era (1996– )
It was eventually decided that the company’s state-owned status was detrimental to its growth, and Renault was privatized in 1996. This new freedom allowed the company to venture once again into Eastern Europe and South America, including a new factory in Brazil and upgrades for the infrastructure in Argentina and Turkey.
Signed on 27 March 1999, the Renault–Nissan Alliance is the first of its kind involving a Japanese and a French company, each with its own distinct corporate culture and brand identity, linked through cross-shareholding. Renault initially acquires a 36.8% stake at a cost of US$3.5 billion in Nissan, while Nissan in turn has a 15 percent stake (non-voting) in Renault. Renault continued to operate as a stand-alone company, but with the intent to collaborate with its alliance partner to reduce costs in developing new products. In the same year Renault bought 99% of the Romanian company Dacia, thus returning after 30 years, in which time the Romanians built over 2 million cars, which primarily consisted of the Renault 8, 12 and 20.”
…
It’s no longer owned by the French government; and quality has risen dramatically. Not a coincidence, IMHO and based on historical experience.
The Government of France own 15% of Renault.
You beat me to it…
Substantial part of VW owned by the government of Saxony too. Damn those Commies and their Bentleys!
In fact, east European cars were more than a passing fancy in Soviet Canuckistan, especially on the Left Coast, as it was in those days (and it certainly isn’t now!). The main reason was the cars were cheap but there was also a large component of Goddess Mother of the Universe types doing their best to end the slavery that is Capitalism. Lada cars were really popular in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, long the centre of Bolshevism on Vancouver Island. Right around the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the Lada had a real surge in sales by Granolas doing their best to spread Socialist Fraternity. A couple of years later, many Ladas graced back yards in Harewood, where all the Soviet supporters lived. The dealer was gone and the cars didn’t run! Many were in fact draft-dodgers.
And of course, the reason you didn’t see many is the cars fell apart, rust or generally blew up in a couple of years.
My wife worked for a Saab/BMW dealer in Ottawa that picked up a Lada franchise when they first entered Canada in 1978-79. Her recollection is that the Fiat 124-based cars only existed at the two extremes – buyers either got a decent, trouble free one, or a piece of garbage. There was seemingly no middle ground.
It’s nice to hear a story about such people getting what they deserve. I was in Jamaica in 1997. The countryside was littered with broken Ladas. There were at least three being cannibalized for every one of them still serving poorly as a taxicab.
You guys see this as a rare car not me hell we have a dealer here in Havana pacific an actual Lada dealer mind you its not every day I see a car but GEE Motors is still going and has an amazing array of stuff brave people they have Daewoo on their wall so these dudes can really fix cars
The signage survives today at the former dealer in Kingston, Ontario. Lada left Canada entirely about 1998, but I don’t think this location actually operated as a Lada dealer after the mid-’80s.
Whereabouts in Kingston is that? I spent some time there once (not THAT kind of time) and never noticed it.
There is, on Essa Road, in Barrie a used Volvo dealer that occupies a former Daewoo dealership and the still have the sign pillar with the Daewoo logo out front.
It’s on Bath Road (Hwy. 33) in Collins Bay.
Back in the mid to late 80s I used to read some of the offroad vehicle magazines – I think it was Four Wheeler that did a brief test of a Niva. IIRC they said it was reasonably capable off road.
It is very capable off road, somewhat less so on road!
I think LeMons really needs a Lada or two involved, if anyone can find one still more or less intact.
We got the Niva here in Australia in the late 80’s until early/mid 90’s – they were actually paid for in wheat rather than currency! Also the Samara hatch.
The Nivas were all gone through on arrival to make sure the driveline angles were set correctly, we also had an EFI version later. There was also a ute/pickup version available, where the vehicle was shipped from Russia to an eastern European country (can’t remember which >15yr later) where the rear panels were cut off and replaced before shipping to Australia.
I have never owned one and I think they are starting to become thin on the ground but they are an interesting vehicle. The Suzuki scene is so much stronger though…
I’ve know there was a pickup variant made in the Czech Republic but not sure where the Australian bound ones where made. Canada also got a pickup but they where made here in Halifax, NS.
http://oldcarjunkie.wordpress.com/2010/12/18/canadian-lada-niva-pickup/
That would have to be it I suppose
Very few vehicles look good when the parking lights/turn signals are placed above the headliights. The Niva front end reminds me of the late Groucho Marx, with his huge clown-paint eyebrows.
GM did manage to pull off the look well, in the 1961 Chevy Impala/Bel Air/Biscayne.
I think Ford did so as well with the 4th gen F- Series pickups and so did GM with the 1960-1966 pickups.
I was in Panama with my company from 95 -98 and these, along with Lada’s were fairly thick on the ground for the simple reason that
a. they were cheap.
b. people didn’t have a lot of money
c. in Panama there are no rules or at least none that can’t be overcome with a little cash.
Lots of Lada Taxis there. Taxi drivers loved them since they were easy to fix and parts from any year Lada were interchangeable. This was a big deal there since parts for any car could often be weeks away by ship – even in the 90’s. So, if something broke on your Lada and you couldn’t get parts you could either buy them from a wreck, steal them from a competitor’s taxi, or have them made. Couldn’t do this on a Toyota as every model year was slightly different and the cars were much more complex in design and execution.
Any Lada could be gotten running again with a brick, a screwdriver and a curse.
I saw the Niva there too and loved it. I could have bought one for about $6K and would have too if I could have been sure I could get into the states. I figured (wrongly I learn now) that they were a military-based design, and therefore rugged and simple. There was also a pretty fancy Korean SUV on the market there called something like the Ssongyong (lots of s’s and yongs in the name anyhow. They were nice – like a Grand Cherokee copy but they didn’t have that simple utilitarian appeal of the Niva.
Reading this, I’m glad I didn’t fall for the trap. In my heart I knew that it would be a disaster in progress kind of vehicle, but I kept picturing myself navigating that Niva through the snowy woods in Pennsylvania going out to get that 10-point buck. I managed to neglect the bit about having to walk 15 miles out of the woods after it stranded me somehow.
There! I think these are out of my system now… so I’m going to the garage and wrench a little on my old Alfa Spider.
Interesting. Some things change very little. I was in Panama with the Navy (Fort Amador/Farfan/Summit) from 72 to 76. While there I bought a new Jawa motorcycle for $500 that I loved but managed to kill. Not the bikes fault as I rode it into the Pacific at costa Del Mar. I sure wish I hadn’t killed that bike. The seller was a Canal Zone employee who wouldn’t sell me another. 70mph at 70mpg and most generally refused to be broken. That was the well earned reputation in Panama. Salt water does not compress as readily as pistons and rods so…..
Point being that it was generally held in low esteem in the states but not elsewhere. I think I would enjoy a Lada too. Might even keep it dry.
My dad had an “MZ” East German motorcycle when we lived in Australia in the 70s. A total piece of crap, it constantly broke down and leaked more oil than the Exxon Valdez. At least the belching blue smoke kept the mosquitoes away for a few minutes each morning.
Even as a little kid I could work out that there was something wrong with an economic system where the same culture that produced Mercedes could make such a dog.
Jawa motorcycles had cult status in the Eastern bloc.
As an owner of a 68’Jawa, I have to say that qualitywise it is just as good, as my 95’Honda v twin. The Niva, however, isnt.
I still like the Niva though…
Ahhh, memories! I had a red one just like in the photo, it ran great (bought for $200!), then traded it for a rare Canadian pick-up model (mistake – I should have kept the red one) that I saw at Pioneer auto in Edmonton. Good times…
I would never buy one now, though – I’m not a masochist/full time mechanic… however if I win the big lottery, I’ll get one for sure!
Hi there
My little red Lada Niva 1989….and I live in Australia in North Queensland. I love it!! She cute and TOUGH and she will go anywhere!
Interesting as always the debate on Lada’s or any vehicle for that matter as being ‘trustworthy’. I have had experience with old volkwagens, old Holdens (GM), old fords and without exception everyone one of these cars was quite reliable IF you used them as they were designed to be used and were reasonably competent at throwing spanners around. The same applies to Lada’s. I live in one of the remotest areas of Australia and have been betrayed by Toyota Cruisers, Nissan Patrols etc etc, not my cars though and too damnmodern to be fixed easily with a little time and the right parts to hand. Older cars like the Lada are not imbued with mystic resilience, however if their owners are tool savvy they show a surprising amount of versatility and can be fixed with hand tools. Try doing that with your current model Jeep.
The Niva may be the best little 4×4 ever. I’m actually trying to see if i can get a 2012 shipped to Toronto. Its a little tank! Keep it maintained and treat it with respect and i believe you could run it indefinitely. Great gas mileage, easy to work on 70’s technology. With the niva’s unbeatable 4 wheel drive system, nothing can stop you. Have a look on you-tube, there are 100’s of videos of niva’s going 4 wheeling, and leaving every other 4×4 in the dust (mud). Not to mention that it has rally car potential,yep on you-tube as well. 33miles per gallon folks. Add a winch, snorkel, and a spare gas can, and your going to deepest darkest Africa, or South America for your next vacation. Amazing people, just amazing. For the price, how can you fear it? Get out and buy one NOW…
It would cost a bleeding fortune to bring a 2012 model into Canada, as it would have to meet all our emission and safety standards.
But it’s only money.
These replaced the little Suzuki 4WD as the fun girl’s car for a time here in oz. I worked for one of these women and she was gorgeous. I do remember riding in the back of her ragtop version thinking it was a bit of a tin can, but she wasn’t the type to take it off-road. Didn’t know these were so capable off-road, but back then my attention wasn’t on the vehicle, just the driver.
Quite a few of them in the UK once,they were usually treated the same way a peasant treats a donkey and worked to death.I’ve an interest in Communist Bloc cars having had an FSO 125 p for 6 years.They were generally OK if crude cars but worthless if they broke and you couldn’t fix it yourself as a repair was often more than the car was worth when labour was added to a garage bill
Still available here (Austria) as well as some of the sedans/wagons, if you must have one of THOSE… A good off-road vehicle; most owners who use them as such swear by them. The thing about those and the Fiat 124 based sedan is – as noted above – that they are primitive enough to repair when they go wrong. A broken modern car is practically useless once you get to a certain point east of Moscow (no dealers, no spares); that’s the reason so many of the older models are still alive in Russia even today…
http://www.lada.at/lada-modelle/taiga.html
It has certainly been cars of my teen years around here lately. The canadian versions of these were so poorly assembled I remember my friend’s one was never taken off road because it was too risky that it would not start even with only 20,000 km on it. Promising design but terrible materials and workmanship. Field repairability is always touted by those whose cars needed it most. I would much rather have Landcruiser or even GM or Ford big pickup reliabilty if I was 100 miles from nowhere at 30 below zero.
The Canadian ones are sought after in Russia as they were better built than the home market ones!
My parents own or owned a 76 Rabbit, 87 900, 95 Voyager, 05 Sedona, and those are the only new vehicles they have ever bought. There might have been a late 1960s or early 1970s Beetle as well.
The Lada Niva is a cool 4X4 and there is a video of one being driven on England’s foot paths.
Uncle Fidel has a whole collection of them down in his Socialist Paradise. The Cuban government had a lot of 4 door Nivas used as police vehicles. Those are being replaced slowly by Chinese made cars, so we know now who is propping up the regime down there.
Neat little four wheeler David. I have one as well, and it has never needed any attention. That is because it is a 1/43 scale model. I’ll have to write it up for a Mini CC sometime.
It looks so realistic! In fact the real Lada probably used even shittier quality plastic!
I have a similar one in green. It is a key chain but crudely made.
Russian Lada will cover 300 hectares per thimble of kerosene!!
The first time I read this I LOLed @ the “beads-for-Lada” part. I can picture the person who thought this was a reasonable trade so perfectly. My own experiences trying to sell incredibly cheap cars haven’t been much better, although I’ve never gotten anything as weird as that.
The Niva is such a cool little truck. Being able to hand crank start a fuel injected engine is exactly the kind of insignificant and obscure detail that causes me great fascination. I actually never knew that, and now I’m going to obsess over it until I’m stupid enough to buy one for myself. I also didn’t realize Lada hung around so long in Canada; always assumed they barely made it into the 90s. Were they still selling the Samara and 1500/Signet up until 1998 too?
The rear drive cars were gone by the end of the 80s. The Samara went a year or two before the Niva. I only see Samaras in the wreaking yards and not very often any more.
Pretty neat little beastie. Never seen one before..
One of the greatest vehicles I ever owned was a 1988-ish UK-spec Lada Niva Cossack. Slow, heavy, loud inside (especially above 50mph), it was unstoppable in the dirt and just completely durable. Quite reliable, too, and easy to work on for the most part. Given that I was a student at the time, the heavier fuel consumption (compared to the poverty-spec hatchbacks that most students were running around in at the time) was worth it for mechanical reliability and ease-of-self-maintenance when necessary.
Being the upmarket (as much as you can be upmarket with a Lada) Cossack model, it had all sorts of very ’80s graphics all over it. Not completely dissimilar to the one below (which looks to be about a mid-’90s model), the shape reflected its utilitarian aesthetic well and held up over time even as styling trends changed. Mine had a full-width nudge bar at the front, steel rims, and… Not much else in the way of differences. It’s possible that the one pictured is a later model with the 1.7-litre injected engine, but mine had the 1600cc carbed unit.
Speaking of the carburettor: diagrams for them may as well have been for the warp drive of the Starship Enterprise. They made sense when you took the units apart, but I remain convinced to this day that the complexity of the diagram was the subtle equivalent of a modern ‘NO USER-SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE’ sticker – basically, scare the home mechanic back into the dealership for work on that particular item rather than encouraging them to take the DIY approach.
One bit of trivia: I believe that these were the first full-production monocoque 4x4s with all-coil suspension (independent front; solid-axle rear). Someone can correct me if I am wrong on that, but given where and when they were developed, it’s interesting to note that the Niva defined the basic suspension and body type that most 4x4s (and later crossovers) eventually adopted, although rear suspensions have been moving to an independent layout in those vehicles over the past few years.
Loved it. Would happily own another one, if I could just get A/C in it – and running A/C didn’t cause oil starvation issues, which the South Africans found out about in theirs the hard way…
It’s unforgivable, considering how well they were built, that they were never offered here in North America.
While it is definitely a shame that they were never sold in the US (Canada did get them, and I’ve been toying with the idea of bringing one down), something I should probably clarify is why I chose a very specific word (“durable”) to describe the Niva: this was a vehicle that had some very good engineering behind it that was offset by atrocious (by Western standards) build quality.
To put this in perspective, I was fortunate to have a UK-spec model. The importer at the time put every vehicle that came in through a process of fixing everything that the factory in Togliatti couldn’t be bothered to do or produce properly before the car went on sale. They referred to this process as rectification, and a good number of cars that went through it made 1970’s BL products look like they’d been made by Rolls-Royce by comparison.
In essence, quality control in the Soviet factories was basically nonexistent: if something pretty much fit, it was good enough. If nobody could see that something was missing or damaged, that was also generally good enough. Bad paint? Blame it on transit. Either way, it’s the importer’s problem, and it’s not as though anyone on the home market is likely to complain; they’ve been waiting for their vehicle for a few years, so they’ll take what they can get.
For as great of a vehicle as they were, they were very much a product of the time and place in which they were manufactured. I really loved mine, but they could never be considered a high-quality product – cheap and durable, definitely, but with everything that goes along with that, for better or for worse. However, it gave them a ton of character and that is something that you can’t design in.
That’s true, no car company is perfect, by North American standards of car building, Russian car quality standards are, at best, atrocious.
I’ll give Ladas credit: they weren’t up to Western or Japanese build standards, but they were at least honest about what they were – no-frills motoring that generally worked as expected, and not horribly complicated or expensive to fix when something did go wrong. From that standpoint, they were quite good – but fit and finish (as well as modernisation) was where they fell short, and buying them on the cheap as used cars always made more sense than buying them new.
That said, the Lada Samara was utter garbage. Where the Riva and Niva were at least durable, the Samara was disposable. Being Lada’s first serious attempt at a FWD vehicle, it suffered from being horribly underdeveloped in just about every way possible and unreliable to boot. There was one thing that it was good at, though, and that was demonstrating that there were far better vehicular choices that one could make.
With the possible exception of the FSO Polonez, which was much, much worse, but that’s a completely other discussion…
I’ve heard of the Lada Samara, and I’ve seen pictures of one, although I’ve never actually seen one in person. I thought it was ugly looking. I’d prefer durable over disposable. Never mind fit and finish. I’d prefer to have enough parts on hand to be able to perform maintenance when needed.
There is plenty of companies in Russia, that fit aftermarket a/c units on Nivas and they seem to acctually work.
Ive heard a rumor, that from 2015 a/c units are gonna be standart equipment for Nivas on the Russian market.
Indeed there is no A/C option to this day – I asked the Austrian dealer and his response was that by having a sun-roof and opening the windows, you get plenty of ventilation and a Taiga was not a vehicle you would consider spending 8 hours non-stop on a hot day anyway… Somehow I can see his point in respect of cars sold in Europe – I never found I needed A/C just for the two weeks per year where temps hover around the 90-100 F. The Russian A/C units are not, EU compatible, he added (old Freon 12 gas etc.) – I would assume the same would be for the Canadian market. But they now have PAS, heated seats, ABS and Euro-5 emission rating conform engines, so:) And if you want, they’ll kit you one out for LPG with obvious savings in fuel costs.
“The Russian A/C units are not, EU compatible, he added (old Freon 12 gas etc.)”
This is not true. In fact, it is highly likely, that the aftermarket a/c units installed on the Niva are made in the EU or US. Just like the GM and Bosch injection systems. And I am saying this as a russian, who worked as a mechanic for some years.
I dont know what PAS means (passanger air bags?), but everything else is true, including LPG.
PAS = Power Assisted Steering.
I’ve been doing some reading up on the more modern Nivas, and it looks as though there were at least two different A/C units fitted. One was the troublesome South African unit, which I believe was using a York-type compressor (but have no firm verification of that); the other was typically a Mitsubishi or Sanden unit, and supposedly fairly reliable. In all cases, available evidence suggests that these units were fitted by the importer in each territory, not the factory.
Further, the issues with the South African models was apparently caused by the oil pumps not being able to cope with the added drag induced by the compressor, which would starve oil to the #4 cylinder. Basically, the A/C system itself was fine – it was just more than the oil pump had been designed to cope with. Can’t really fault Lada for that, and in my opinion the importer should have known better than to fit it.
If I were doing one of these as a modern daily driver, I’d consider making three upgrades: fitting a much-uprated alternator (and associated mains wiring), electric power steering (with bleed-off at speed), and adding Japanese A/C along with a larger radiator and higher-capacity fans. In the 100degF daily temperatures we have here over the summer, it would make it a good, usable, unusual runner.
… and the interior is now somewhere on or about 1982…
The “cool” graphics are also still around, updated to 2001… Maybe (pic from Lada Austria’s site)
I’ve heard of the Lada Niva before, and I’ve seen pictures of the Lada Niva, but I’ve never seen one in person. When you consider the political tension between the USA and the Soviet Union, I’d be surprised if any ever made their way anywhere on North American soil.
I think the only Ladas I’ve seen in the US were in Washington, DC in the late 1980s, where they were then-Soviet Embassy cars with diplomatic plates. We liked to joke that the two-letter diplomatic code for the USSR, “FC”, stood for “F***ing Communists”.
There are a few in the US currently – mostly imported via Canada when they (or some VIN) reached 25+ years old.
There are a few running around Southern California. I haven’t had a chance to get a good look at them, but from what I have seen at least a couple are Fiat 124s that have been rebadged as Ladas. We’ve got a huge ex-Soviet / ex-Russian population here, so my guess is that those cars are someone having a bit of nostalgic fun.
Funnily enough, there are a surprising number (by which I mean perhaps a dozen) of Volgas that have popped up in this part of the world in the last few years, and quite a few (again, maybe a couple of dozen) ’50s and ’60s Skodas making the rounds. And a few Tatras, and two Fiat 126s that I know of (though neither is a 126P, from what I recall).
I love entries on cars like this that I know nothing about. Very cool.
This is the latest version updated for 2014, but the older one is still available.
http://www.drive.ru/news/lada/53abe77195a656fc3c8b457b.html
I wouldn’t mind picking up a Skoda up in Canada. Has anyone seen one up there lately?
I actually saw a white 1989 Skoda 135 GLi in Vancouver last summer. Apparently the owner is the head of the Skoda Club. He may know of one for sale.
skoda@skodacanada.ca
I’ve never seen a Lada Niva in Canada, but I remember seeing a Skoda. Once I was in Vancouver BC with my family. I saw one parked in a parking lot. I thought it was a neat little car. I’ve seen pics of the car, but I’ve never seen one in person. I wish I had my smart phone on me at the time.
We had quite e few here in Italy, mainly used into the mountains for their excellent OR capability. Not many survived, but I’d say more for a matter of fashion than other. Rustproofing got better in time, and ready availability of Fiat parts from scrapyards made them incredibly cheap to run and modify. You can still admire a lot of Nivas competing in autocross or extreme trial events, where they seem to fare better than more recent japanese tools. I am surprised to read so many complaints about its reliability, for I never heard any of those disaster stories. here. As far as I can recall, it always enjoyed the reputation of a rugged little allrounder.
I presently own 4 Nivas. 3 parts 1 runner. I love them, I really wish they were still sold in Canada, they are the only car I’d consider buying new.
I am looking for a 4×4 Lada Niva Engine.
Why do you need it? I can help you acquire in Russia. I live here. You can also order the necessary spare parts for this car. I do not do it professionally, but happy to help … https://www.avito.ru/rossiya/avtomobili/vaz_lada/4x4_niva?f=188_782b
Ladas were Junk…
I travelled all over Central America from 1987-1997 and saw Ladas everywhere. As noted above they were vey prominent in Panama.