In USSR they started produce Lada 2107 model in 1982, it was the last model of "classic" rear drive Lada series 2101-2107 based on Italian Fiat 124. Could be different engines from 1.2L to 1.6L, different body panels, but brake system, clutch (hydraulic), rear diff, suspension and so on were exactly the same for all models from 2101 to 2107. I owned Lada 2107 with 5 speed transmission, bought it brand new in 2005 in Ukraine. It was last year they produced carburator 2107. Service manual in Hungarian, not Russian. Front brake pads are Russian. Exhaust part in the middle is resonator, not needed catalytic converter for carburator versions. Brake cylinders were leaking often because of bad quality of rubber parts, like other brake or clutch system parts with rubber. Rear diff was always noisy, even on brand new cars. it was not possible to adjust carburator properly. People often bypassed that rear brakes valve... Parts shouldn't be a problem, because they're still making them in post soviet countries and this models were mass produced and a lot of them are still on roads. Parts will be much cheaper than shipping, but quality of those parts will be awful...
my familie did own a lada/volga dealership in Belgium.one of my first cars was a 2101,i did put a 1600cc engine in it .after a year i drove a 1300S for a year.
Im from Poland and i had same Lada 2107 1500cc, was my first car, and it was great, simple reliable and comfortable car, it was not so fast, especialy with 4 speed transmission, but there were 5 speed versions. It will never let you stranded on a road :) Take care Wizard, Your wife have great sesnse of humor ;) God bless you both.
@@Claude_CJ_Vercetti Nah the export versions were worse. Internal ones didn't have a cat and the export versions didn't get the 1.6 which is a ridiculously capable engine for how dreary it is stock. Other than that there's really no major differences between them. The quality on all of them went downhill fast after the Union was dissolved, same deal with the Volga's except the quality drop off on those was way worse than the VAZ's.
This car brings a lot of nostalgia to me. My mother and I left communist Cuba when I was 7 years old , my father remained in the island after I was able to return back to see him I spent a whole summer building ones of these exact 2107s in his front lawn when I was 11 - all you really need is 3 wrenches and 4 to 5 sockets and the whole car can be assembled. All I can say is that this car single handedly made me in a car enthusiast / mess around with my cars. Good Memories in this car with my pops
I went to Cuba in 2017 and sought out the Lada taxis. There was just something about them that made them so neat, especially with all of the mods they’ve had over the decades.
My family has owned several of these. They were common in Canada. They can go 152kph with a 5spd. (100kph = 62mph) . Some came with GM fuel injection, and there was a Canada only, and very rare, option where they installed Chevette automatics. Your hoist lift points are where the jack that comes with the car goes in. They came with wipers for the headlamps sometimes. Regarding the Volvo look, when the local Lada dealer got a Volvo dealership they were funny to see side by side. When looking for parts, you can google "Canada Lada Parts:" to find some,. You would be looking for Lada 1500 (engine size and model number in the same), Lada 2107, or Lada Signet, which is what they were badged here in Canada. The knob next to the clock tilts your headlamps, so you can run your brights on a foggy or snowy day without getting glare back. The stereos were dealer installed. The fog lamp looking switch in the console brightens your rear lamps to increase visibility...a foglight eseeentially. My first car was a Lada Signet Wagon. :-}
You forgot to warn him to check what way back end swings when brakes lock, as it is individual thing :) I know it is less pronounced on 2105/2107, but can be unpleasant if you do a harsh breaking and don't expect that.
In Russia, such frets are popular with young people who want to drift, weld the rear differential, replace the cylinder heads, put other piston ones, put turbocharging, make a big turn with the front wheels, and your first car is ready to drift! There are craftsmen who install the BMW gearbox with gaskets
The Car is originally from Hungary At 6:10 the green lamp is the control light of trailer indicators and i know it because it was the law only in Hungary and the lamp is also from this land. It flashes only if the blinker works on your trailer properly The windshield was made in Hungary too 😂 (SalgóGlas)
Togliatti's finest. I passed my driving test in a Lada 1500 wagon. That service manual is in Hungarian. In Europe you can find parts everywhere, Lada clubs everywhere, and Ladas like this will outlive most of today's touchscreen wonders. Yes, the steering is heavy!
Had to have some "pipes" for cars with no power steering ,or oversized steering wheel like Mercedes had for decades in case the power steering died It was called "Zsiguli" first, written with cirillic alphabet ." LADA" name came a couple years later ,so most Europeans could read it too..
As someone who actually grew up with those cars back in the days, I can assure you that you have the top of the line Lada 2107. This was basically the 7 series of Lada, fully loaded. Unfortunately you have one of the few with the 4 speed tranny. Very rare. Most of them had the 5 speed. When I was growing up, my buddy and I used to race our Ladas. His dad had the 2107 and ours was 2108. This video brings some many memories... I am jealous. You really have to get it up in the RPMs and she can do doughnuts all day long. With the 5 speed, those things will run 100mph until they overheat and the oil gets to above and beyond hot... :) It was not unusual tow a trailer with a metric ton of weight with one of those. The harness on the trailer hitch is simply just for the lights. Your turn signal add on is definitely aftermarket. Your middle button between the headlight switch on and off and the rear defroster is the rear fog light.
Hey, my first car was 2106, but with the same 1500cc engine like the one Wizard got. And my dad had a station wagon variant of this 2107 with the 5-speed tranny. These could definitely do 90 mph even with the 4-speed, but yeah, they do tend to overheat when going at that speed for a long time
6:52 it's in hungarian. If it wasn't for me speaking the language, the giveaway is russians don't use the latin alphabet they print cyrillic letters. Anyway Rob says in the first video when he got it that it was imported from Hungary.
My wife's father was from Hungary. He bugged out soon after the Russians arrived(?) in 1956(?). Perhaps it was because they thought he was involved in that year's insurrection. He'd say Ruskie nem yo.
@@obsoleteprofessor2034 He very well might've been involved. it was the kinda thing young college students did. Girls making molotov cocktails so guys can chuck them on top of T-34 tanks rolling on the narrow streets of Budapest.
@@obsoleteprofessor2034 Depends on how old he is, might've been after WW2 or 1956. Also, from what I've heard you wanna bug out before the russkies arrive.
They sold these in Canada for a number of years. Test drove a new one in 1979. It drove like a tractor. I remember the seats were upholstered in a fabric that looked like it was taken from Russian military uniforms! They used to advertise - "You Got a Lada Car for Your Money"! The Lada convinced me to buy a new 1979 Honda Accord. I still own that car!
My 1980 Lada lasted 6 years.....rusted to nothing.....not a car for people who know nothing about cars....because of Canada's Climate then had to change the points twice a year......carb used to get gummed up as well and rebuilt that a few times.. but it was cheap.
I'd kill for that particular model. I have the service manual in English and Russian (my second language) for that particular one, and honestly, I love the cars for being rugged, simple, fun to drift, and easy to modify. (And with my Niva, the few parts I replaced I machined myself.)
You could 5 speed swap this really easy if you manage to find a gearbox. Makes driving much more enjoyable. I used to have one and actually supercharged it with an old small screwcharger. It turned out pretty fun little thing
Hi there Wizard. I'm from Bulgaria. My grandfather had a 2107 lada like this and i drove it when i got my licence at 18y. These were pretty much the only cars we had around here 20y ago. Please give it some respect :). Btw the clock is original. Our lada had 5 speed. It is 73hp i believe the motor and ours had the blinkers in the dash not on top of the vent. It was 1987y made. Cheers!
I knew a married couple who holidayed Bulgaria in 1990 - a real novelty just after the fall of communism. They befriended a family whilst there & the husband/ father came to the UK to work for 8-9 months, staying with my friends. He sent money home & also saved enough to fly his brother over here AND buy 2 Lada's. They returned to Bulgaria driving the Lada's.
Small Lada 1200 was 60 horse 1300 was 68 and the 1500 75 same as the 1500 Polski Fiat at the time .also built under FIAT licence..The FIAT 124 was the Car of the Year in Europe If I'm not misteken in 1967? 3 years earlier the FORD came out with the Mustang
Growing up in 90's Poland that brings back some memories. They were absolutely everywhere alongside Fiat 124 and 125p called 'Maluch', FSO Polonez, FSO Warszawa, Trabant and of course Syrena. My God how it all changed so damn quick.
I had FIVE Ladas at one time or another--apart from the engine temperature sensor and the two stage thermostat, nothing ever went wrong with them AS LONG AS ONE CHANGED THE TIMING BELT EVERY FIFTY THOUSAND KILOMETERS. When you buy a used LADA, the FIRST thing you do is replace the timing belt. They did legendary mileages--built from the same steel as a 100mm tank cannon--the engines were superb little motors and used in all sorts of machinery besides cars. The one used on farms was the four wheel drive version--not the sedan. Roof racks were not standard, but the fittings for them sometimes were. The VAZ engine for these came in two sides and the body was either two doors for the 1300 version or four doors for the 1500 version. % speed gearbox, and would run flat out all day--and great for long distance driving, and we have some REALLY crap roads in Australia, and the Ladas were supplied with a purchaser's choice of hard or soft suspensions, and in some cases gearbox ratios. I think you will find it is a five speed manual. The top two gears are overdrives. Your interpretation of its driving is not very fair--these things won rallies until they removed the under-1500 cc engine class to get rid of them. The steering id GREAT on these, and they handle like a sports car, and if your does not, the driver or the alignment is at fault, and besides, your engine RPM tells me you ought to be in a higher gear,.
12:21 - Lol, 90km/h is almost 56mph, Mr. Wizard! 😄 12:45 - And 110km/h is over 68mph, so you can indeed drive it on the highway without any problems. 👍 19:10 - The engine is carburated, I doubt very much that's a catalytic converter. I think that's just the middle muffler.
Some of the exported Eastern Block cars did have a carburettor and a catalytic converter. I guess it worked long enough to get them through type approval.
Hello Wizard. I'm from the Netherlands and this Lada is actually an old model from FIAT. The so-called Fiat 124. In the sixties Fiat sold the outfased Fiat 124 to Russia to build overthere in Togliattigrad. This town in Russia was set up by Fiat to initiatate a Russian car industry.
False. Design based on the Fiat, body shell more or less the same but engine/parts all different. It was a cooperation with Fiat/Italy to modernize car production in the USSR.
Wow! What a blast from the past! I was living in Brazil in the early 90s when Lada started selling their cars in South America. There was even a compact SUV-type vehicle named Niva that later became very popular among off-roading folks. It would be cool to see you guys get a hold of one of those Nivas! They were perceived as having been built like tanks!
The manual in the glovebox is written in Hungarian. And there IS originally a blinker indicator in the dash. It is (should be) the topmost (green) on the light column. Although that didn't show side on which the blinker was engaged. (Source: I grew up in Hungary (the Eastern Bloc of Europe /sphere of influence of the USSR/ and I sat in these cars.)
@@marcuscoquer5958 I don't know what the insides of a "normal" Fiat of that era looked like. ☹ Behind the Iron Curtain, we only had the versions that were built in Poland. The "nagy Polski" (Big Polski - FSO 125p) and the "kis Polski" (Little Polski - FSM 126p). But I sat a lot in the "kocka Lada" (Cube Lada - this version in the video), and I remember the meaning of those few lights on it's dashboard. 😊
These are VAZ 2107 or its export names: LADA 2107, Lada Nova, Lada Riva, Lada Signet, Lada 1500, Lada 1600, Lada 1300, Lada 1300SL, Lada 1300S. The interior and some parts were probably replaced by a dealer, as the interior of the car was originally more Spartan. This model was produced until 2012 and is considered a classic family of rear-wheel drive VAZ cars. The 2108 and 2109, 2110 models already have front-wheel drive. Rear-wheel drive models are usually called "classic". This particular model is just a "Seven". Front-wheel drive models with a carburetor - Sputnik, with an injector - Samara and Samara-2, or simply a "Chisel" for the body shape. The 2101-2107 models are based on the Fiat 124 chassis, but somewhat modified and retained only the layout from the original one. In 2007, the VAZ 2107 cost less than $ 6,000 at the exchange rate and until 2017 was the most popular car in Russia, since it could be borrowed for 2-3 years p.s. There is no catalyst, there were models with an injector, but these are cars produced in the mid-2000s. Any spare parts can probably be ordered through intermediaries in Kazakhstan. The only question is the price of delivery. It's a pity they don't release them anymore. Renault wanted to make a modernized model with increased safety, but it would not have paid off economically.
When I lived in Finland, a friend had an 80’s Lada and I remember it had the optional sliding trap door in the backseat floor so you could go ice fishing in it during winter…
@@1greenMitsi russian 2nd city st Peterburg is 90 miles from Finland border and there were quite a lot of LADAS in Finland, this was way cheaper than VW, BMW, PEUGEOT, VOLVO or MERCEDES also LADA was quite SIMPLE to repair and it didnt broke so easily, it has very few parts compared to german cars.
OMG! I could tell You so many things about this car! A LADA2107 1500 was my first ever car. I had it in 2001, and it was 10 years old at the time, so same as Yours - 1991. I had a Finish spec 2107 - it had a larger outside mirrors, and front lamps wipers. My econ gauge did not work, and I did not care. I got about 10 liters per 100km that equals about 23-24mpg. Cheers from Poland!
Mr. Car Wizard, You got the luxury 2107. We had 2105. They were common in USSR and the satellite countries 'till 2000's. Based off FIAT but made more robust for Russian weather and roads.This car lasts about 120k km when the problem with the engine begins and needs rebuild. Here in Bulgaria You still can meet them in the villages with LPG system, beat the hell out of them :)
I had a LADA and still have one. Those are cars that you A) hate, or B) LOVE. They skim the roads the way bricks do not. Simple noble cars are they. Respect the Lada.
That extra blinker light is for the trailer blinker. Some EU countries require a check light for the trailer blinkers when a trailer is hooked up. It will blink correctly when a trailer with working blinkers is hooked up. Also be aware that the EU 7 pin plug is NOT compatible with the US trailer plugs. Blinker and brake lights are separate. Right and left taillights are separate. No electric brake signal.
Congratulations! You're now a proud owner of a Hungarian service manual for this car and 3 other variants! The VAZ factory started production in 1970 and they bought the license for the Fiat 124, one of the best cars of its era. The Lada 2101-2107 cars were variants of the Fiat 124. The word Lada means a small sailing fishing boat used in Russia, it's also what the logo is depicting on the steering wheel. VAZ stands for "Volga Avto Zavod" - Volga car factory because it's located by the river Volga. The 2107 was the top of the range of the Fiat 124 variants, it had the biggest engine and the most HP. You need to pay attention to the gaps on the spark plugs, as this engine is very sensitive to that. The blinds in the back were a fashion item in Hungary in the 80's. In Hungary lots of cars are equipped with a towball, even small ones.
I'm sure you are aware, but Fiat even helped design/build the factory as part of a trade deal where the Italians got access to cheap steel (used in many an Italian car without any additional rust proofing, effectively killing Lancia).
My brother’s father in law had one. Did 50k km per year, never missed a beat. Working in construction, he had to help his Benz-driving co-workers leave the construction site in winter. They couldn’t do it, but he did. Lada-powerrrrr! and: things that aren’t fitted on the car, can’t fail..
When my parents shifted their old Morris1000 (I got that one) they baught a brand new Lada (around 1977). It was the cheapest car in Denmark at the time. It always ran and was just as easy to repair as the old Morris 1000. No matter the temperature it could always start and it easily ran 120km/h on the the danish highway).
There's no cat in it, it's just a front muffler (these cars have two mufflers one after the other). The brakes proportioning valve is there to automatically adjust brake bias depending on the rear axle load, so that the car with 3 passengers in the rear seat and luggage in the trunk would have more braking force at the rear compared to a car with just the driver in it. A fun fact is that this device is nicknamed "колдун" in Russian which can be loosely translated to English as "Wizard"
@d.o.5238, You’re wrong, and the exact opposite of how the brake proportioning valve operates. In heavy braking, I.E. like a child running in front of the vehicle, the valve will increase the pressure on the front wheels to keep the rear wheels from locking up and causing the vehicle to spin. It has nothing to do with the weight that’s in the vehicle. Think about it for a moment, how would a braking system know and calculate the weight in the vehicle without a computer?
@@Sandy.J.Lloyd.Sr. no, I'm not. The rod, that Wizard thought was a sway bar, is what controls the valve. The lower the rear end is, the more weight load is on the rear axle and the more pressure goes to the rear brakes. Also, when you brake and the weight gets transferred to the front because of that, the rear end lifts and the valve decreases the pressure to the rear brakes and prevents them from locking up. Welcome to old times without any computers and everything being done mechanically
@@d.o.5238 I’ve been a mechanic for over 50 years and have rebuilt and adjusted proportioning valves on hundreds of cars, my specialty was Corvettes. If the valves performed as you say there would be no reason for them to be on Corvettes from 1968 to 1982, and with the same logic they should be on every truck manufactured. The Corvettes have no space for passengers and very little space for luggage, the trucks would require them because of the changing load throughout their life, but this isn’t what we see, what we do see is the complete opposite. The proportioning valve is to prevent the rear wheels from locking up in a panic stop, Google it being you don’t believe me. I don’t want to make a derogatory joke about Russia or the country that made the little car, but I have a hard time believing they’re purposely designing a car to perform a dangerous operation that could take lives. You do not want to lock up the rear wheels in an emergency stop and if you apply more braking power to the rear wheels you’ll do just that. I’m not going to keep going back and forth with you because I know I’m right, I’ve rebuilt, recalibrated, and installed new brake proportioning valves, and I know how and why they work the way they do. So please google it, and have a nice day.
@@Sandy.J.Lloyd.Sr. I don't see how what you're saying contradicts my words. More weight on the rear - more pressure is allowed to go to the rear brakes. Less load, the rear end goes up (regardless of the reason, being it less cargo or a hard braking) it pulls the rod and closes the valve more) - so you get less pressure. It works for both hard braking and adjusting the initial bias depending on the car load. Nice day to you too
OMG, my dad used to own Lada VAZ-2107 as his first car and he bought it in 1983 when we lived in the former Soviet Union that time. This is the first car I used to drive and you bring a lot of good memories for me. I am driving a 2016 Infiniti Q70L AWD sedan with sport and technology packages, but I will never forget my first car my Lada!
Congratulations. Mrs Wizard has bought you the perfect car for Kansas winters. My father had a fully loaded early 80s Lada & it had the best heater of any car available! He was sad to see it go when the insurance company totaled it after an accident (not his fault). Enjoy!!
I'm honestly impressed to see a Lada with all it's rear badging in place and a fully put together dash. This is pretty awesome and a cheerful drivable milestone, makes for a great video! Nice little history lesson too. It sounds way too aggressive for the speed lol
My dad used to own one back in the day and the Samara that came after it. He always told me those were the most reliable cars he's ever owned. They're very spartan but you can at least depend on them
These were incredibly popular here in Finland, but started to get rare in the beginning of 2000s. Russians bought them back in masses because, well, they were extremely popular there also. My dad had one just like this, but I think the model was 2105, and before that he had round lamp 1200L model. Both those were also bought back by russians I think. Finnish models had dealer fitted options also, like heated seats. The heater was extremely powerful and they started good in winter so they were good winter cars. Nowdays the model 1200L with round headlights are really rare and very desirable, not a lot of them left anymore.
Here in eastern Europe back in the 70s owning a Lada 1500 was a HUGE deal. It was pretty much the equivalent of owning an S-Class in the west at that time. Compared to Trabants and other basic communist cars, the Lada was on a different level. They are also really durable.
"equivalent of owning an S-Class" - no, it wasn't. More like the equivalent of a Jetta / Audi 80 for people, who didn't have party connections or a lot of money. You might say they were dependable (easy to fix), but they were never reliable. The engines were ready for rebuild at under 150k km.
@@БранимирПетров engine rebuild at 150k kilometers is actually incredibly reliable for the record. That distance back in the days took decades to travel. You are talking about a car which was build with thing but cheapness in mind. Lets be real, many modern day cars can't make it to 90-100k mile mark anyhow. The jettas or 80s of the are were more comparable to the Zastavas and Wartburg 353... the 2107 was definitely a much higher class.
@@MB-ox3czYeah, 150k was a lot, since these amazing POS cars rusted out before that. Quite thick steel, with almost non existent protection. A lot of 80s cars were easily pushing 250k km of life without major issues. No, Jetta/ Golf were far better build than any of the soviet cars, and most of them still run fine, especially the diesel ones. I've grown around soviet cars, my father had Moskvich, my grandfather Polski Fiat and then Skoda 120 (the best car of the bunch), and besides the early Volga 24, none of them were nice to be in. Wartburg, Zastava - they were just a step above the Trabant / Zaporojets, just means to move from point A to B.
True story. My dad bought me an old Lada. It was so rusted, that the gas pedal broke off when I tried to take a ride. It was a best option for common people in USSR in 80's.
My first car was a Lada 2101 1200cc (model year 1969). I have great memories from it! I was only 18 when my dad gave it to me. It was not fast or something like that, but it was very cheap to maintain and repair. Most services or repairs were so easy that I could do on my own. Driving it was ...let's say ... like driving a battle tank! Slow and heavy to steer. But I loved it! Top speed....120km/h at its best days...😂 ...
The car of my childhood. My grandfather had one like this (LADA-2106). She seemed huge to me at the time. We traveled together around Ukraine, Crimea and Kuban. The engine ran on 76 grade gasoline.
110 is easily 65 mph, so no worries about highway speeds. In the 990's I worked with a guy in Montreal who bought those for cheap and fixed them up for driving through the winter. He did some weird fixes , like fixing keyways in the transmission with cut off nails and who knows what else. But he always made it to work on time 😆
Those "bars" you used to lift the car are actually the jacking points. The Lada came with it's own jack form the factory and these points are used to insert the jack in them.
I have driven in the car. My grandparents in Russia still drive it. I have a picture as a toddler with the car in the background. This car will never die it seems. I was born in 91 and in all my life that is the only car I have ever seen them have😂
I made a comment about this, these vehicles were meant to be simple and simple to fix/mantain. Making them easy to work on means that as long as they don't rust they could theoretically last forever, by making them for so long and not changing the design it was possible to (to this day) still make parts. You couldn't dream of finding parts for a Chevrolet in the USA from the 80s, not all the parts anyways, owning anything in the USA it is mostly a throwaway product. I find that funny because we are so concerned about being "green", if you owned one car for 50 years and only replaced the broken parts I believe that would make it more "green" than buying a new car every 5 years.
We had loads the of these in the UK in the 70s and 80s. Based on a 60s Fiat 124. They stopped selling them here when they couldn't meet emissions stsndards. When they couldn't pass the annual test, most got shipped back to Russia for repair or parts. Last time I saw one was in Croatia 15 years ago.
After the Wall fell, and we started getting ships from Poland and Russia loaded with lumber, the ship's crews would buy up all the Ladas they could find and take them back as deck cargo. The waiting list for new cars in Russia was years, so they made a nice earner from bringing export models back home. The underframe was upgraded to cope with Russian roads, so much stronger than the origin Fiat shells. There is still one driven locally, a Wagon or Estate in English, in good order. There should be a full too kit comes with it. Enough to fix it on a Siberian roadside in winter.
@foxstrangler Yes! Here in Weymouth, England in the late 80s and early 90s Soviet/Russian fish processing ships would drop anchor in the bay for a few weeks. The crew members on days off would come ashore and spend their time collecting these cars and parts from scrap yards to take home to make a few roubles.
My brother had a 1989 Lada Samara (in Canada BTW). It always made me think that it's the car that a farmer built in his shed out of spare tractor parts. It was so simple to work on, but the parts were a nightmare to source. He finally got rid of it after it needed a new clutch that was going to cost $900.
The "weird little bars" are for a jack to slide into, they use a similar jack to what came with Cortinas. The webber 32/34 is also a good way to get a little more go from it
This proves she loves her Wizard a whole Lada. As unique as one can get here in the USA. Hoped to have heard the old Soviet national anthem half way through the video.
I was born in the USSR and grew up in one of these. They were modified versions of the Fiat 124 made by VAZ and called "Zhiguli" but exported under the name "Lada."
@@aris95 The suspension, chassis, and body were all thicker steel than the Fiats. When Fiat sent over the stock 124 chassis for testing they all cracked and the rear disc brakes on them were completely useless in less than 1 oil change because they got caked with salt which is why they replaced them with aluminium drums. They sent over reinforced chassis, but they cracked too so VAZ just added even more steel to the chassis to strengthen it.The Zhiguli's even had proper towing eyes which the 124's lacked. They also raised the suspension a bit compared to the 124 and ran softer springs so it would actually be drivable on unpaved country roads. The engine was also redesigned from the Fiat and the later 1.6L ones are ridiculously capable in the right hands (there's a couple Hungarians out there who managed to get over 210hp out of them NA, 160-180 is a walk in the park for any east bloc tuner). The factory was also a testbed for new automation tech Fiat wanted to use in production and was pretty high tech for the time. It's one of the most produced cars ever on top of all that, might even be the highest number of a single model produced with just facelifts and no major generational changes (17.7 mil produced, vs 16.5 mil Model T's). It's basically just an overengineered 124, which is weird considering the 124 itself was in some aspects even more barebones than the original Zhiguli's, not really much to overengineer on those things. It's a product of the conditions of the time, there were barely any roads east of the Ural mountains back then and even west of that paved roads were a rarity. The USSR wasn't even industrialized 50 years before these cars were built and you can't really run high tech stuff around all the time in places like that because a breakdown in the middle of nowhere can easily turn into a death sentence. Not great by modern standards, but nothing else was as reliable and easy to fix as these back in the day. Cheap to produce, buy, and maintain; a car you bought with your brain and not your heart, though there really weren't any enthusiast cars in the USSR, people modded what they had and the stuff the Soviets designed was so overbuilt most of the time you had a lot of headroom to play with. Also the police versions of these had 1.3L rotaries for a while lol. Might've even been faster than the 5.5L Volga's.
This one has a look of #5 and #7 Zhiguli/Lada model. I believe #6 was a bit more reliable but had a rounded headlights. Many neighbors were fixing these cars at their drive way. Not many people could afford to buy a car, so each driver was using "their only car" for decades. Even underpowered as these were, they got the job done. Remember people were loading these with a lot of heavy weight items which made the car squat.
A Lada?!?! WHAAAAT! Got all the help u need. Its very common here in Finland VTS parts can make this super cool ^^ That blank spot next to the clock is mostlikely for AC or seat heaters. If you need a 5 speed gearbox, got u covered!
Lada is and was the national car of Cuba. I owned one from 1978, and it still running. It was a joint venture between Fiat and Lada. Also check out the Vodga. Loved those CCCP cars, simple and to the point and winter survivors too.
Here in Macedonia we grew up and learn to drive in this cars there were very common cars now they all rusted out.Its a nice trip down the memory line.This cars have a here and there issues most electrical but you can go trough a brick wall with this car and keep on going.😂😂.
I had a Fiat 124 Twin Cam and it was a blast!!!! I drove that thing from Victoria to Edmonton and back many times, on the freeway, no problem. I rallied it, I slalomed it (yes the body lean was some what scary) and only when it went -10C did it start to complain. Damp wasn't it's friend either.
Car Wizard..you are the bomb!!! Great practical and honest advice! I love your channel. You are a dying breed...god bless the knowledgeable, independent, mechanic that can still service both 'modern' and older vehicles. Modern is in quotes as post mid 2000's EVERYTHING sux and is built to the same 10 year life expectancy as any of other appliances that most have come to expect. Please consider moving to Asheville NC. Nice Mountain town that needs your services...the views are so much better than flatland KS.
Lada... the Other Russian Rocket! And trust me fellas, you ain't lived until you've driven along the Havana Malecon in the back of a clapped out Lada Taxi doing 140kmh!!
@ScreamingReelsTV - Ha! Yes! Me too! But not in a clapped out Lada taxi, but driving a nice, almost new Lada rental car and many times on the Malecon (but never at 140 clicks!) and twice driving all the way from Havana to Santiago and back! And both times with more than half of the 900-plus km trip after dark! I don't recommend this! When I visit the island now I avoid driving anywhere in Cuba at night at all costs!
Piroská Lada 🥇 my uncle raced these in the Mecek mountains near kaopsvar along with citroens audis and pugeots in the 80s and 90s in Hungary. Cool to see one in such nice shape and from HU as well
If I remember correctly, the steering is not rack-and-pinion but screw-type. However, Fiat did not just supply the licence but even built the production plant.
A lot of Ladas were sold here in Canada. I know a few people that bought them new. The driveline is pretty tough but if driven in the winter the salt will destroy them in only one season. These cars are still very numerous in Cuba and can be rebuilt with basic hand tools.
@volvo09 we came very close to getting them in the US, the same company that imported Belarus tractors in the '70s had the rights to sell Lada and UAZ. The cars passed NHTSA and EPA certifications, were displayed at some auto shows, dealer franchises had been signed up, sales were supposed to start in late 1979 for the 1980 model year. Then the Afghan invasion happened and new trade restrictions and generally negative sentiment killed the deal. Canadians traveling south at the time would run into certain gas stations in the US refusing to service anyone in a Lada, so it probably would have turned into a disaster if they had gone ahead with sales here
@@superbird2814Skodas weren't jokes. They were successful rally cars back in the day. In Canada you could buy Skodas (Czechoslovakia), Ladas (USSR), and Dacias (Romania), but I don't think the Yugo was sold new here. The Skoda was available as a sedan or coupe, rear-engined, with a manual transmission. Along with the Lada Niva 4x4, these were some of the most interesting vehicles you could find in terms of bang for the buck. I'm not saying fun to drive, necessarily (but the Niva apparently was) but you'd attract attention at times. I was surprised to find all three brands represented at the annual car show hosted by the Quinte Mall in Belleville. I'd never even heard of the Skoda or Dacia before I saw them there.
You can easily find parts to be shipped to the US from East Europe (Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania...) You may find in Canada as well, as those Ladas used to be imported there, but it will be much harder. Still, you can find tech documentation in English from the UK, Canada or Australia.
I had a few Iron Curtain Cruisers as my friends labelled them. Most parts are available from Fiat they are based on a Fiat 124 and they were OK. I know for a fact that car will do 80mph for long periods.
An uncle of mine bought one new, I remember him boasting about how he had driven it 180 miles 'without it missing a beat' - even among their greatest fans expectations were low! At the time I was riding 200 to 300 miles a day on a Honda VFR750.
I'm familiar with the Fiat 124 when I was a kid, first time I saw a Lada derived version was in a Vancouver auto show. Imagine in the days of the CCCP, it was 10 plus years waiting list. Now you can look for a East German Trabant, or a Wartburg. Or a luxury Soviet six cylinder Volga.
Good day. I was repairing those LADA in the 60 to 70, these cars are built like tanks, easy to repair and the parts where accessible at a reasonnable price. they where slow but steady, they where giving you a tool kit whit every car.to bad we dont have them anymore.
Actually this model has 5 speed transmission available. After some year it became a standard. So it is just a bad luck you have 4 speed. I can send what ever you need from Kazakhstan for your nice Lada.
Those 2107 with the chrome grill and headlight washers. In my early teens my parents had the exact same model and color. This brings back some memories. This is a Beauty
Lada was very common car here in Finland. They were mostly driven on roads with maximum speed limit of 80 km/h (50 mph). The owners of those cars say that you could get very warm interior with its heater and that Lada was at best during the cold winter days.
I had this same car 20 years ago and it goes way faster than 80 km/h and yes it is very warm in winter this model actually won the price of having the warmest seat warmers on Tekniikan maailma when they compared it to other cars beating every luxury car and when i was having my second part of driving license the ice track had that day had -39c and i was sweating like a pig inside because how hot the heater was.
@@Random-nf7qb The original Lada is FIAT 124 made from thicker steel and with a different engine and taller and beefier suspension and better heater among other things. The Soviet Union bought the entire FIAT factory lock, stock and barrel and moved it to Togliatti where they essentially put iron ore in one end of the factory and drove complete cars out the other. This is a facelift of that but the center section is the same. Other than Lada, FIAT also helped start the car industries in Yugoslavia and Spain: Zastava and SEAT.
@@christianronn5301 There are over 800 changes from the 124 to the 2101. Thicker steel and different engine yes. Redesigned brakes and suspension as well. They are pretty much different cars that only look the same.
@@Random-nf7qb My former boss sold these in the 80’s in Sweden. He remembers the introduction on the (facelift) 2105 in 1983. Compared to the ”straight 124 copy” 2101 he said ”all panel fit & flush was out the window!!” 😄 They had to adjust doors etc at the dealerships. 🙃😊
I had one, it was a 83 that I bought in 86 for C$1600 with only 57,000 kilometers on it, not a mark on the body and even a vinyl landau roof, oh it was also the Signet with a 1500 cc engine with a 5 speed. The fastest that it achieved was 160 kph with the pedal flat on the floor, since the speed limit on the highway is 110 kph it was fine. You had to be gentle with the gas and clutch on pulling away or the left hand motor mount could tear apart. In 83 the headlights were a 4 round sealed beam glass bulb system and didn't tilt, but worked like any other low/ high beams. The rear brakes adjusted on a cam built into the shoes that fitted over a post on the backing plate. I found out after selling the car, that the wheel bolts for the rear wheels stretched every time you tightened them, therefore needing the bolts to be shortened slightly on a grinding wheel or they could come up against the backing plate and not torque down properly, I had one wheel pass me at an intersection. There should have been a small set of tools in the trunk like in my car. I can say the car was very easy to work on, for example, it only took between 2 and 3 hours to change the heater core, since I had to remove the dash to get to it. At the end I had to work on it almost every weekend so that I could get to work during the week. I got so fed up with the car that I sold it in 1988 for 90 dollars, just to get rid of it. The guy I sold it to lived next door to the mechanic at the local Lada dealership.
The last thing I expected to see on this channel is Mr. Wizard driving a Lada 2107! I'm from Russia, I'm crazy about older cars, and got a lot of pleasure seeing this contrast as the Wizard drives this car, outside the window is America, but the noise from the lack of aerodynamics, the crackle in the cabin and the hum of the transmission and engine is exclusively Soviet). In the former USSR this car is called Zhiguli, Lada, Riva - export names for European and American markets. Keep us informed about its fate, it is so nice to see a piece of something so native, in the middle of the rest of the beauty of cars❤
I worked on Ladas here in Canada in the 80's, the oddest thing about them was they where the only cars that I worked on that had tires that needed inner tubes. Once we replaced the tires with our tires no tubes where needed. And the best was I remember the tubes had all Russian writing on them. Now that's a through back for me considering I've been a mechanic for 45 years now, and look back at my early years when I first started.
Renault's thru to the 70s had inner tubes. For small punctures an inner tube is easier to repair than a modern tire. I had a very nice plum colored Renault 12TS. It was a fun car that had been maintained by a Renault mechanic. Sold it when I moved to the US in 85.
I had a '77 Renault 5 in Toronto and the 145R13 tires had inner tubes in them. I switched to regular 165/70 R13 tires and did not put tubes in, it held the pressure for about a month and had to top up about 2-4PSI every 3-4weeks
Passed my driving test in Moscow when I was an 18 y o boy in one of these. Crappy but really simple. Ladas were and in some sense still are the backbone of personal transportation in Russia. And the manual is definitely not in Russian. I didn't get a close look, but from a glance, it seems to be Hungarian.
Ladas are actually tough little cars, simple and tough. They do well in cold climates, hence they sold prettty well in Canada. They feature prominently in Russian dash cam videos bouncing off larger vehicles with minimal damage, and older ones having their hoods fly up, blocking the windshield as they had no secondary hood latch to prevent this.
Lada sales were well under 1% of annual new car sales in Canada. They were a constant source of jokes and complaints about reliability, parts, and low power even for the time. They were the cheapest new car in Canada. They may have been sold at a loss as the USSR desperately wanted foreign currency.
@@morstyrannis1951 Far less than 1%. Very negligible. Those who claim the Lada were selling like hotcakes in Canada have not a clue. Never happened. Also, why do you think the Soviets needed hard currency? Why couldn't they use their own? You would be shocked to discover no one knows why. I have known since the 1980s. They had no choice.
Top Gear took one of their viewer's LADA to Lotus and did a full make-over. They had the Fiat twin-cam fully done, I think it was pushing 120hp and a 5-speed Fiat box. It's on You Tube.
@@marvindebot3264 Don't even need a twincam if you have the 1.6L. 160-180hp from them is a piece of cake for most east bloc tuners and some Hungarians got them to over 210 at 9500RPM. They're really capable for being SOHC engines.
@@Quince828 yeah I saw comments afterwards that they were indeed in Canada. I was surprised because the ones I did see in North america (the US) were imported from overseas... Must just be hard to find a worthwhile example in Canada... Like trying to find a clean example of the first Hyundai, no one cares and ran them all into the ground as a cheap beater.
Hi! It's very interesting that now you own One. My two remarks: 1. It's not a catalytic neutralizer - it's just a exhaust resonator. 2. On the rear axel (if i'm not mistaken) - it's a front lights auto-corrector, not a brakes load balancer, it corrects a front lights level, depending on the car load. The brakes distributor IS actually present, but That is not the one.
That is a hungarian service manual 😂 We had a ton of them here. Most probably this one comes from Hungary as well. It brings back memories from my childhood! It’s a simple car that you can service at home without a huge shop. They built like any russian equipment, almost indestructible. 😅
@@notsoeloquent I've spent 5 fun-filled years as the happy owner of a Lada 2105, and before that my family had a 2103 for 10+ years. Based on my experience, I'd say, they are never perfect, something is almost always wrong with them, but 99% of the time they'll get you home somehow. But yeah, they'll make you learn the basics of repairing a car, whether you want it or not. You could blindfold me, tie one of my hands behind my back and I still would be able to change the idle jet (it gets clogged regularly) within a traffic light cycle, without removing the air filter housing. Oh, fun times...
Most of the time the problems were not so serious. You can fix almost everyting with a few hand tools, some wire and electric tape. The main problem with modern cars that you don't repair them, you just replace parts.
Oil is oil, filters are filters.. sparkplugs, ignition wires etc. all available nothing special.. hard parts also available via a large parts dealer in Florida who sells to Cuban ex pats living in USA so they can ship Lada bits to their relatives living in Cuba...and driving Ladas...
Talk about a cool gift! ahahha I'm Brazilian and in the 90's in Brazil there was a lot of Ladas, because it was one of the cheapest imports that we could buy back then because the imports were very restricted.
In USSR they started produce Lada 2107 model in 1982, it was the last model of "classic" rear drive Lada series 2101-2107 based on Italian Fiat 124. Could be different engines from 1.2L to 1.6L, different body panels, but brake system, clutch (hydraulic), rear diff, suspension and so on were exactly the same for all models from 2101 to 2107. I owned Lada 2107 with 5 speed transmission, bought it brand new in 2005 in Ukraine. It was last year they produced carburator 2107.
Service manual in Hungarian, not Russian. Front brake pads are Russian. Exhaust part in the middle is resonator, not needed catalytic converter for carburator versions. Brake cylinders were leaking often because of bad quality of rubber parts, like other brake or clutch system parts with rubber. Rear diff was always noisy, even on brand new cars. it was not possible to adjust carburator properly. People often bypassed that rear brakes valve...
Parts shouldn't be a problem, because they're still making them in post soviet countries and this models were mass produced and a lot of them are still on roads. Parts will be much cheaper than shipping, but quality of those parts will be awful...
I don't know that Egypt and Turkey are post soviet countries, Lada is producing modern cars ~after 2013 year
my familie did own a lada/volga dealership in Belgium.one of my first cars was a 2101,i did put a 1600cc engine in it .after a year i drove a 1300S for a year.
Im from Poland and i had same Lada 2107 1500cc, was my first car, and it was great, simple reliable and comfortable car, it was not so fast, especialy with 4 speed transmission, but there were 5 speed versions. It will never let you stranded on a road :) Take care Wizard, Your wife have great sesnse of humor ;)
God bless you both.
You had an export version, export versions were much better than cars for internal Soviet market.
No, it was absolute turd, but there was no choice back then.
@@Claude_CJ_Vercetti Nah the export versions were worse. Internal ones didn't have a cat and the export versions didn't get the 1.6 which is a ridiculously capable engine for how dreary it is stock. Other than that there's really no major differences between them. The quality on all of them went downhill fast after the Union was dissolved, same deal with the Volga's except the quality drop off on those was way worse than the VAZ's.
Lada's are brilliant!!! In the UK I've had many in the late 80's.
Apart from being inexpensive they weren't.
This car brings a lot of nostalgia to me. My mother and I left communist Cuba when I was 7 years old , my father remained in the island after I was able to return back to see him I spent a whole summer building ones of these exact 2107s in his front lawn when I was 11 - all you really need is 3 wrenches and 4 to 5 sockets and the whole car can be assembled. All I can say is that this car single handedly made me in a car enthusiast / mess around with my cars. Good Memories in this car with my pops
Alabao!
I had 2 here in Norway as a kid. Best possible car to start wrenching on as they are so simple. Reliable, always something to tinker with.
I went to Cuba in 2017 and sought out the Lada taxis. There was just something about them that made them so neat, especially with all of the mods they’ve had over the decades.
Many people from Russia driving for this a car. And I am Driving it car but little bit modernizatig. And it car have name - Kalina, Granta.
This car go nowhere without wrenches and hummer
My family has owned several of these. They were common in Canada. They can go 152kph with a 5spd. (100kph = 62mph) . Some came with GM fuel injection, and there was a Canada only, and very rare, option where they installed Chevette automatics. Your hoist lift points are where the jack that comes with the car goes in. They came with wipers for the headlamps sometimes. Regarding the Volvo look, when the local Lada dealer got a Volvo dealership they were funny to see side by side. When looking for parts, you can google "Canada Lada Parts:" to find some,. You would be looking for Lada 1500 (engine size and model number in the same), Lada 2107, or Lada Signet, which is what they were badged here in Canada. The knob next to the clock tilts your headlamps, so you can run your brights on a foggy or snowy day without getting glare back. The stereos were dealer installed. The fog lamp looking switch in the console brightens your rear lamps to increase visibility...a foglight eseeentially. My first car was a Lada Signet Wagon. :-}
You forgot to warn him to check what way back end swings when brakes lock, as it is individual thing :) I know it is less pronounced on 2105/2107, but can be unpleasant if you do a harsh breaking and don't expect that.
Those and Skodas but are there any left?
The automatic was not a canada only option, far from it
Automatic was an option for almost all export markets
What's the MPGs.
In Russia, such frets are popular with young people who want to drift, weld the rear differential, replace the cylinder heads, put other piston ones, put turbocharging, make a big turn with the front wheels, and your first car is ready to drift! There are craftsmen who install the BMW gearbox with gaskets
The Car is originally from Hungary
At 6:10 the green lamp is the control light of trailer indicators and i know it because it was the law only in Hungary and the lamp is also from this land. It flashes only if the blinker works on your trailer properly
The windshield was made in Hungary too 😂 (SalgóGlas)
And has Czech-made Barum Polaris winter tires :D
The manual gave it away instantly, it is visibly Hungarian
The manual is also in Hungarian, not Russian as she said.
Studebaker lark u have been taken!
@@kitko33 and old MK 1 VW AIR VENTS
Togliatti's finest. I passed my driving test in a Lada 1500 wagon. That service manual is in Hungarian. In Europe you can find parts everywhere, Lada clubs everywhere, and Ladas like this will outlive most of today's touchscreen wonders. Yes, the steering is heavy!
Electric power steering conversion would not be impossible..
Good point, no touchscreens!
They are slow af too
Had to have some "pipes" for cars with no power steering ,or oversized steering wheel like Mercedes had for decades in case the power steering died It was called "Zsiguli" first, written with cirillic alphabet ." LADA" name came a couple years later ,so most Europeans could read it too..
@@JohnSmith-yv6eq Impossible,no..expenssive though for a car that didn´t have one.
"110 is like 55"
Famous last words before the speeding ticket
It's not quite right either. 100 KPH is 62 MPH.
@@Hrethgir Hence the speeding ticket. That's exactly his point.
@@danc.9554 OK, I see what you were doing now.
Was thinking that doesn't seem right. 110KM/H is our fastest highway speed in Canada.
@@Barret_Radtkewhen I was there thought 110 was perfect for long empty roads 😂
As someone who actually grew up with those cars back in the days, I can assure you that you have the top of the line Lada 2107. This was basically the 7 series of Lada, fully loaded. Unfortunately you have one of the few with the 4 speed tranny. Very rare. Most of them had the 5 speed. When I was growing up, my buddy and I used to race our Ladas. His dad had the 2107 and ours was 2108. This video brings some many memories... I am jealous. You really have to get it up in the RPMs and she can do doughnuts all day long. With the 5 speed, those things will run 100mph until they overheat and the oil gets to above and beyond hot... :) It was not unusual tow a trailer with a metric ton of weight with one of those. The harness on the trailer hitch is simply just for the lights. Your turn signal add on is definitely aftermarket. Your middle button between the headlight switch on and off and the rear defroster is the rear fog light.
Hey, my first car was 2106, but with the same 1500cc engine like the one Wizard got. And my dad had a station wagon variant of this 2107 with the 5-speed tranny. These could definitely do 90 mph even with the 4-speed, but yeah, they do tend to overheat when going at that speed for a long time
Great information about the Lada! I Love it!
The Семёрка!
@@regmok 1989 Sputnik 1.3 4 speed... killer
Real people drove копейка (2101). Семёрка -- признак богатенькой буржуазии 😝
6:52 it's in hungarian. If it wasn't for me speaking the language, the giveaway is russians don't use the latin alphabet they print cyrillic letters. Anyway Rob says in the first video when he got it that it was imported from Hungary.
My wife's father was from Hungary. He bugged out soon after the Russians arrived(?) in 1956(?). Perhaps it was because they thought he was involved in that year's insurrection. He'd say Ruskie nem yo.
@@obsoleteprofessor2034 He very well might've been involved. it was the kinda thing young college students did. Girls making molotov cocktails so guys can chuck them on top of T-34 tanks rolling on the narrow streets of Budapest.
@@obsoleteprofessor2034 Depends on how old he is, might've been after WW2 or 1956. Also, from what I've heard you wanna bug out before the russkies arrive.
@@MrGellert15 lol fighting communists, it never gets old
It reads: Do It yourself for Motorists
Wizard, 1 mile is 1.6 km/h, so 110 is like 68-69 miles/h . Greetings from Bulgaria 🇧🇬 ! Love your channel !❤
Move to Bg in 2019 and love to see these old Lada's still doing the work. Unfortunately the wife has told me no ! Also love the Wizards channel !
@@Ridethebomb777 Never ever tells to ''wife'' about car which you want to buy , JUST BUY , anyway she just say NO , cos wont see you happy.
They sold these in Canada for a number of years. Test drove a new one in 1979. It drove like a tractor. I remember the seats were upholstered in a fabric that looked like it was taken from Russian military uniforms! They used to advertise - "You Got a Lada Car for Your Money"!
The Lada convinced me to buy a new 1979 Honda Accord. I still own that car!
Had a Niva I bought in Canada and I really miss it 😢
My 1980 Lada lasted 6 years.....rusted to nothing.....not a car for people who know nothing about cars....because of Canada's Climate then had to change the points twice a year......carb used to get gummed up as well and rebuilt that a few times.. but it was cheap.
last years of Lada in Canada was 1997.
Bought mine used, drove it back to Michigan. It was a 1983.@@max1349
I'd kill for that particular model. I have the service manual in English and Russian (my second language) for that particular one, and honestly, I love the cars for being rugged, simple, fun to drift, and easy to modify. (And with my Niva, the few parts I replaced I machined myself.)
Hey, it's RWD, and based on the Fiat 124 platform. Chuck a more modern Alfa Romeo 2.0 twin spark motor into it, weld the diff and go out and hoon it.
Yes in Argentina it was sold as a Fiat 124 .
Yeah definitely based on the Fiat 124.
I was thinking chuck in a 132's 5 speed box and then the FIAT/Lancia twin cam engine.
Hey, don't give the Wizard bad ideas or he'll turn his shop into another Garage 54! 😄
Sorry to ruin your party but that's definitely Fiat 125 platform, not 124.
You could 5 speed swap this really easy if you manage to find a gearbox. Makes driving much more enjoyable. I used to have one and actually supercharged it with an old small screwcharger. It turned out pretty fun little thing
Hi there Wizard. I'm from Bulgaria. My grandfather had a 2107 lada like this and i drove it when i got my licence at 18y. These were pretty much the only cars we had around here 20y ago. Please give it some respect :). Btw the clock is original. Our lada had 5 speed. It is 73hp i believe the motor and ours had the blinkers in the dash not on top of the vent. It was 1987y made. Cheers!
I knew a married couple who holidayed Bulgaria in 1990 - a real novelty just after the fall of communism. They befriended a family whilst there & the husband/ father came to the UK to work for 8-9 months, staying with my friends.
He sent money home & also saved enough to fly his brother over here AND buy 2 Lada's. They returned to Bulgaria driving the Lada's.
The Rusian Fiat 125
Small Lada 1200 was 60 horse 1300 was 68 and the 1500 75 same as the 1500 Polski Fiat at the time .also built under FIAT licence..The FIAT 124 was the Car of the Year in Europe If I'm not misteken in 1967? 3 years earlier the FORD came out with the Mustang
@@johnturner5893 Fiat 124 giving auto elecs PTSD
I cannot believe you got the Aging wheels Lada, nice to see this in your hands!
I figured it had to be his. Not an awful lot of them in the US.
He said car wizard in the last video
@@volvo09but those were sold in Canada.
Growing up in 90's Poland that brings back some memories. They were absolutely everywhere alongside Fiat 124 and 125p called 'Maluch', FSO Polonez, FSO Warszawa, Trabant and of course Syrena. My God how it all changed so damn quick.
I used to have one and Volga as well. Simple Fiat from 1968. You got good “export” version. Versions for local market were worse.
I had FIVE Ladas at one time or another--apart from the engine temperature sensor and the two stage thermostat, nothing ever went wrong with them AS LONG AS ONE CHANGED THE TIMING BELT EVERY FIFTY THOUSAND KILOMETERS. When you buy a used LADA, the FIRST thing you do is replace the timing belt.
They did legendary mileages--built from the same steel as a 100mm tank cannon--the engines were superb little motors and used in all sorts of machinery besides cars. The one used on farms was the four wheel drive version--not the sedan. Roof racks were not standard, but the fittings for them sometimes were. The VAZ engine for these came in two sides and the body was either two doors for the 1300 version or four doors for the 1500 version. % speed gearbox, and would run flat out all day--and great for long distance driving, and we have some REALLY crap roads in Australia, and the Ladas were supplied with a purchaser's choice of hard or soft suspensions, and in some cases gearbox ratios.
I think you will find it is a five speed manual. The top two gears are overdrives.
Your interpretation of its driving is not very fair--these things won rallies until they removed the under-1500 cc engine class to get rid of them. The steering id GREAT on these, and they handle like a sports car, and if your does not, the driver or the alignment is at fault, and besides, your engine RPM tells me you ought to be in a higher gear,.
Lada in the video has timing chain, and not a belt.
My Lada has timing chain.
Most ladas have chains but they also built some with belts
12:21 - Lol, 90km/h is almost 56mph, Mr. Wizard! 😄
12:45 - And 110km/h is over 68mph, so you can indeed drive it on the highway without any problems. 👍
19:10 - The engine is carburated, I doubt very much that's a catalytic converter. I think that's just the middle muffler.
not muffler,but resonator
Worst car I have EVER driven…should be considered a crime against humanity!
what your expectation from car which was designed in 1965 (as FIAT124) @@kallekas8551
Some of the exported Eastern Block cars did have a carburettor and a catalytic converter. I guess it worked long enough to get them through type approval.
@@kallekas8551 Ilmselt oled sa liiga vähe autosid juhtinud, kui seda kõige hullemaks pead.
Hello Wizard. I'm from the Netherlands and this Lada is actually an old model from FIAT. The so-called Fiat 124. In the sixties Fiat sold the outfased Fiat 124 to Russia to build overthere in Togliattigrad. This town in Russia was set up by Fiat to initiatate a Russian car industry.
Or perhaps a Seat 124.
@@stealthg35infiniti94 No, SEAT also made FIAT clones.
Togliattigrad?? 😆. Just Togliatti! And named after an Italian communist!
False. Design based on the Fiat, body shell more or less the same but engine/parts all different. It was a cooperation with Fiat/Italy to modernize car production in the USSR.
Fiat 125
Wow! What a blast from the past! I was living in Brazil in the early 90s when Lada started selling their cars in South America. There was even a compact SUV-type vehicle named Niva that later became very popular among off-roading folks. It would be cool to see you guys get a hold of one of those Nivas! They were perceived as having been built like tanks!
The Niva has been relaunched recently!
The manual in the glovebox is written in Hungarian. And there IS originally a blinker indicator in the dash. It is (should be) the topmost (green) on the light column. Although that didn't show side on which the blinker was engaged. (Source: I grew up in Hungary (the Eastern Bloc of Europe /sphere of influence of the USSR/ and I sat in these cars.)
I thought the indicator indicator would've been in the same place as it was on the Fiats of the time
@@marcuscoquer5958 I don't know what the insides of a "normal" Fiat of that era looked like. ☹ Behind the Iron Curtain, we only had the versions that were built in Poland. The "nagy Polski" (Big Polski - FSO 125p) and the "kis Polski" (Little Polski - FSM 126p). But I sat a lot in the "kocka Lada" (Cube Lada - this version in the video), and I remember the meaning of those few lights on it's dashboard. 😊
These are VAZ 2107 or its export names: LADA 2107, Lada Nova, Lada Riva, Lada Signet, Lada 1500, Lada 1600, Lada 1300, Lada 1300SL, Lada 1300S.
The interior and some parts were probably replaced by a dealer, as the interior of the car was originally more Spartan.
This model was produced until 2012 and is considered a classic family of rear-wheel drive VAZ cars. The 2108 and 2109, 2110 models already have front-wheel drive.
Rear-wheel drive models are usually called "classic". This particular model is just a "Seven". Front-wheel drive models with a carburetor - Sputnik, with an injector - Samara and Samara-2, or simply a "Chisel" for the body shape.
The 2101-2107 models are based on the Fiat 124 chassis, but somewhat modified and retained only the layout from the original one.
In 2007, the VAZ 2107 cost less than $ 6,000 at the exchange rate and until 2017 was the most popular car in Russia, since it could be borrowed for 2-3 years
p.s.
There is no catalyst, there were models with an injector, but these are cars produced in the mid-2000s.
Any spare parts can probably be ordered through intermediaries in Kazakhstan. The only question is the price of delivery.
It's a pity they don't release them anymore. Renault wanted to make a modernized model with increased safety, but it would not have paid off economically.
When I lived in Finland, a friend had an 80’s Lada and I remember it had the optional sliding trap door in the backseat floor so you could go ice fishing in it during winter…
That's the coolest feature lol...
was your friend ex-KGB?
@@1greenMitsi nah just your normal run of the mill Finn
Are you sure that wasn't for snuggling people into West Berlin?
@@1greenMitsi russian 2nd city st Peterburg is 90 miles from Finland border and there were quite a lot of LADAS in Finland, this was way cheaper than VW, BMW, PEUGEOT, VOLVO or MERCEDES
also LADA was quite SIMPLE to repair and it didnt broke so easily, it has very few parts compared to german cars.
OMG! I could tell You so many things about this car! A LADA2107 1500 was my first ever car. I had it in 2001, and it was 10 years old at the time, so same as Yours - 1991. I had a Finish spec 2107 - it had a larger outside mirrors, and front lamps wipers. My econ gauge did not work, and I did not care. I got about 10 liters per 100km that equals about 23-24mpg.
Cheers from Poland!
Makes sense, Wizard; you have a Viper and she has a ‘Stang. She gives you a Lada so you should turn around and give her a Yugo! 😅
The Italian connection
Nah, Wizard should buy her an early Reliant Robin.
Remember she has claims on the Ferrari also.
Yugo flying off the Macinac Bridge, when the wind blows across the Strait. (Really happened)
The Yugo was the one car that Lada owners could look down on. Of course, Yugos in Canada were rare as hen's teeth.
Mr. Car Wizard, You got the luxury 2107. We had 2105. They were common in USSR and the satellite countries 'till 2000's. Based off FIAT but made more robust for Russian weather and roads.This car lasts about 120k km when the problem with the engine begins and needs rebuild. Here in Bulgaria You still can meet them in the villages with LPG system, beat the hell out of them :)
I had a LADA and still have one. Those are cars that you A) hate, or B) LOVE. They skim the roads the way bricks do not. Simple noble cars are they. Respect the Lada.
That extra blinker light is for the trailer blinker. Some EU countries require a check light for the trailer blinkers when a trailer is hooked up. It will blink correctly when a trailer with working blinkers is hooked up. Also be aware that the EU 7 pin plug is NOT compatible with the US trailer plugs. Blinker and brake lights are separate. Right and left taillights are separate. No electric brake signal.
he says my economy gauge does not work but he's flooring it🤣🤣
Buy a european trailer extra and import that!
6:52 Lada manual in hungarian
Bojler aldó!
Congratulations! You're now a proud owner of a Hungarian service manual for this car and 3 other variants! The VAZ factory started production in 1970 and they bought the license for the Fiat 124, one of the best cars of its era. The Lada 2101-2107 cars were variants of the Fiat 124. The word Lada means a small sailing fishing boat used in Russia, it's also what the logo is depicting on the steering wheel. VAZ stands for "Volga Avto Zavod" - Volga car factory because it's located by the river Volga. The 2107 was the top of the range of the Fiat 124 variants, it had the biggest engine and the most HP. You need to pay attention to the gaps on the spark plugs, as this engine is very sensitive to that.
The blinds in the back were a fashion item in Hungary in the 80's. In Hungary lots of cars are equipped with a towball, even small ones.
The 2106 had an 1.6l engine and the 2107 had a rotary engine...
@@REVOLTAR53 I was 17 when my parents sold our 2107. It had an inline 4 cylinder 1500 cc engine.
I'm sure you are aware, but Fiat even helped design/build the factory as part of a trade deal where the Italians got access to cheap steel (used in many an Italian car without any additional rust proofing, effectively killing Lancia).
My brother’s father in law had one. Did 50k km per year, never missed a beat. Working in construction, he had to help his Benz-driving co-workers leave the construction site in winter. They couldn’t do it, but he did. Lada-powerrrrr! and: things that aren’t fitted on the car, can’t fail..
When my parents shifted their old Morris1000 (I got that one) they baught a brand new Lada (around 1977). It was the cheapest car in Denmark at the time. It always ran and was just as easy to repair as the old Morris 1000. No matter the temperature it could always start and it easily ran 120km/h on the the danish highway).
Thank you,
Perfect car ❤
It's much more interesting to see quirky and sort of unusual cars (in the US) like this one - than another Land Rover or Jag. Keep it up wizard!
much rather prefer to see British cars then this russian trash
Citroen AMI 6 is the one we need So does the Wizard We want fun?? It has to be French made car
There's no cat in it, it's just a front muffler (these cars have two mufflers one after the other). The brakes proportioning valve is there to automatically adjust brake bias depending on the rear axle load, so that the car with 3 passengers in the rear seat and luggage in the trunk would have more braking force at the rear compared to a car with just the driver in it. A fun fact is that this device is nicknamed "колдун" in Russian which can be loosely translated to English as "Wizard"
It is a catalytic converter, they just retrofitted that in many ladas to meet emission standards the system was a disgrace
@d.o.5238, You’re wrong, and the exact opposite of how the brake proportioning valve operates. In heavy braking, I.E. like a child running in front of the vehicle, the valve will increase the pressure on the front wheels to keep the rear wheels from locking up and causing the vehicle to spin. It has nothing to do with the weight that’s in the vehicle.
Think about it for a moment, how would a braking system know and calculate the weight in the vehicle without a computer?
@@Sandy.J.Lloyd.Sr. no, I'm not. The rod, that Wizard thought was a sway bar, is what controls the valve. The lower the rear end is, the more weight load is on the rear axle and the more pressure goes to the rear brakes. Also, when you brake and the weight gets transferred to the front because of that, the rear end lifts and the valve decreases the pressure to the rear brakes and prevents them from locking up. Welcome to old times without any computers and everything being done mechanically
@@d.o.5238 I’ve been a mechanic for over 50 years and have rebuilt and adjusted proportioning valves on hundreds of cars, my specialty was Corvettes. If the valves performed as you say there would be no reason for them to be on Corvettes from 1968 to 1982, and with the same logic they should be on every truck manufactured. The Corvettes have no space for passengers and very little space for luggage, the trucks would require them because of the changing load throughout their life, but this isn’t what we see, what we do see is the complete opposite.
The proportioning valve is to prevent the rear wheels from locking up in a panic stop, Google it being you don’t believe me. I don’t want to make a derogatory joke about Russia or the country that made the little car, but I have a hard time believing they’re purposely designing a car to perform a dangerous operation that could take lives. You do not want to lock up the rear wheels in an emergency stop and if you apply more braking power to the rear wheels you’ll do just that. I’m not going to keep going back and forth with you because I know I’m right, I’ve rebuilt, recalibrated, and installed new brake proportioning valves, and I know how and why they work the way they do. So please google it, and have a nice day.
@@Sandy.J.Lloyd.Sr. I don't see how what you're saying contradicts my words. More weight on the rear - more pressure is allowed to go to the rear brakes. Less load, the rear end goes up (regardless of the reason, being it less cargo or a hard braking) it pulls the rod and closes the valve more) - so you get less pressure. It works for both hard braking and adjusting the initial bias depending on the car load. Nice day to you too
OMG, my dad used to own Lada VAZ-2107 as his first car and he bought it in 1983 when we lived in the former Soviet Union that time. This is the first car I used to drive and you bring a lot of good memories for me. I am driving a 2016 Infiniti Q70L AWD sedan with sport and technology packages, but I will never forget my first car my Lada!
Where are you from? For the record.
Former USSR republic and now is called Uzbekistan .
Now I am living in Pennsylvania Philadelphia.
During the last years of Sovjet Union they transported used Ladas back to Russia from Finland
Congratulations. Mrs Wizard has bought you the perfect car for Kansas winters. My father had a fully loaded early 80s Lada & it had the best heater of any car available! He was sad to see it go when the insurance company totaled it after an accident (not his fault). Enjoy!!
I read an article once it heated interior quicker than modern cars. I think Volvo 240 did well too byt nowhere near.
You can definitely see their priorities.
I'm honestly impressed to see a Lada with all it's rear badging in place and a fully put together dash. This is pretty awesome and a cheerful drivable milestone, makes for a great video! Nice little history lesson too. It sounds way too aggressive for the speed lol
My dad used to own one back in the day and the Samara that came after it. He always told me those were the most reliable cars he's ever owned.
They're very spartan but you can at least depend on them
These were incredibly popular here in Finland, but started to get rare in the beginning of 2000s. Russians bought them back in masses because, well, they were extremely popular there also. My dad had one just like this, but I think the model was 2105, and before that he had round lamp 1200L model. Both those were also bought back by russians I think. Finnish models had dealer fitted options also, like heated seats. The heater was extremely powerful and they started good in winter so they were good winter cars. Nowdays the model 1200L with round headlights are really rare and very desirable, not a lot of them left anymore.
Here in eastern Europe back in the 70s owning a Lada 1500 was a HUGE deal. It was pretty much the equivalent of owning an S-Class in the west at that time. Compared to Trabants and other basic communist cars, the Lada was on a different level. They are also really durable.
Yep, I agree with you... and if you have 2106 with the 1.6... you felt like you owned an airplane.
"equivalent of owning an S-Class" - no, it wasn't. More like the equivalent of a Jetta / Audi 80 for people, who didn't have party connections or a lot of money. You might say they were dependable (easy to fix), but they were never reliable. The engines were ready for rebuild at under 150k km.
@@БранимирПетров engine rebuild at 150k kilometers is actually incredibly reliable for the record. That distance back in the days took decades to travel. You are talking about a car which was build with thing but cheapness in mind. Lets be real, many modern day cars can't make it to 90-100k mile mark anyhow. The jettas or 80s of the are were more comparable to the Zastavas and Wartburg 353... the 2107 was definitely a much higher class.
@@MB-ox3czYeah, 150k was a lot, since these amazing POS cars rusted out before that. Quite thick steel, with almost non existent protection. A lot of 80s cars were easily pushing 250k km of life without major issues. No, Jetta/ Golf were far better build than any of the soviet cars, and most of them still run fine, especially the diesel ones. I've grown around soviet cars, my father had Moskvich, my grandfather Polski Fiat and then Skoda 120 (the best car of the bunch), and besides the early Volga 24, none of them were nice to be in. Wartburg, Zastava - they were just a step above the Trabant / Zaporojets, just means to move from point A to B.
@@БранимирПетровcloser to 80-90thousand km
In 1989, I drove an older version of Lada from Uzbekistan to Estonia. 3000 miles changed 6 tires, no fun at all, lol 😂
This is 5000 miles between and there were mountains without roads in Uzbekistan, your tires were old i think
Дело было не в машине. Долбоеб сидел в кабине.😊😊😊
It was better than bicycle
Congratulations for 1 million subscribers! You got the whole enchiLada!
OMG I love this! When AW told that he sold the Lada, he didn't tell who bought it. This is great.
BTW, in Europe we don't really use pick up trucks privately much, so we pull trailers A LOT...
@@jimmychristensen498 Even with a 40 horse VW Bug..
True story. My dad bought me an old Lada. It was so rusted, that the gas pedal broke off when I tried to take a ride. It was a best option for common people in USSR in 80's.
My first car was a Lada 2101 1200cc (model year 1969). I have great memories from it! I was only 18 when my dad gave it to me. It was not fast or something like that, but it was very cheap to maintain and repair. Most services or repairs were so easy that I could do on my own. Driving it was ...let's say ... like driving a battle tank! Slow and heavy to steer. But I loved it! Top speed....120km/h at its best days...😂 ...
That's what my dad had - 2101 '73 vintage. Oh, nostalgia is real...
First ever Lada was 1970
@@khche Lada was export name. Soviets known this as Zhigoolee (Жигули)
@@EvgeniBelin что ещё расскажете? Ну про ВАЗ напишите ещё.
The car of my childhood. My grandfather had one like this (LADA-2106). She seemed huge to me at the time. We traveled together around Ukraine, Crimea and Kuban. The engine ran on 76 grade gasoline.
110 is easily 65 mph, so no worries about highway speeds. In the 990's I worked with a guy in Montreal who bought those for cheap and fixed them up for driving through the winter. He did some weird fixes , like fixing keyways in the transmission with cut off nails and who knows what else. But he always made it to work on time 😆
112 is 70 mph , 96 is 60 mph, if it's a 1500 it will go almost 100 mph, and 90 4 sure
100 km/h is 60 mph roughly
@@mybigfatpolishlife I know, I have a US made car in Europe and going 60 is too fast for most speed cameras or corners that can easy take 60 kmh :D
Conversation 1.6 km is 1 mile.
I have always wanted one of these!! So cool. Way to go Mrs. Wizard!
Those "bars" you used to lift the car are actually the jacking points. The Lada came with it's own jack form the factory and these points are used to insert the jack in them.
it was easy to lift, not like those farmer style jacks
I have driven in the car. My grandparents in Russia still drive it. I have a picture as a toddler with the car in the background. This car will never die it seems. I was born in 91 and in all my life that is the only car I have ever seen them have😂
I made a comment about this, these vehicles were meant to be simple and simple to fix/mantain. Making them easy to work on means that as long as they don't rust they could theoretically last forever, by making them for so long and not changing the design it was possible to (to this day) still make parts. You couldn't dream of finding parts for a Chevrolet in the USA from the 80s, not all the parts anyways, owning anything in the USA it is mostly a throwaway product. I find that funny because we are so concerned about being "green", if you owned one car for 50 years and only replaced the broken parts I believe that would make it more "green" than buying a new car every 5 years.
These are a lot like Toyotas from this time period, the only thing that’ll really kill them is rust.
😁
keep the rust away and anybody can fix just about anything on it. It was designed to be repaired by the owner, with a huge toolkit.
@@jetjazz05 in USSR, a body change was also a thing - when the body has rusted away, no reason to throw everything else away
Wow, that book is in Hungarian! I think every household which owned a Lada / Zsiguli has one of those maintanence guidebooks.
Zhiguli.
We had loads the of these in the UK in the 70s and 80s. Based on a 60s Fiat 124. They stopped selling them here when they couldn't meet emissions stsndards. When they couldn't pass the annual test, most got shipped back to Russia for repair or parts. Last time I saw one was in Croatia 15 years ago.
There is one in a town near me in the UK parked up next to an old ldv van. It runs and is used as well.
After the Wall fell, and we started getting ships from Poland and Russia loaded with lumber, the ship's crews would buy up all the Ladas they could find and take them back as deck cargo. The waiting list for new cars in Russia was years, so they made a nice earner from bringing export models back home. The underframe was upgraded to cope with Russian roads, so much stronger than the origin Fiat shells. There is still one driven locally, a Wagon or Estate in English, in good order. There should be a full too kit comes with it. Enough to fix it on a Siberian roadside in winter.
I remember top gear making fun of these
They made less fun of it after Lotus completely upgraded it and it was gifted to a viewer.....
@@johnsimon8457
@foxstrangler Yes! Here in Weymouth, England in the late 80s and early 90s Soviet/Russian fish processing ships would drop anchor in the bay for a few weeks. The crew members on days off would come ashore and spend their time collecting these cars and parts from scrap yards to take home to make a few roubles.
My brother had a 1989 Lada Samara (in Canada BTW). It always made me think that it's the car that a farmer built in his shed out of spare tractor parts. It was so simple to work on, but the parts were a nightmare to source. He finally got rid of it after it needed a new clutch that was going to cost $900.
The "weird little bars" are for a jack to slide into, they use a similar jack to what came with Cortinas. The webber 32/34 is also a good way to get a little more go from it
DGAV 32/36 off a Ford Cortina is even better!
This proves she loves her Wizard a whole Lada. As unique as one can get here in the USA.
Hoped to have heard the old Soviet national anthem half way through the video.
Whole Lada love (WAAAAAY down insiiide)
I was born in the USSR and grew up in one of these. They were modified versions of the Fiat 124 made by VAZ and called "Zhiguli" but exported under the name "Lada."
Yes the suspension was stronger than original Fiat
@@aris95 The suspension, chassis, and body were all thicker steel than the Fiats. When Fiat sent over the stock 124 chassis for testing they all cracked and the rear disc brakes on them were completely useless in less than 1 oil change because they got caked with salt which is why they replaced them with aluminium drums. They sent over reinforced chassis, but they cracked too so VAZ just added even more steel to the chassis to strengthen it.The Zhiguli's even had proper towing eyes which the 124's lacked. They also raised the suspension a bit compared to the 124 and ran softer springs so it would actually be drivable on unpaved country roads. The engine was also redesigned from the Fiat and the later 1.6L ones are ridiculously capable in the right hands (there's a couple Hungarians out there who managed to get over 210hp out of them NA, 160-180 is a walk in the park for any east bloc tuner). The factory was also a testbed for new automation tech Fiat wanted to use in production and was pretty high tech for the time. It's one of the most produced cars ever on top of all that, might even be the highest number of a single model produced with just facelifts and no major generational changes (17.7 mil produced, vs 16.5 mil Model T's).
It's basically just an overengineered 124, which is weird considering the 124 itself was in some aspects even more barebones than the original Zhiguli's, not really much to overengineer on those things. It's a product of the conditions of the time, there were barely any roads east of the Ural mountains back then and even west of that paved roads were a rarity. The USSR wasn't even industrialized 50 years before these cars were built and you can't really run high tech stuff around all the time in places like that because a breakdown in the middle of nowhere can easily turn into a death sentence. Not great by modern standards, but nothing else was as reliable and easy to fix as these back in the day. Cheap to produce, buy, and maintain; a car you bought with your brain and not your heart, though there really weren't any enthusiast cars in the USSR, people modded what they had and the stuff the Soviets designed was so overbuilt most of the time you had a lot of headroom to play with.
Also the police versions of these had 1.3L rotaries for a while lol. Might've even been faster than the 5.5L Volga's.
There is a channel called Garage54. They are the wizards of these machines :D
Those Mac Gyver Russians crack me up with their stunts. Fun channel for sure.
😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😂@@mystisith3984
glad to see a fellow garage54 fan
This one has a look of #5 and #7 Zhiguli/Lada model. I believe #6 was a bit more reliable but had a rounded headlights. Many neighbors were fixing these cars at their drive way. Not many people could afford to buy a car, so each driver was using "their only car" for decades. Even underpowered as these were, they got the job done. Remember people were loading these with a lot of heavy weight items which made the car squat.
A Lada?!?! WHAAAAT! Got all the help u need. Its very common here in Finland VTS parts can make this super cool ^^ That blank spot next to the clock is mostlikely for AC or seat heaters. If you need a 5 speed gearbox, got u covered!
These are build simple to be able to survive siberian brutal winters
Not so common anymore, most of them disappeared almost overnight after soviet union collapsed...
@@mikakoivunen3456 truuuust me, there is more than enough of em still around lol
@@TheNismo777 Here we see occasionally ladas, but the older ones with round headlights are very rare sight, much like saab 9000 and older ones
@@mikakoivunen3456 I see both models every day, very common in this city. Samara has totally vanished as a model in the last 15 years
Lada is and was the national car of Cuba. I owned one from 1978, and it still running. It was a joint venture between Fiat and Lada. Also check out the Vodga. Loved those CCCP cars, simple and to the point and winter survivors too.
Volga
Here in Macedonia we grew up and learn to drive in this cars there were very common cars now they all rusted out.Its a nice trip down the memory line.This cars have a here and there issues most electrical but you can go trough a brick wall with this car and keep on going.😂😂.
I had a Fiat 124 Twin Cam and it was a blast!!!! I drove that thing from Victoria to Edmonton and back many times, on the freeway, no problem. I rallied it, I slalomed it (yes the body lean was some what scary) and only when it went -10C did it start to complain. Damp wasn't it's friend either.
Car Wizard..you are the bomb!!! Great practical and honest advice! I love your channel. You are a dying breed...god bless the knowledgeable, independent, mechanic that can still service both 'modern' and older vehicles. Modern is in quotes as post mid 2000's EVERYTHING sux and is built to the same 10 year life expectancy as any of other appliances that most have come to expect. Please consider moving to Asheville NC. Nice Mountain town that needs your services...the views are so much better than flatland KS.
This is such a cool gift. Take it to a car show. It will draw more people than the 30 mustangs or corvettes people have seen a thousand times before.
Lada... the Other Russian Rocket! And trust me fellas, you ain't lived until you've driven along the Havana Malecon in the back of a clapped out Lada Taxi doing 140kmh!!
@ScreamingReelsTV - Ha! Yes! Me too! But not in a clapped out Lada taxi, but driving a nice, almost new Lada rental car and many times on the Malecon (but never at 140 clicks!) and twice driving all the way from Havana to Santiago and back! And both times with more than half of the 900-plus km trip after dark! I don't recommend this! When I visit the island now I avoid driving anywhere in Cuba at night at all costs!
On weeeeeed
Piroská Lada 🥇 my uncle raced these in the Mecek mountains near kaopsvar along with citroens audis and pugeots in the 80s and 90s in Hungary. Cool to see one in such nice shape and from HU as well
If I remember correctly, the steering is not rack-and-pinion but screw-type. However, Fiat did not just supply the licence but even built the production plant.
A lot of Ladas were sold here in Canada. I know a few people that bought them new. The driveline is pretty tough but if driven in the winter the salt will destroy them in only one season. These cars are still very numerous in Cuba and can be rebuilt with basic hand tools.
I had no idea they made it to North America. Neat
i guess russia doesnt salt roads. id say wool waxing everything would protect them
@volvo09 we came very close to getting them in the US, the same company that imported Belarus tractors in the '70s had the rights to sell Lada and UAZ. The cars passed NHTSA and EPA certifications, were displayed at some auto shows, dealer franchises had been signed up, sales were supposed to start in late 1979 for the 1980 model year. Then the Afghan invasion happened and new trade restrictions and generally negative sentiment killed the deal. Canadians traveling south at the time would run into certain gas stations in the US refusing to service anyone in a Lada, so it probably would have turned into a disaster if they had gone ahead with sales here
Depends what you mean by a lot. They were a joke car like Skoda and Yugo.
@@superbird2814Skodas weren't jokes. They were successful rally cars back in the day.
In Canada you could buy Skodas (Czechoslovakia), Ladas (USSR), and Dacias (Romania), but I don't think the Yugo was sold new here. The Skoda was available as a sedan or coupe, rear-engined, with a manual transmission. Along with the Lada Niva 4x4, these were some of the most interesting vehicles you could find in terms of bang for the buck. I'm not saying fun to drive, necessarily (but the Niva apparently was) but you'd attract attention at times.
I was surprised to find all three brands represented at the annual car show hosted by the Quinte Mall in Belleville. I'd never even heard of the Skoda or Dacia before I saw them there.
Car Wizard, you have my attention now . This is brilliant.
You can easily find parts to be shipped to the US from East Europe (Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania...)
You may find in Canada as well, as those Ladas used to be imported there, but it will be much harder.
Still, you can find tech documentation in English from the UK, Canada or Australia.
Great shout out to Robert Dunn at aging wheels. He is very clever and has lots of great content..
I had a few Iron Curtain Cruisers as my friends labelled them. Most parts are available from Fiat they are based on a Fiat 124 and they were OK.
I know for a fact that car will do 80mph for long periods.
Almost no parts are interchangeable with the 124
An uncle of mine bought one new, I remember him boasting about how he had driven it 180 miles 'without it missing a beat' - even among their greatest fans expectations were low! At the time I was riding 200 to 300 miles a day on a Honda VFR750.
The heated rear screen is to keep your hands warm when you push it :-)
LOL crackup. Thanks
@@michaelcudby787не! То је југо!
So is the heated rear screen in FIAT 126p, or "maluch"
I'm familiar with the Fiat 124 when I was a kid, first time I saw a Lada derived version was in a Vancouver auto show.
Imagine in the days of the CCCP, it was 10 plus years waiting list.
Now you can look for a East German Trabant, or a Wartburg. Or a luxury Soviet six cylinder Volga.
Good day. I was repairing those LADA in the 60 to 70, these cars are built like tanks, easy to repair and the parts where accessible at a reasonnable price. they where slow but steady, they where giving you a tool kit whit every car.to bad we dont have them anymore.
Actually this model has 5 speed transmission available. After some year it became a standard. So it is just a bad luck you have 4 speed. I can send what ever you need from Kazakhstan for your nice Lada.
I love Kazakhstan
шах тюнинг !!!
Those 2107 with the chrome grill and headlight washers. In my early teens my parents had the exact same model and color. This brings back some memories. This is a Beauty
The 2017 was the ultimate Zhiguli, with luxury features like headrests, a electric heated rear window, an electric clock, and a chrome grill.
еще в некоторых версиях были щетки на фарах , как на нивах
Good to add the driving experience, it really makes the video's more complete!
I got my dad's 1993 lada samara 'flyte' still on the road, only one in uk registered on the road, 2 left in total in uk
Well done!
Great car. Easy to repair, cheap parts and warm in the winter. I have the 2107 1700i big block injected model. It topped out at 170km/h (105mph).
Lada was very common car here in Finland. They were mostly driven on roads with maximum speed limit of 80 km/h (50 mph). The owners of those cars say that you could get very warm interior with its heater and that Lada was at best during the cold winter days.
I had this same car 20 years ago and it goes way faster than 80 km/h and yes it is very warm in winter this model actually won the price of having the warmest seat warmers on Tekniikan maailma when they compared it to other cars beating every luxury car and when i was having my second part of driving license the ice track had that day had -39c and i was sweating like a pig inside because how hot the heater was.
I have heard that despite being cheaply made they had copper heater core, which was of course great for heat transfer. Maybe true or not...
@@Bashi88радиатор был действительно медный, и к тому же ремонтопригодный-можно было паять
The Lada uses the old Fiat 124 platform and panels (66 to 74)
platform yes, panels no
@@Random-nf7qb The original Lada is FIAT 124 made from thicker steel and with a different engine and taller and beefier suspension and better heater among other things. The Soviet Union bought the entire FIAT factory lock, stock and barrel and moved it to Togliatti where they essentially put iron ore in one end of the factory and drove complete cars out the other. This is a facelift of that but the center section is the same.
Other than Lada, FIAT also helped start the car industries in Yugoslavia and Spain: Zastava and SEAT.
@@christianronn5301 There are over 800 changes from the 124 to the 2101.
Thicker steel and different engine yes.
Redesigned brakes and suspension as well.
They are pretty much different cars that only look the same.
@@Random-nf7qb My former boss sold these in the 80’s in Sweden. He remembers the introduction on the (facelift) 2105 in 1983. Compared to the ”straight 124 copy” 2101 he said ”all panel fit & flush was out the window!!” 😄 They had to adjust doors etc at the dealerships. 🙃😊
I had one, it was a 83 that I bought in 86 for C$1600 with only 57,000 kilometers on it, not a mark on the body and even a vinyl landau roof, oh it was also the Signet with a 1500 cc engine with a 5 speed. The fastest that it achieved was 160 kph with the pedal flat on the floor, since the speed limit on the highway is 110 kph it was fine. You had to be gentle with the gas and clutch on pulling away or the left hand motor mount could tear apart. In 83 the headlights were a 4 round sealed beam glass bulb system and didn't tilt, but worked like any other low/ high beams. The rear brakes adjusted on a cam built into the shoes that fitted over a post on the backing plate. I found out after selling the car, that the wheel bolts for the rear wheels stretched every time you tightened them, therefore needing the bolts to be shortened slightly on a grinding wheel or they could come up against the backing plate and not torque down properly, I had one wheel pass me at an intersection. There should have been a small set of tools in the trunk like in my car. I can say the car was very easy to work on, for example, it only took between 2 and 3 hours to change the heater core, since I had to remove the dash to get to it. At the end I had to work on it almost every weekend so that I could get to work during the week. I got so fed up with the car that I sold it in 1988 for 90 dollars, just to get rid of it. The guy I sold it to lived next door to the mechanic at the local Lada dealership.
I've trained for and took my driving test in one of these. I don't miss any part of the experience.
I would drive much better probably if I learned in this rather than a Fiat Uno
Awesome pick, Mrs. Wizard
The last thing I expected to see on this channel is Mr. Wizard driving a Lada 2107! I'm from Russia, I'm crazy about older cars, and got a lot of pleasure seeing this contrast as the Wizard drives this car, outside the window is America, but the noise from the lack of aerodynamics, the crackle in the cabin and the hum of the transmission and engine is exclusively Soviet).
In the former USSR this car is called Zhiguli, Lada, Riva - export names for European and American markets.
Keep us informed about its fate, it is so nice to see a piece of something so native, in the middle of the rest of the beauty of cars❤
I worked on Ladas here in Canada in the 80's, the oddest thing about them was they where the only cars that I worked on that had tires that needed inner tubes. Once we replaced the tires with our tires no tubes where needed. And the best was I remember the tubes had all Russian writing on them. Now that's a through back for me considering I've been a mechanic for 45 years now, and look back at my early years when I first started.
Renault's thru to the 70s had inner tubes. For small punctures an inner tube is easier to repair than a modern tire. I had a very nice plum colored Renault 12TS. It was a fun car that had been maintained by a Renault mechanic. Sold it when I moved to the US in 85.
@@trevorbartram5473 The Renault, another car that melted in Canada LOL
I had a '77 Renault 5 in Toronto and the 145R13 tires had inner tubes in them. I switched to regular 165/70 R13 tires and did not put tubes in, it held the pressure for about a month and had to top up about 2-4PSI every 3-4weeks
@@dm19609721 Bio-degradable
100 km/h is 62 mph
80 km/h is 50 mph
60km/h is 37 mph
50km/h is 31 mph
40km/h is 25 mph
so there is your conversion chart wizard! 😁
.62 km to the mile
@@richardmullins9299 It's the other way around, .62 miles to the kilometer.
88 = 55 back in the 70s when US attempted to switch to KM, speed limit signs in WV were in both.
@@lassesaikkonen501 one mile 1.609km
1 km = .0621 mile, or 6.21 tenths of a mile
Passed my driving test in Moscow when I was an 18 y o boy in one of these. Crappy but really simple. Ladas were and in some sense still are the backbone of personal transportation in Russia. And the manual is definitely not in Russian. I didn't get a close look, but from a glance, it seems to be Hungarian.
The wizard can park it next to his Citroen. Two odd cars. It was so nice of Mrs. Wizard to buy and also pull his Lada to cars and Coffee.
The Lada isn't odd. It's the simplest most basic car there is. It looks as basic as it technically is. Nothing odd really.
Ladas are actually tough little cars, simple and tough. They do well in cold climates, hence they sold prettty well in Canada.
They feature prominently in Russian dash cam videos bouncing off larger vehicles with minimal damage, and older ones having their hoods fly up, blocking the windshield as they had no secondary hood latch to prevent this.
No, they did not.
Lada sales were well under 1% of annual new car sales in Canada. They were a constant source of jokes and complaints about reliability, parts, and low power even for the time.
They were the cheapest new car in Canada. They may have been sold at a loss as the USSR desperately wanted foreign currency.
The only lada who did well in Canada was the niva/cossack. I did want one when was younger....buy the time I grew up they didint last 😂
@@Jacks_the_Lab
None of them did well.
@@morstyrannis1951
Far less than 1%. Very negligible. Those who claim the Lada were selling like hotcakes in Canada have not a clue. Never happened. Also, why do you think the Soviets needed hard currency? Why couldn't they use their own? You would be shocked to discover no one knows why. I have known since the 1980s. They had no choice.
I am from Russia (CCCP) , nice to see THAT car in yours channel. Its like car in my 21 age )
Top Gear took one of their viewer's LADA to Lotus and did a full make-over. They had the Fiat twin-cam fully done, I think it was pushing 120hp and a 5-speed Fiat box. It's on You Tube.
That had a Guy Croft engine in it, someone built a copy of it and it appeared in Fast Car magazine.
@@johnchurch4705 I liked Clarkie's comment "He literally wrote the book on them" then held up the book.
In Hungary and Scandinavia there are a lot of them build for rally cars. They handle quite well :)
They have a good stiff chassis and can be made to handle very well indeed and a decent Fiat twincam makes them a great deal of fun.
@@marvindebot3264 Don't even need a twincam if you have the 1.6L. 160-180hp from them is a piece of cake for most east bloc tuners and some Hungarians got them to over 210 at 9500RPM. They're really capable for being SOHC engines.
Canada really promoted this car. I remember the ads for it.
Canada? I had no idea LADA's were sold in North america
And I still see them around occasionally.
@@volvo09for sure they were. During the cold war some service stations refused to gas them up.
@@Quince828 yeah I saw comments afterwards that they were indeed in Canada.
I was surprised because the ones I did see in North america (the US) were imported from overseas... Must just be hard to find a worthwhile example in Canada... Like trying to find a clean example of the first Hyundai, no one cares and ran them all into the ground as a cheap beater.
@@volvo09 ya, like the Hyundai Pony they all rusted in peace within a few years.
Hi! It's very interesting that now you own One. My two remarks: 1. It's not a catalytic neutralizer - it's just a exhaust resonator. 2. On the rear axel (if i'm not mistaken) - it's a front lights auto-corrector, not a brakes load balancer, it corrects a front lights level, depending on the car load. The brakes distributor IS actually present, but That is not the one.
I fell in love with Ladas while in Odessa Ukraine in 2018. A true icon. Congratulations 🎉
That is a hungarian service manual 😂 We had a ton of them here. Most probably this one comes from Hungary as well. It brings back memories from my childhood!
It’s a simple car that you can service at home without a huge shop. They built like any russian equipment, almost indestructible. 😅
They actually broke all the time in the funniest spots, so your statement is the opposite of true. However, I'll give you that they were easy to fix.
@@notsoeloquent I've spent 5 fun-filled years as the happy owner of a Lada 2105, and before that my family had a 2103 for 10+ years. Based on my experience, I'd say, they are never perfect, something is almost always wrong with them, but 99% of the time they'll get you home somehow. But yeah, they'll make you learn the basics of repairing a car, whether you want it or not. You could blindfold me, tie one of my hands behind my back and I still would be able to change the idle jet (it gets clogged regularly) within a traffic light cycle, without removing the air filter housing. Oh, fun times...
How can you service it with no parts?
Most of the time the problems were not so serious. You can fix almost everyting with a few hand tools, some wire and electric tape. The main problem with modern cars that you don't repair them, you just replace parts.
Oil is oil,
filters are filters..
sparkplugs, ignition wires etc. all available nothing special..
hard parts also available via a large parts dealer in Florida who sells to Cuban ex pats living in USA so they can ship Lada bits to their relatives living in Cuba...and driving Ladas...
Talk about a cool gift! ahahha
I'm Brazilian and in the 90's in Brazil there was a lot of Ladas, because it was one of the cheapest imports that we could buy back then because the imports were very restricted.