Badge Engineering

[FarmerPug]

and the lada was a fiat, in fact a lot of soviet cars were old fiats or renaults rehashed to be worse than they were originally.

Toyota in the past has had trouble deciding wheather its cars are lexusses or toyota, the landcruiser was available with an L and the is200 is available with the toyota logo.

[sirwiggum]

Aye big Hondas are sold as Acuras in the US.

[FarmerPug]

infinity have come over here to the uk, they seem like a bit of a flop, the renault velstatis was more of a success.

[lozz]

and the lada was a fiat, in fact a lot of soviet cars were old fiats or renaults rehashed to be worse than they were originally.

Toyota in the past has had trouble deciding wheather its cars are lexusses or toyota, the landcruiser was available with an L and the is200 is available with the toyota logo.

Lada was Russian,
Yugo had links with fiat but icarnt see anything on a lada that resembled a fiat and ive had a few of them,
they where solid cars Heavy on the Steering tho,

[sirwiggum]

and the lada was a fiat, in fact a lot of soviet cars were old fiats or renaults rehashed to be worse than they were originally.

Toyota in the past has had trouble deciding wheather its cars are lexusses or toyota, the landcruiser was available with an L and the is200 is available with the toyota logo.

Lada was Russian,
Yugo had links with fiat but icarnt see anything on a lada that resembled a fiat and ive had a few of them,
they where solid cars Heavy on the Steering tho,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_124

[lozz]

and the lada was a fiat, in fact a lot of soviet cars were old fiats or renaults rehashed to be worse than they were originally.

Toyota in the past has had trouble deciding wheather its cars are lexusses or toyota, the landcruiser was available with an L and the is200 is available with the toyota logo.

Lada was Russian,
Yugo had links with fiat but icarnt see anything on a lada that resembled a fiat and ive had a few of them,
they where solid cars Heavy on the Steering tho,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_124

they may of based it on a fiat but theres no fiat parts in a lada,

lada was a cheap Afordable car throw away cars back in the day,
ive had them that where 2 years old and payed no more than £50 for them excellent car for banger racing .

the russians are buying them back for good money not many left in the uk nowadays

[FarmerPug]

my dad said a lada was there to make british leyland stuff seem reliable and more appealing.
he had a skoda.

[lozz]

my dad said a lada was there to make british leyland stuff seem reliable and more appealing.
he had a skoda.

The Ladas where very Reliable believe it or not We referd to them as The skip on wheels,
the body on them where like iron and the bumpers had impact springs,

only problem ihad with them was gear stick come out in my hand had to drive the thing a mile in reverse hard work but got back,
oh and them things where Heavy on the Steering
Very very economical tho once the fuel light came on there was a good 60 mile left ,

a cheap car of the day many people bought one to tide them over till they saved up for something abit more better looking and more comfier the Lada was one of them cars you bought with a Giro
the Yugo was the next budget car after there Lada ithink they where around a fiver difernce in value

[FarmerPug]

economical.
my mum said a lada rental car she had had a fuel needle that moved faster than the car.

[DaiRees]

why you would buy this as opposed to an a4 i dont know:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_Exeo

Strangely enough I've been thinking about that 'cos them there exeo thingies are pretty cheap to lease.

[DaiRees]

[The Ladas where very Reliable believe it or not We referd to them as The skip on wheels

The lada niva was a great 4X4 very reliable and good off road performance, problem was they were build out of cheese, if you put a spanner on any nut it'd round off....

Very very economical tho once the fuel light came on there was a good 60 mile left

I love forum logic, it could just be that the fuel light came on when there were 4 gallons left

[sirwiggum]

Lada Niva I think used the XUD engine?

Rivas were rugged but not dynamically great in terms of steering and brakes.

The Russians bought them back because UK spec cars were usually better specced than the domestic ones.

Yugos, there's a last from the past.
A friend from school whos parents were like something out of "keeping up appearances" - they had one as a second car to use day-to-day when they wanted to keep the Rover 214SLi good for going to church in.
Uncomfortable from what I remember, sent every bump and drain grating up through the suspension into the car.
But I did admire the fact that it was an honest, basic car. The type of thing that's missing from the market nowadays.

A neighbour had one of the bigger ones, a Yugo Sana that looked a bit like a rounded Fiat Tipo.
I think production ended when NATO bombed Kosovo to make peace occur in the military-industrial complex logic of world affairs.

[FarmerPug]

for about a year my mum had a skoda favorit, i cant remember how exactly it replaced the micra, but it may have had something to do with 5 doors. The favorit was apparently the turning point for skoda, but it still was not great, the engine sounded worse than a diesel, but yet drank a lot, and the steering was very heavy.

the lada seems to avoid the gumtree bad sales pitch issue:
http://belfast.gumtree.com/belfast/51/70674151.html
http://belfast.gumtree.com/belfast/05/74534305.html

[sirwiggum]

You find that collectors cars on Gumtree, like Ladas and XMs tend to have fairly well written adverts.
Its the bog standard cars that are sold by mashing a keyboard.

Always liked the Felicia, which was something of a rebodied Favourit. Learnt to drive in one, and they are reasonably cheap, practical in estate form, basic honest motoring.
Jack and Victor in Still Game bought one too

[ToddM]

I could talk to you about Ladas all day and night long - I'm Bulgarian. Back in communist times you had to wait a certain period of time to get a new car and my granddad did just that back in August 1969. He ordered a Жигули(Pronounced Zhiguli) ВАЗ 2101 which was basically a Fiat 124 but built to last. The car arrived in June 1971 (.. I told you about the waiting list and I wasn't messing ) and what a beauty she was. She's been worked hard, gone across Europe back in the 70s and 80s several times due to my grandma who was studying in Germany at the time. This car, believe it or not, is still running today, over 40 years old and hasn't got a single issue with it. It's been battered and bruised, stolen in 95 if I'm not mistaken and used for an armed robbery and surprisingly the Opel (Vauxhall) Astras and Vectras (Cavalier for you guys) couldn't keep up with it.. that is until they spun travelling at around 80mph on an icy section of road and it went through a brick wall. Yes it went through a brick wall, with the rear end first and all they had to do was get a new rear window, boot lid and a pair of taillights The rest was just a little elbow grease to straighten the panels out and a little filler. Actually to this day some of the bolts say FIAT on them, so did the original carb before it was replaced by a pair of Webbers. Talking about heavy steering.. I learned to drive on that thing and trust me it wasn't easy Also the gear levers on them tend to stick out through the roof etc just like the 124. A lot of their parts were Fiat-sourced BUT the metal on them was thicker and they had better corrosion protection. You can pick up an engine from an 80s and early 90s Fiat and it would slot pretty much straight in with hardly any modifications but the biggest plus side of the 2101 was that it was rear wheel drive so a hell of a lot of fun once you've got a punchier engine in there. The name Zhiguli was replaced by Lada (The Greek goddess of beauty.. isn't that a tad ironic? ) due to the fact it sounded quite similar to the word gigolo. Basically most of the cars that came out of Lada plants that weren't 2101 or 21011s (Meatier engines) were quite bad, except for the Niva. Sadly, that's the only versions you've seen here in Western Europe. Back in the old country a car is kind of for life, not something you throw away once you're finished and I guess that's why I'm so emotionally attached to my 406