Okay now, pipe down AMC fans, I’m not suggesting equivalence but rather, a similar role within AvtoVAZ’s corporate history. Developing new cars costs a lot of money, and a lot of automakers have found that a large investment in a new model has failed to save them from changing circumstances. Nevertheless, such cars often continue to be built for years under worsening financial conditions and later, changed ownership. Such was the case for both the later AMCs and more recent Ladas.
The Lada 112 is a development of the 111 and 110 models, but in actuality, all rely on the 1984 Sputnik/Samara for a lot of their basic technology and were never truly new cars. As most here already know, much the same be said for Kenosha’s cars following the ’63 Rambler and especially, their smaller cars following the ’70 Hornet which, using one of the company’s final all-new body shells over tried and true mechanicals, was conceived as one of the last traditional American compacts.
Chopped-down variants, some with four-cylinder power, were assigned import fighting duty while broughamification and all-wheel-drive kept the cars going until Renault could step in and build its own models alongside them, giving the basic Hornet a seventeen year lifespan.
In AvtoVAZ’s case, the Samara/Sputnik was conceived to give Soviet citizens a less rustic basic transportation device and to serve as a more competitive export. Its 1984 debut left it to languish alongside more sophisticated European competition and worsening economic conditions at home; sound familiar?
But it was an honest design, and with help from Porsche, its engineering was up-to-date enough to last, if not impress. All the while, development of new models continued and the first 110 concepts were hatched in the dark days of the early ’90s; the rebodied car finally hit the market in the 1995.
This 112, another of the rather rare and bizarre cars caught in Germany by r0b0tr10t, is little changed from the 110 and, under the skin, is similar to the original Samara/Sputnik. Though phased out in 2010, it essentially remains in production as the Priora, (a 2007 rebody which AvtoVAZ hopes won’t be rejected a priori based on buyers’ experiences with the 110/111/112!). The Samara itself stopped being built in 2013, seeing its maker through a painful privatization, a failed joint venture with GM and, in 2012, a merger with–who else?–Renault-Nissan (who now build derivatives of their own models in its place).
Related reading: Junkyard Classic: 1988 Lada Samara – The Modern Lada
Soviet Saab 9000? That what the styling said to me, although it also makes me think a bit of the various large Citroens, kind of like a stubby CX.
The later AMCs are more my taste, all in all, but it ain’t easy being an under-capitalized automaker regardless of what continent you reside on.
Citroen yeah..But the model I thought of was the ZX..Or the Yugo Sana
Looks more Citroën than Saab to me.
LOL.
I just noticed from Wikipedia that the Lada badge is a shallow draught Viking Longboat.
The British brand Rover used a Viking Ship in their badge.
I think this badge could be bad luck.
I love that blacked out AMC Eagle in the picture above.
Totally. And without the wood tone, it shows how well Teague’s styling translated into the ’80s.
That first picture of the Hornet SC360 and the Sportabout were taken on Kenosha’s lakefront, with our beautiful lighthouse in the background.
I kind of like the 112. Very Citroën-esque.
Yes, the Eagle was great. First SUV I can remember. BMW copied the styling years later.
To me, it looks a little like the European mk5 1990 Ford Escort, with a Citroen front end.
Those familiar with the thousands of Russian dash-cam videos on YouTube will see these being smashed up/destroyed regularly. Although the Fiat 124 based VAZ 2101 and its derivatives take the lions share of being driven to death.
That got me thinking: What happened to Lada’s Fiat connection?
This would make a sort of relational Round Trip possible: Lada→Fiat→Chrysler→AMC.
I agree, though I was thinking of the 95-00 “Mk7” escort.
Perry,
Although it is a peripheral detail, not central to the Lada-AMC comparison, this statement deserves further elaboration:
“with help from Porsche, its engineering was up-to-date enough to last, if not impress.”
Porsche working with Lada on the Samara during the 1980s is news to me, and both Porsche and Eastern Bloc cars are subjects that I have followed quite a bit. Can you provide further details on how it happened, and what Porsche’s contribution to the design was? Was it encouraged by the government of West Germany as part of its Ostpolitik?
Probably the latter. I know Porsche helped with the engine design, as they helped Skoda with its Favorit’s engine. There’s speculation Porsche helped with more than that; I’m not so sure about that. It’s clear the Soviets were perfectly capable of amazing feats of engineering; it was usually issues of production and supply that hamstrung them when it came to consumer goods. So it’s quite possible Porsche probably didn’t need to help with more than the engine design, especially with the Soviet system cranking out plenty of perfectly capable engineers and architects/designers. But who knows?
If you can dig up anything very specific and credible to flesh this all out, please share. These aren’t the most popular Lada cars, so unless one knows Russian, it can be hard to find info.
I will be happy to look. It is an interesting missing link, in the English-speaking world at least, in the history of both Porsche and Eastern bloc cars.
actually Porsche did (and still does) lots of, also rather odd seeming engineering-jobs for other companies just check this out: http://www.porscheengineering.com/peg/en/about/history/
I was driving samara, and now i am driving lada 112, and the story about porsche’s involving in design of samara in my noledge is that porsche designed gearbox (I dont know about other), and that was very interesting fact in that time and gearbox was very, very good, and from my car experience, which was an old car, it was like new after all those years, first with short stick in ladas, that i have seen.
It is an old topic, but anyway i sent this to you. (in our language this past time make sense, i dont know does it in english)
I’ve heard the Porsche story before.
What a weird-ass belt line. Maybe they were trying to avoid a high-roof wagon look, like a Dodge Colt Vista. Maybe it’s sharing architecture with another model. Maybe they thought it looked good.
It has all of the function of a sedan with the athleticism of a minivan and leaves one curious.
Compared to today’s cars that is a light airy greenhouse. Modern designers could take note.
Actually, it was – or at least was considered to be – a brand new design. At least the body was all-new and not a carryover; many chassis components were inherited from or based on the Samara, though, as well as engine and drivetrain (the former soon to be replaced by a more modern 16-valve twin-cam unit).
Won’t agree with the author’s comparison to the Hornet, though; in fact, the 2110 was widely recognized as quite a breakthrough for Lada at the time, and the investment in its production was made by the Soviet government before the fall of the Union, so Lada itself luckily escaped its unfortunate implications, while still harvesting all the benefits. Early to mid 1990s were actually a very good and optimistic period of time for the AutoVAZ, when it could freely reap the benefits from investments made by the Soviet state in the precious decade; crisis became imminent much later, when the Soviet-designed models became too outdated even for the home market, and competition coming from the foreigh-built cars became much tighter. The alliance with Renault was an acceptable way out, from the business point of view (but still very bitter from the patriotic one).
I remember that in 1994 when the Lada 2110 / 110 was shown on public for the first time its “candy” styling was praised as almost-futuristic. However very soon it became dated and ugly details like rear wheel arches and grille-less frontal styling became much more obvious. All in all, I’d say it was one of the worst Lada cars styling-wise. The only relatively good looking one was IMHO the Lada 111 wagon, but the grille-less front end was still there – and still ugly as hell until being replaced by a more competent design about 2005. There also was an extremely ugly “coupe” (3-dr hatch) version.
I learned to drive in my Dad’s white 1998 Lada 110, along with (also white) Lada Niva which we shared. Just like many of them, it had an aftermarket “double kidney” (BMW-esq) grille. It felt like a decent car to me back then (early 2000s), and I still kinda like the early interior with its “driver orientated” (in BMW sense of this word) dashboard. It was also mechanically reliable, despite having the early Lada (= GM) Electronic Fuel Injection, which was still in its infancy in late-1990s and therefore relatively problematic.
By the way – this car was, and may still be, produced in Ukraine, at mr. Poroshenlko’s BOGDAN plant (pure 110, 11 and 112 – not the updated Priora).
I knew about the Ukrainian production; I just figured it might not have continued after the recent coup.
As for the Hornet, its body was new, but a lot of its engineering was shared with previous models and that’s where the comparison comes in.
Thanks for the info, though; it’s hard to get an accurate understanding of it all without knowing Russian. The standard consensus is that under the skin, a lot was shared with Samara/Sputnik. But perhaps it’s best to compare this car to the Yugo Sana/Florida and Skoda Favorit, which were also late communist designs (though I believe the Yugo had a lot of Fiat engineering and Yugoslavia wasn’t part of the Eastern Bloc).
I figured the early ’90s were terrible times for practically everyone; I guess the late ’80s investments were enough for that not to be the case.
Well, I’d say that by domestic standards Lada 110 had just the normal percentage of carryover parts to be considered a brand new car; interchangeability of parts was (and largely still is) crucial. The Samara is always considered to be a different line of cars, despite mechanical similarities. To me, they always related to each other like, e.g., 2004 Dacia Logan I and 2012 Dacia Logan II.
After some thinking – there is, indeed, some resemblance to the AMC products – there was a (limited production) 4×4 version !
Perry didn’t see that one coming!
Haha no, I didn’t. Is it the 112 body on Niva mechanicals?
Despite all of the negative reviews the Lada received when it arrived in America, the Lada 112 in the picture is a very nice looking car.
There were also limited run of “hot sedan” 110 with 2 litre / 150 hp Opel engine and widened wheel arch for fraction of Opels price.
Probably Lada’s problems reason was their buissnes affair with GM, you know: SAAB, Pontiac etc.
That would’ve been really cool. So would’ve a Samara/Sputnik with the 140-hp Wankel.
Once Lada was the most popular marque in Hungary, one in every five passenger car was a Lada. But in the 1990’s, every other brand came to our tiny country, and Lada became unmarketable . Suzuki and Opel were the new trend, because they both had an assembly plant in Hungary. The importeur, HungaroLada desperatly wanted to break through with the 110 line, but it was too little, too late.
The 110 looked, went and was built like a bad 1980’s car. Brand new cars came to customers with certain quality issues, but people at the importeur said “That’s it, not repairable.”
It had only two advantages: it was cheap, and the body had ample room. 110 only got some attention by old people from little villages in the countryside, who wanted a simple new car, and they had good experiences with all kind of Ladas in the socialist era.
But most buyers rather chose a Suzuki Swift Sedan, or Daewoo Nexia, or Opel Astra F (if they had enough money). Or a used Astra. Or a used everything else but not Lada.
I think it’s better looking than the AMC Hornet. I don’t know if it’s more reliable, but it’s certainly more attractive. 🙂
Dacia Logan Sport is beautiful and aggressive car with wonderful dynamics. I like its style and hope will be able to buy it soon, as for such car it is quite cheap and luxury.