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.
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.
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?
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…
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
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 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.
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…