Loved the video! Your problem is that you are not using the Lada correctly. That back seat should be stuffed to the headliner with watermelons, or potatoes, or chickens, or a cow. Basically whatever needs to go to market. Also, the engine should be at redline, or maybe a little over whenever you are on the highway. If you need to pass a car, make sure you do it in the lane of the oncoming traffic (preferably in the presence of oncoming traffic). You should never put a Lada on a lift. Simply roll it onto one side, and prop it with a 2x4 to work on the underside of the car. At least, this is how I saw Ladas used when I lived in a former SSR.
Very atmospheric comment. I can just picture two Russian guys with a Lada propped up on a chunk of wood, cursing as they work on it. The air thick with Slavic profanity and the smell of cheap Russian tobacco...!
And they still are used this way in some of the former sister states of the SSR - I'm still wondering if I should pick one up in Moldova for about 1000 euros 😅
@@leifhietala8074 Back in the day when both of those were on the road at the same time it was a huge jump. A lot of people never made that even, simply because they couldn't afford it or didn't have some connection to even get a Lada.
I knew a bus driver. He loved his Lada Riva. He said it was the closest a car came to the feeling of driving a bus. I'm still not quite sure what to make of that statement.
I grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada in the 1980s and 1990s. My parents owned two of these. One was poop brown, one was a pee yellow. The yellow one, our dealer actually sold a dealer installed option automatic transmission by buying Chevette 3-speed automatics from the Chevrolet Oldsmobile Cadillac dealer across the street. My mom couldn't drive a stick, so that's what my father bought her. My father was so cheap he figured why buy a new car when he could get two for the price of one. The rustproofing was horrendous. After a few years I can remember looking down at the carpet and seeing the road flash before me. At least they came standard with a tool kit in the trunk. I will say these were popular in Eastern and Atlantic Canada because they had decent ground clearance in the snow and handled potholed roads well. Rustproofing aside, these powertrains were tough as hell. They were cheap, and they sold very well, along with the Hyundai Pony. But, when Hyundai joined the Canadian market with the Pony and Stellar, it I think was the death knell for Lada in Canada. They stopped selling new cars in Canada in 1997.
Good work, man. I had a Lada 2106 for a few years. Cost me a fortune to rebuild the suspension every few thousand kilometers, was gas thirsty as an airplane, but took me where I wanted to go. I, personally, noticed that every Lada had its own character - pedals, shifting, engine - never the same.
Rebuilding suspension every few thousand km? This car specifically has a suspension setup meant to last on Russian roads. I've seen these with 200k+ km original suspension here in Russia (I'm American) so I'm gonna say that's not true at all
@bldontmatter5319 You owned them yourself, or someone told you that the car had the original suspension for 200 thousand km? I can easily tell you that my Lada was so good that I didn't change oil in it for 500 000 km. Do you see the difference? Even expensive German shocks didn't last for more than 20 000 km, and I'm not talking about Moscow, my dear American friend.
@@igorpro8462 in what world do shocks last lest than 20k km??? In WHAT WORLD... I've beat cars to heck and off-roaded like crazy even on cheap shocks, and they lasted 20k+ and then some.
@@MrDuncl at one point you could go to the scrap man and pretty much they would pay YOU to take away the Ladas they already had. Long gone are the days of a twenty quid Lada with a short MOT that was a hugely desirable car for those pan-European road trip adventurers. It was a good choice for it, too. You could kit it out with a bunch of British/Western bling - Cibie spots, seats pinched from the huge pile of BL seats at the breakers that were a step up in comfort, a decent stereo, a roof rack and other such goodies, and by the time it broke down you were in the part of Europe where they were common enough to be easily repaired.
@@samwalker7567 I, and others, have commented elsewhere in this thread that most of the Ladas ended up going back to Russia as the parts (like engines) were worth far more there than in the U.K.
When you drive a Lada, you drive it for the feeling! The smell of the enteriour of an old Lada is unique! And I tell you, as I experienced: the older Ladas, the round headlights versions were a little bit more fun to drive. They were a little more stabil on the road, the gear was better shifting one, and you could upgrade it with a fifth gear. The only thing that was dangerous or funny of this car, that the back of it was so light, that in wintertime you had to have two sacks of sand or cement in the luggage room to be able to start runnig with it on snow, and not to spin around all the time. We loved that car back in time here in Hungary!
You have ice in Hungary? Here in Finland every cool kid and their cousin had a Lada for a winter car, they were good for Snow drifting and cheap to replace when you wrapped it around a tree.
@@vihreelinja4743 that is one of the reasons why they are becoming expensive in Russia these days. Everyone wants a cheap RWD car to drift that can be fixed by any kid on the block.
I'm a Canadian, Calgarian to be exact and I remember seeing the rivas everywhere in my childhood but never any of the lada cars. I nearly pee'd myself the other day those when one our cities garbage trucks was stopped at a red light as I crossed the road it had "DENNIS" in big shinny silver lettering across the front. ...Dennis
You've socially arrived... you went from a lowly Trabant all the way up to a Lada. You've finally achieved rockstar status. Love your videos and your wonderful sense of humor.
Greetings from Yakutia! Somewhere in 1998, when I was 10 years old, my father bought a red Lada 2107. It seemed to me the perfect car. How I loved to sit in the front seat and listen to music. My father has been dead for almost a year now. I almost shed a tear when you showed the dashboard. Memories flooded back. Thank you.
Yakutia!? Is that not that one city in Siberia that is super cold!? You must be pretty tough to be able to live up there. Respect and love from India :)
My dad had a Dennis before I was born. It had big decals saying "MAY THE FUNK BE WITH YOU". It's one of those stories we hear every Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The automatic in Dennis might've been an importer option. The importer in Finland offered cool options as well, like sunroof for 210x or a turbo for Niva.
I think Meihemi reviewed a Lada that had automatic heated seats. It was just a themal switch that activated when temperature went below some threshold, and you couldn't turn it off.
@@TopiasSalakka Yeah even the later Samaras had that kind of bullshit, don't know if it was factory or importer. Dad bought one new. Also had the only gearbox I know that was better when you took parts out of it.
The automatic was basically a Canada import upgrade (downgrade technically) We had 2 automatic 2104’s they were converted by Lada Canada when they were imported. They used the same 3 speed automatic transmission you would get in a Chevette I believe it was the th250 *maybe it’s been a few decades. Another fun fact is you could not use a manual transmission starter on it as the bendix was different. We put over 200k kms on both of them before they finally rusted to the point they were unusable. Both drove up onto the rollback on their way to the scrappers.
Greetings from Hungary! This 2107 with the big chrome grille was called “paraszt-merci” in Hungary which roughly translates to “peasant-Benz”. Btw, unlike any other communist countries (edit: as it turns out from my fellow former eastern block viewer’s comments, not unlike, but: like other commie countries), you could have a western car in Hungary if you had the money to buy and to pay the taxes - only problem was Hungarian currency was not (officially, easily) convertible to western currencies, so most people with western cars actually earned the money in the west (export company employees, sportsmen, entrepreneurs, truck drivers) bought the car and moved back to Hungary, or bought those cars second-hand from the previous ones. Mercedes W115 was popular, as well as Fiats, VW Beetle, some French cars. Like 90% of the cars were commie cars tho. And… you should definitely get a rear-engine communist era Skoda once. Better than Trabant, worse than Lada… and a very interesting one. Very popular in the countryside. Aluminum OHV four-cyl four stroke with only three crankshaft bearing, a legendary (and pretty crappy) engine which was in production from 1933 to 2003, unique layout, unique sound, unique problems, terrifying handling, but very much fun. You’d enjoy. And we’d enjoy the videos about it :P
I vastly preferred those Skoda's to the Lada and I thought the engine was bloody awesome. My Felicia came with that 1.3 and it absolutely rocked. I admit, the older 1000cc units were a little wimpy and I had plenty of experience with those as well - but you're right, incredible fun!
You're mixing two engines together, Škoda had the old pre-war engine in the old 60s Octavias, all the rear engined, and the later FWD Škodas had an engine newly designed in 1964. Also Czechoslovakia too had a great selection of Western cars, often even sold for Czechoslovak currency, for instance the price difference between a Lada 1600 and a Cortina 1600 was only few thousand crowns in the mid 70s (79,000 for the Lada vs 85,000 for the Ford)
My grandmother had a rear engine skoda in the 90's in the UK, I don't remember it super well but it had that amazing 70's-80's styling on all the gauges and lights. Shame it only ran on lead petrol though.
Ladas were pretty popular here in Finland. They were robust, reliable, easy to service and cheap. Also, they worked well under cold winter conditions. They obviously did not have any decadent western comfort features like electric seat heaters et cetera.
My dad had a lada around 2005, I believe a 2105 in white color. He still says from time to time that he misses that car, that it was reliable and it was easy to service at home with he's tools (He had to fix easier parts of his trucks)
I had a blue Lada, with a Weber carb conversion, and extractors. Also had a full dash, with tach, oil, volts, temp and gas gauges. It was a beast, and the worst thing was the manual timing chain adjustment. Not hard, just annoying. Wish I'd never sold it. Had a Fiat 125 twin-cam, and the Lada would leave it standing. They both sounded great!
Greetings from Finland. In the 80's Lada was the most sold car here for many years. I had 2 of this model. 1,3 and 1,6. Cheap, reliable, easy to service, very warm in winter.
“Reliable” - you probably weren’t driving up hills, these would constantly break due to overheating, in my country, when going up a hill. The car that had the bonnet open most often
@@aliancemd So, where do live? Austria, Swizerland.. I guess we don't have very big hills in Finland. I had 5 different Ladas over the years. Only one that didn't take me where I wanted and broke down on the road was the last one,. a Samara. Fuel gauge was broken.
@@aliancemd Mate its FINLAND if you make anything overheat there I will buy you a cookie. This car was made for cold not hot. Not to mention these countries are mostly flat and not mountainy.
@@aliancemd your car probably had problem with thermal sensor which enables electric fan. I've traveled three times from St.Petersburg to Crimea and all over mountains without single overheat on my lada 87'.
The Econ gauge is likely just a vacuum gauge. It goes from yellow to green to red because your engine is most efficient at whatever the “green” zone is. You might have a vacuum leak at that gauge that is causing the engine to run weird at times. That’s worth investigating.
From all the 2107s I ever worked on, I've never had a failed econ gauge that wasn't a vacuum hose. I'd just fix it for free whenever I was doing something else on people's cars because it annoyed me.
Yes, i'm not familiar with Ladas, but the 'economy gauges' were an optional extra on Volvo 240s (along with voltmeter, outside temp, oil pressure etc) and work exactly as you state.
I remember seeing a 1975 Lada Niva in my small italian town. It went everywhere at any time, any condition of the road. It was like the Panda 4x4:rugged, simple, not too big, cheap and agile. A mountain goat
Greetings from a fellow Oklahoman. I live in N.E. Oklahoma near Claremore. I stumbled onto your video because I have been studying and learning the Russian language for over a year. Don't know why 😂 but I have fallen in love with the Russian people and their culture. Your videos are fun to watch. Don't lose the humor.
These(2106, 2107) are really often used as a fun winter-drift cars here in Russia. I am regularly seeing them wrapped around a pole or in a ditch, what a view to witness😊
there's a lada rally league .. where 120hp tuned drift/b group type cars exist.. way more interesting rally than wrc imho . a lot of crashes etc. felt like B Group of 80s . if they werent so fcking expensive, i would def buy ladas for rallying in the field or destruction derby purposes :D
Considering, you can buy it in russia just for $100 in shape of "It works sometimes... I think", it was a first car that my friends have bought back in the days for most of them. Parents often don't care about it even if you not adult enough to drive, because well, it real achievement if you at least start that thing.
Anything over 50km/h makes the Lada a death trap. They have one of the WORST crash-test results in automotive history. Stick to suburban roads. They have an engine you can't kill, but a body that will crumple and kill anyone inside it at speed. Look up any Russian crash video channel if you want to see Lada's collapsing in crashes.
@@delancre5858 with the current situation, car prices in Russia gone up drastically and so Ladas in such condition would cost you anything from 600$ up to 1500$. Sadly, for 100$ you'll find nothing
Amazing video! I am from Russia myself, and my dad used to own this one (in white though). It was a while ago, and it surely wasn't "the nicest car" one could get in the 90's, but it was extremely common. It is cheap, easy to maintain, especially if you know at least something about cars. But even if you don't, the prices for fixing this kind of car if something breaks is not a big deal. It works fine when the temperature is -30 C or lower. And it can definitely do what a car has to do at first place - bring you places. Yes, that sums it all, but nobody expects more really. It's a cheap basic car. No comfort, no fancy interior, no nothing. Sometimes I see people trying to make these look fancy, spend a lot of money on sound system/nice seats etc, but I never really understood that. Nothing can make this car fancy enough for the money you would have to put into it. But a lot of teenagers buy these as their first car and some are having lots of fun, drifting too X_X Funny thing, in some places it is very useful even nowadays. I know a couple of people who get this sort of car (or something like Niva) in addition to the other cars their families own, so that they would have a car that can be used for nasty things. Like carrying heavy/dirty shit around, using it in places like villages where there are no normal roads and you would need nothing more but "something that can carry you and your stuff around". Not everyone can buy something expensive and shiny for this sort of thing. Plus, since it is cheap, Lada can be the only option for those who cannot afford more. After watching this video I kinda want to have a ride in one of these. Just for the sake of good memories. Not about the car, but about the time spent in it with nice people.
when I was a kid In Jamaica these were very popular. People especially loved the headlights which were like search lights and very needed on twisty bumpy unpaved country roads. The mechanics would adjust those brakes to make them sharp but one thing he didn't mention is that its ONE system so when you brake you got brakes on all four DRUM brakes t the same force so making them sharp would literally throw everyone out of their sets every time and when you lost brakes you LOST ALL brakes. Even now in a parish called St Thomas they are still popular as route taxis because they are unkillable.
Yeah man, a real thing. Back in the 80s, if you don't have a LADA, nothing not going on for you. I still see a few from time to time, in good condition.
I recall seeing a brand new Lada Niva in a showroom in Ottawa's Little Italy in the late 80s and the painted underside was completely flash rusted and the valvetrain sounded like a coffee can full of gravel in a paint shaker.
There is one idiom about Lada - it is never 100% fixed, but it is never 100% broken either. Even if something breaks on the go, you can screw it on here, turn it there on the same go, and drive to your destination. That is why Lada was loved and loved to this day. In addition, for many folks, this is the first car, as it is cheap, usually around $ 300 and it is cheap to maintain and service. Your Lada is in very good condition by the way. Its Awesome
That's why I always wonder at why folks call the Lada reliable. You hit a pothole and the doors won't close, but that's fine because if you hit another one with the right tire, they probably will. They break at the drop of a hat, but you can fit all the tools you need to keep them running in that same hat.
@@SBBurzmali, you know, I am not really sure where I heard it, but I suppose that the reliability paradox stems from different viewpoints - „In the West ‚reliable‘ means that the thing won’t break for a long time, however in Russia, it means that when it inevitably breaks, you can easily fix it, at least to some semblance of working state“. As if „Nothing is eternal, so reliable == fixable“.
My dad had a white Lada. We went on holiday in Austria and Italy not long after the Iron Curtain fell. So this was around 1992-1994. I remember several times when we parked a small crowd gathered and I remember some people taking pictures. For them a Lada was as exotic as it gets
lmao my Uncle had a Fiat/Lancia/Bertone/Pininfarina shop in Denver and we would have people fawn over Yugos that we would get, so much that my Dad swapped a Fiat Spyder engine into one to get even more attention
Bought a 2105 in 1990 drove it for 2 years, parked in a shed then left until a few months ago, got it running, was still looking good, young people just love it, they have no idea what it was, so retro is what I hear, unbelievable! Its a lada!
The Lada is one of my favorite vehicles, also known as "the Soviet tank" because of how resistant it was in my country (Chile). It became popular in the 80s as a very economical family car given the circumstances of the time in my country
I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes Yea we all want to see you do a 5 speed swap! why wouldn't we want to see you suffer?!
Hey, I live in Hungary and still drive a Lada 2105 daily. I drive nearly 20000 kilometers every year and mostly repair it myself. It was my childhood dream, I bought it in 2018. If you need any parts I can help with the shipping, let me know. Edit: Yes, indeed automatic transmission was an option, but only in western countries. As far as I know it had some sort of a ZF transmission, which was similar used in VW's at the time.
Greetings from Poland, I drive my 2107 1300. Cheap to buy, cheap parts and easy to repair. No electronics. Love it's design too. Before my Lada I had a Cinquecento, Alfa 156 and Polonez 1600. Lada is the best car I had in my life. I don't want anything else.
I'm from East Germany and do remember well the car's of the Soviet era. As I saw your Logo I fall back in mind, the Ikarus bus! I loved those, they were so loud and when you're seated in the rear you barely can't breath. Every ride was an adventure!
As a previous Lada owner for more than a decade I agree with what you have said , everything except the tank part , I have been in a few medium speed accidents , and I can say that it's a tough car , 30-50 km/h crashes barely bent the doors or the bumpers.
About that engine... maybe part of the problem is that someone really cleaned it up. Stationed in Europe in the 80s, my father was involved with multi-national diplomatic communities and became good friends with his Russian counterpart. He had a Lada, bought second-hand, that was pretty much what you said: It was a car. One day, said friend decided that the total lack of maintenance performed by the car's original owner was part of the problem, so he had a mechanic give the engine a good going-over: valves, rings, lots & lots of gaskets, etc. The result was lower performance, oil leaks, smoky exhaust, and a real case of regret. What happened? Well, it seems that the original owner's semi-benign neglect let all the old oil work its way into all the irregularities, gaps, loose gaskets, etc. that were pretty much everywhere in the engine and fill them in with semisolid gunk that blocked oil leaks, kept the pressure up, and in some cases literally glued the engine parts together.
I'm in my fourties - and from Latvia - meaning, I learned driving on these - and no, oil cannot do that. If there are loads of gunked-up oil somewhere - the fresh oil will just keep leaking and dissolving the old oil - because, guess what, the old oil is made of oil - just like the new oil.
That's the same reason I warn people against deep cleaning dark bores on surplus firearms. The buildup can fill in pitting and reduce imperfections, restoring accuracy. People have deep cleaned their old guns and destroyed their accuracy.
It was fairly typical on older European cars for the center dash vents to only blow fresh air, not heated air. The two W123 Mercedes-Benzes I owned (an '81 240D and an '85 300D) were both that way. If you don't want outside air blowing though them, you get a slider control to shut them off (which I assume that's what the blue slider on the Lada does).
@@brandonlehman7440 I used to make that comment or at least think that a couple of years ago. Now I actually expect him to pop up in any of the channels I follow!
Hey, a friendly adviser for the breaks:try to gently pump the break pedal before stopping after a high speed drive, the oil in the system doesn’t get enough pressure. I have learned how to drive on a Lada 1200s, so the break system should be the same. Also, if this car has a manual choker - pull it before attacking a hill. The 1200s used to run like hell on premium fuel. Cool car, I wish it had AC on it.
if you need to pump the brakes - there is something wrong with it. This car used a system with brake master cylinder along with vacuum brake booster, so you DO NOT NEED to pump the brakes, they always pumped while engine is running.
Definitely go for a 5 speed swap, it will be good to see just how simple this thing is mechanically. We had a Fiat 124 when I was a kid, and I remember Dad complaining about the brakes - it also overheated and was a real pain to start in damp weather. A GS or CX would be much, much, more interesting - both mechanically and to drive 🙂
Well, 124 has a different engine-and different brakes. 124 had OHV engine, 2101 got OHC (from Fiat prototype engine). 124 had rear discs that were terrible for a handbrake. 2101 has bigger front discs and rear drums that work great under a handbrake but are impossible to keep the car in a straight line in the case of hard braking. All are different, you had to know does your particular Lada swings left or right :P
The Lada has a completely different braking system. 2 circuits, brake servo, 2 piston front calipers, oversized aluminium rear drums with cast iron liners.
Best of all, the GS(A) was fitted with a choke light as well! I always thought that was quite common on later carburetted cars, but I guess it may have been more of a European thing
Lada is the brand name they used for export. In the Soviet Union this whole line of Fiat 124 derivatives was known as Zhiguli (Жигули). It's the car that made ordinary Soviet citizens mobile and many still have fond memories of it. Not necessarily because they were great cars but because they were super practical, and they got you around. (In)famously people had to wait for years to get one because production capacity was always limited. At the same time it was also a moderate export success because it was cheap and "good enough" for many even in the West. Professional people in the SU (officials, engineers, doctors etc.) who had to actually drive longer distances for work were often assigned Volga (Волга) cars. They were a step up from the Zhigulis. Larger, more comfortable, more powerful, etc. If possible, you should try to get one of those, like a GAZ-24, and tell us what you think about it.
My dad and I recently restored our GAZ 24 my grandfather bought in the SU. Its so challenging to drive because it feels like it has been built out of tractor spare parts. Repainted it, did the flooring and installed completely new seats, now that thing just glides over everything
moskvich 400 - 401 made soviet citizens and villagers mobile, its was an opel kadett variant, in production 1946 - 56, 247 000 were made. then there were 402 403 407 from 1956 - 65, 550 000 were made. then there were 408 - 412 and their variants, were made 530 000 in 1963-69, around 2.3million total. aaand theeen, yes, 2101 came out.
I ride around in a 4wd Niva all the time. Its very popular here to take a rusty old Lada, slam it, & then stealth sup it up, even replacing most of the drivetrain. Very steampunk.
Ah yes our family car. Dad bought it in mid 1980's and we had it until 2015. Red color, had headlight wipers, you had to be pretty strong to steer the wheel and took like 6 full rotations of the steering wheel to move the wheels fully, it had back wheel power so dad had to put some 80kg of weight in the trunk when the roads were slippery in the winter to get some traction. After 30 years the transmission box was still in pristine condition. We loved that car, when we sold it there was a period of mourning ... we lost a member of our family that day
Yeah, most people today have no clue how it is to drive without power steering and power breaks. Tbh, I only know because my VW Golf would turn off when I turned the wheels too much and then in the middle of the turn I had no power steering or breaking anymore...and of course no power at all. Was quite the adventure driving that one...
How many kilometers did it have after those 30 yrs? Just asking because this is something what people don't realize when remembering "good old times". We also had our Skoda 120 for 20 yrs and I think it had around 120k kms. And nowadays you can buy a 2 yrs old car with same kms... I'm pretty sure that the Skoda would be in pieces if it did it in 2 years 😁 Not saying everything is better or everything is worse, just a flow of thoughts 😉
@@moos5221 I drove a few cards without power steering... I actually loved the Honda Civic GL... I loved its suspension with the double wishbone setup, and the feel through the steering wheel at speed was awesome
4 speed transmission version was sold in USSR, 5 speed was made ony for export. My neighbors use to have this car.. Use to be nice for those days. My dad use to ride Lada 21011
haha, at 18 i got my drivers license in one of these. drove it for some years afterwards and gained quite some arm muscles doing it. Actually a good exercise since in my army draft '88 I became a truck driver for a 6T Polcarb with ........ no power steering
12:15 you are correct. The heater has to be absolutely 100% scorching hot. I used to own a stack of early 90s car magazines, and the powerful heater was one of the positive things they have to say about the Lada. The engine apparently has a special system that makes it get to operating temperature extra quick, and in a test versus western cars it was the fastest to heat up.
On that car model the middle vents are for fresh air that bypasses the heater. You simply close them during the winter, and open the bottom vent to warm your legs. Works better than any car I ever owned.
Useful when starting a car in the Middle of a Russian Winter no? I have flash backs from renting a Tesla in the middle of the winter. (Don't look at me like that, I wanted to see if the AWD actually lived up to the hype with snow tires.) The doors got frozen shut and there is no helping how much torque you DON'T need simply trying to crawl your way through a snow storm. The heated seats are a necessary touch but nothing works when the road has no indicator markers. So don't try and put it in self driving mode. (side note to any rental fleet owners: The guy I rented it from didn't know the silicone/lithium grease in the door jamb trick.) Drives the water off while keeping ice out of the rubber and door latch. Long story short the AWD does work but, what you loose in range is absolutely NOT worth the cost of a Tesla. Get a hybrid if you live anywhere with an actual winter, especially if you go to places without a solar paneled array from heaven juicing up your local charging station in the dead of winter. Tesla fast chargers are few and far between in those dark nether regions of the great white north. (Include all of Michigan and the land that borders Canada, not just the Jack London "Call of the Wild" bits.) *Turn down regenerative breaking and have the brakes serviced because they can seize after an entire season of use.
@@REVOLTAR53 I was going to say it's probably this, not unusual for European cars of the era to have fresh air only from the dashboard vents. For optimal heating you want to use the footwell vents anyway.
"a special system that makes it get to operating temperature extra quick" - yes, it's an ingenious system that includes an extra spark plug to set light to the fuel leaking out of the carbi... 😜
Not only does it have a reliable engine, but It also has a roof, a heater and seats. That may sound basic but you'd be surprised at the amount of people who would kill to have such commodities. Reminds me of my dad's 128. It was a total rust bucket but always got him home safely in the middle of the night no matter the temperature or the climate. That's when you understand the real value of a car.
As a british person, let me explain our currency. One pound refers to a pack of beer and one pence refers to one beer. Hope that cleared it up (most british people totally use this system)
A family member has one in Armenia. Their home is up on a hill in the country side. Pretty steep hill with large holes and rocks. He packs the car with 5 family member and flys it up and down that hill several times a day. His LADA looked stock!
Lada was _very_ popular in Finland during the 70's and 80's due to our close relations to Soviet Union. My parents had two of them, first one was (if I remember correctly) a 1980 1200L, which means it looked like the original Fiat and had a 60hp 1200cc engine. It was mustard yellow. Then a couple of years (and a Skoda 120L) later, they got a 1987 1200S. It looked like the other red Lada in this video, but was beige and mechanically identical to the old one. Afterwards they moved on to a Saab 99, Citroën Xantia, Volkswagen Passat and a Saab 9-3, which they still have.
Very cool Robert! When I visited western Africa (Ivory Coast) with my parents when I was 14 (43 years ago now), my uncle who was working there at the time picked us up from the airport in a Lada 1200 stationwagon to drive us to his home, roughly 500 km on abysmal roads... There was a sticker on the windscreen that said in French: 'Lada, les dures' or 'Lada, the tough ones'. During the 8h journey through the rainforest that 14 year old did pray all the way that the slogan would be true. And fortunately it was. We arrived without any issues. From that moment on I cherish a profound sympathy for this car and its derivates. I hope you enjoy it and look forward to your many road trips in this Russian relic.
I had one of these in red, but the wagon version. It was called the Lada Signet here. You used to see them on Quebec roads. The Samara hatchback and the 4 door sedan version weren't uncommon either. Also had lots of Nivas. I think mine was 1991.
Hi. Maybe this could be some helpful information: 5-speed and 4-speed gearboxes have different mounting brackets and rubber mounts. There is 3 different specs of speedometer cable drives, which is located on the gearbox. They vary depending of what gear ratio does the rear end has. In your car probably you have 4.1 (41/10) rear end - they were common for boxy ladas with 4 speed transmission. 5-speed cars have 3.9 (43/11) rear end. Also there were 4.44 on lada 2102 and 4.3 on lada 2101.
Here in Chile Ladas were quite popular on the mid 80s and early 90s. 2104 and superiors were used as a taxi in almost every city. The Riva (Niva) is among the top 4x4 you could have back then.
They are stil top. Quality and price, still makes them better than most 4x4 suv's. I had Niva and pulled in mud 3x time larger and havier toyota, plus a small cargo truck. So...
LOVE your narration. it is so funny . It is also great to finally see an American who is self confident enough to also make fun of himself. That is as hard to find as a Lada in America :)
@@lamehomer You must come from the soviet occupied territories to think that this looks like a Benz... cause nobody in the west thought "this looks like a benz" as their first description...
My dad had a Lada. I think he had it from before the 89 revolution when it was a real status symbol to have one since everyone else either had Dacias or Trabants (talking about Romania here) and he'd kept it around for a while when I was still a young lad. Don't remember much about it as he sold it for some reason, don't even know the model, it was just known as the Lada, but I know he was real proud of it. Years later he'd still talk fondly of the thing. I think he and my godfather worked to fix it up. I can only imagine how much it cost him to even get it in the first place.
My parents bought cheap cars back in the 80s having owned both a Yugo 45 and a Lada Riva very similar to this one. The Lada Riva was a 1600ES, a special edition created by the dealership to celebrate their ten year anniversary of importing Ladas. It had a couple of extras like headlamp wipers, a pretty decent upgraded stereo system, a five speed gearbox, colour coded bumpers and metallic paint. It did everything we needed it to, was actually very reliable and was even the only car in the street to start easily during a harsh winter we had back in the 80s.
Similar background to me. We had a Yugo 45a and then a 65a GLX. Then a Lada Riva 1.5 estate followed by a Samara 1.5. The two Yugo and Riva were ok. But not the Samara
I hope you keep your Lada for a while, it’s a great car. Do the gearbox swap if it makes you happy. It looks like your car has room for improvement. I have a 2103 from 1975 with the same engine and mine has great breaks and excelent heating. Look forward to more Lada videos 👍 Greetings from Sweden 🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪
We had 2 of these 2105s at our workplace in NZ - our mechanic replaced the original carburetor with a 2 barrel (twin choke) Weber off a UK designed 2L Ford Cortina - it ended up with more power than the other Lada and used less fuel!
Wow...I owned a brand new 1970 Fiat 124 sedan back in the day and it was a good little machine , however the southern Ontario road salt affected it badly in a few years. Four wheel disc brakes & Pirelli radials were a bonus. Thanks for the video 😊. ps the Fiat sedan was the platform for the Lada when the tooling was moved to Russia.
The Lada Riva was one of the last cars that was supplied with a starting handle, an old work friend had one from the same year that had the handle, check behind the licence plate for the access hole
guess it actually makes some form of sense for very cold rural areas. if your battery or other electronics die, and you are alone with no one that can push, you can crank on the engine yourself and drive away instead of freezing to death.
@@GewelReal as far as I know, people in Syberia had designed multiple ways of preparing it to be a Winter car in more ways than just that - double windows, heated windshield way before it was offered as an option for most cars (they used the same conductive paint you use for the rear window, or whatever it is, sorry, not big on these) and second heater. Also a lot of people used the Webasto or local copy called Binar.
Here in Canada there was "Secure-a-car", who similarly set up on-the-spot VIN etching on windowglass to prevent theft. A quick set of alphanumeric masks were arranged with the VIN, popped against the side of the window, and gently sandblasted into the glass. It wouldn't surprise me if this LADA pulled into one of these "parking lot stalls" to have it done real quick and nobody noticed the window was down until it was too late!
Actually ladas have been getting their second life for the last years, because of winter drift(especially Krasnoyarsk winter drift battle where such pilots as Kawabata take part) becoming more popular, and it’s an achievable way to make your first steps in motorsport (with some essential mods for sure😊) Ladas also used to take part in rally sport years ago, but with much more significant mods A stock one has nothing to do with motorsport at all for sure😅 There’s actually a lot of content about ladas in motorsport on TH-cam, zaRRubin, Nikita Shikov channel eg
I had several Lada Riva's in the 70s. I loved them. I had both the cars and estates. I don't think I ever had a problem with any of them. It's a pity they were stopped coming into this country. I would love another estate, a big handy car.
One of the best, basic 4x4 is the Lada Nivia. Absolutely amazing off road and so basic, there's just nothing to go wrong with it. So you need one of these :)
I test drove a Nivia in Canada, drove it for a bit and my friend who was with me asked what is that smell. We got out of the car walked around the car a few times got back in the car. Went I got back into the car noticed that the parking bark was on, and that it was the source of the smell. It drove well with parking brake on or off, with it off the smell went away. This was the second time ever to drive a standard, have not driven a standard since. It was an ok car but sounded like it was going to shake apart.
@@blokhet I think it's still called just Niva in all markets it's currently being sold to. And I didn't have any clue they have ever put a Renault diesel engine. It must've been such a rare option that was purposed only for European markets. My family once used to have a Niva for 10 years. And up until this day most of Nivas come with 1.7L petrol engine. Which is still a modified version of the one used in LADA 2101 from 1970. They make some tweaks here and there over the years. But the essence is still the same.
When growing (in the Netherlands) up we had several Lada's, I believe the 2101. It had the reputation of being a poor man's car, but actually it wasn't a bad car. Because the simple technology, it was pretty reliable. It always started (especially in the winter when the modern "better" cars didn't start) and the maintenance was easy
@@ongkhuongduy3498 "lada" and "future" can't be used together. It will be in the past, forever. Even modern cars stays at the same quality point as oldest lada (bad, rusty, rubbish materials).
My grandpa sttill has his 2101,he bought it in 1970 something (i dont remember exact year) thats like 50 years of ownership and he still drives it! i might take it for my prom next year cuz it will be funny and unique
"Because the simple technology" - if something is done simply and reliably, this is a sign of ingenious technology. I liked the Lada-2107 when I had it, of course, this car is already 45 years old from the date of its launch. I especially liked the headlight wipers.
At least you had a gas gauge, my 55 VW bug didn't have one and it only had 36 HP, and low gear was not synchromesh. I loved that car! You didn't tell it what to do it told you what you could do! I lived in it for 5 weeks while going cross country it. I think I would enjoy driving you Lada. Thanks for taking us along.
Pretty accurate description of a Lada. I owned five over the years, and paid a few hundred GB pounds for them. If running rich, the carb float height needs adjusting, very easy but can ruin a good engine if not done (bore washing.) Tappets are also often neglected on Ladas.
@@Berkeloid0 under the hood, near brake pump, there is a little module with 4 pins. pin 1 +ignition 12v, pin2 cluster lamp, pin3 input from brake fluid level, pin4 input from hand brake. inside the module you have 2 relays in 2 stages driven by caps who charge and discharge via ground from pin 3 or 4
I had one in the UK. LHD. The water that ran off the bonnet was directed onto the top of the steering box. In time the box filled with water. When temperatures dropped below zero the water in the box froze and the steering no longer worked until the engine warmed up the steering box. Another consequence of LHD was changing the exhaust manifold, or steering box, required releasing one engine mount and jacking the engine up.
Greetings from Hungary! I want to share my experiences about Lada 2107 My grandpa got one in 1987 when it was brand new. We still have that car, and i can tell, it's better as you see. Maybe i have some pink fog, because i grew up in that car, but it drives nicely. A couple of tips from me: - the choke indicator isn't factroy built (my grandpa also built in one, but originally there was an voltage light, or something idk) - the engine runs in your one a bit rough, one carb cleaning would be nice - the middle air wents working fine, they can blow only cold air in (if you take a look under the hood, you will see the air intake) - if you want to install headlight wipers, it will be hard, here in Hungary the wiper motors are also rare, in USA i can't imagine, how much they can cost - the clutch, brake, and transmission must to have problems in your car, one good Lada transmission works really nice, the way on you move the stick must be short, and its quiet (kinda) - the little ECON instrument is a bad thing, they had this thing after 1990, before 1990 there was mounted an oil pressure instrument, so that will be bad - the little icon on the window is a hungarian licence plate, so probably this car was also hungarian - i rather not to buy a Polski, lot of people saying that Polski is better, but not allways. They had 4 disc brakes, witch is nice, but the weren't so good at driving. And the first ones were really good. De newer ones with plastic grill, and other stuff, they were not so good. - if you will have once a chance, try one Lada from before 1990. The real Soviet ones were better quality I hope my things can help. Drive this Lada more and more, and you will love it. It's a good car, you just need, to understand it. And remember: this is a real machine; you dont drive it, you operate it! Have a nice day, and sorry if i write something wrong, i dont really speak english..
Hey, bro, as actually a Russian, which had 3 2107, 1 2108, 1 2109, i can tell you that the choke indicator here is a factory thing, all the carb lada i've had have the same, and actually if you Google "Приборная панель ваз 2107", you will find out choke indicator on it, or check engine (lol, this crap never worked) if the car with injection engine
I from Poland and only thing i can say about Polski Fiat 125P is: The younger, The worse, so early ones was pretty good but year after year they was removing things and lowering quality. Best years to buy is 67-77 after 77 they started removing things and lowering quality breaks were pretty good. Ladas are FIAT 124 after modification. PF 125P is a FIAT 1300/1500 with Body and breaks from FIAT 125
I've 3 of these car. All were previous 1990 and they were great for the price. Very good under cold temperatures we have here in Canada. They were very popular in Québec. I also had a samara but changed it for a niva after few months.
Congratulations on the car, fellow Lada owner ;) One thing definetaly worths mentioning if you want to keep it (or any other Ladas): you have to keep an eye on the front ball joints in the fishbones. If the lower ones wear off enough, your wheels will turn out completely. Very hard (I mean harder than normal) steering is one warning, the other one is the knocking (though that only happens at the very last minute). You can change them easily though, if you have the proper ball joint puller (many types don't fit in there). Also there's no complex electronics in it, the parking brake warning is switched on by a relay, which is placed in the relay box in the engine bay. Actually it's the same light that stays on, if your brake fluid level is too low. BTW in an old Lada there's about a full of 7 pieces of semiconductors in the whole car: 2x3 in the generator and one puny diode in the dashboard. I think that's about the same in the 2107 as well. Oh, and the engine should be 55kW (74HP) in DIN standards, according to the VAZ books.
@@REVOLTAR53 I have a friend who does the same, but I never had the luck for that. It's just always stuck and I have to use a puller on it, even if I change them about 2-3 years (since all of the brands are crap, and even after a few ten thousand km-s they knock...)
@@TheStuartstardust it should be the max speeds where you should change gears. In the type 1200 the first is at 40kmp (~25mph), second is around 65kmph (around 45mph) and third is at 100kmph (60mph). Though these are for high revs, normally you change gears earlier. Because of this I think the fourth one should be around 120kmph, so I don't know why there are 5 dots... :/
I drove one of these things from the UK to Czechoslovakia and left it there. It had no synchro between 1st and 2nd so I had to learn how to double de-clutch which was kinda fun. But it made it.
Very happy memories working on these in the 1980's. My family owned a cab company and we ran the Lada. So cheap to buy back than. We paid £25(!) for a 1300 with less than 30000 miles and 4 years old. We spent £200 on it to get it through the cab test and got 2 years as a cab out of it, earning £125 a week. We'd buy in bulk timing chains and i could change one in under an hour. Happy days!
Lada was the car of my childhood. It is fairly easy to maintain and use if you live in post soviet country, it has dirt cheap parts, some dating as old as 70s (since lada has very good “backwards compatibility”) and since lada isn’t a premium or sophisticated type of car, you’re not really scared to mess it up, just fix it one more time and you’re good to go. Ladas are also really cheap in Russia, on “russian craigslist” you can get one as cheap as $200-300and it will drive just fine, for a bit. It really warms my heart to see people from all over the world enjoy, critique and explore soviet cars, so thank you for your video & for giving lada a chance, not going complete sceptical about it!
Yes, it’s a part of your and many other people’s childhoods but I don’t think it excuses the feelings of nostalgia for it. I think we should not have positive rose colored memories about such things. We should hate the circumstances and the people whose fault it was why we could not buy , or afford , normal quality imported cars. Because of some historic injustices commuted by the people who ran USSR we were robbed of childhoods with normal cars. It is also important to think of all the people who have died needlessly as a result of these and other shitty Soviet and post Soviet cars lacking the most safety measures that were common in the normal world.
@@StopFear You’re quite right about USSR, my feelings towards lada and some other soviet cars is pure nostalgia and sweet childhood memories. Coming from town where soviets straight up gassed civilians to suppress rebellion in early 20s I have no sympathy toward communism and communists.
@@StopFear Can you chill a little bit? This whole channel is about old cars. And the comment above is exactly about A car. What you said is not relevant at all, classic internet moment
@@StopFear for a person having the name stop fear, youre posting some cope anti communist bullshit like every other afraid westerner. the soviets didnt stop people from having a western car, they were a new country building their own cars for pretty much the first time in their history. so the limitations were things everyone would experience in similar conditions. the leadership of the soviet union avoided imports as a matter of national sovereignty. less dependence on imports is a more secure society and less at risk of foreign influence destroying their country. kruschchev made sure to allow that to return, and it cause the downfall of the society within a few decades.
@@DaniilHomyak yea putting it like that, "gassing" civilians is dishonest and disingenuous. if youre referring to tblisi, and are georgia, this wouldnt surprise me. they used tear gas. at the same time the USA was using it the same way. did it kill people? probably. but saying they were "gassed" is a clear effort to tie it to the nazis use of zyklon B to purge people. the two are not comparable of course, and every single country has "gassed" its civilians to stop rebellion if thats the terminology were using.
So many childhood jokes about the Lada, "What do you call a Lada with a tennisball on the hitch...'the sports model'" "How many settings does the LAda heater have? 2, Cold, or extremely Hot", "Why does the Lada have heated rear windows? So you can have warm hands when pushing it". Iconic no matter what :)
A guy goes into an auto parts store, and says to the guy behind the counter, "How about a gas cap for a Lada"? Store guy thinks for a moment, and says "yep, sounds like a fair exchange".
One I remember here in the UK - Did you hear about the 16 valve Lada? 8 in the engine, 8 in the radio. (which wouldn't work in the US as they call them vacuum tubes there, but never mind)
I can't beleive you didn't mention how nice the door hadles are. Literally the best thing about the car. The click, the sound, the material. Incredible. I love this car.
I have a Lada 2104 (station wagon version of the 2105), and it is pretty good. I have the 1.5L, 5 speed version. Pretty nice. Does not overheat, even in the 35-40 Celsius weather we are having now. Also have a Moskvich 2140 (with a 427 body), which I actually like more a little bit, as I think it is more comfortable and has more character, BUT even in the WINTER it can overheat in heavy traffic. I like them both tho :D
Fresh on the heels of you Polski Fiat video I've come back to this! I don't know what it is, but I love the shape of this car. If only I could find Dennis.
![[FULL EP.13] เซียนหรั่ง พา ไททศมิตร ลงเรือฝึกสกิลหว่านแห | เฮ็ดอย่างเซียนหรั่ง | One Playground](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EWFuf2Av0K0/mqdefault.jpg)
Loved the video! Your problem is that you are not using the Lada correctly. That back seat should be stuffed to the headliner with watermelons, or potatoes, or chickens, or a cow. Basically whatever needs to go to market. Also, the engine should be at redline, or maybe a little over whenever you are on the highway. If you need to pass a car, make sure you do it in the lane of the oncoming traffic (preferably in the presence of oncoming traffic). You should never put a Lada on a lift. Simply roll it onto one side, and prop it with a 2x4 to work on the underside of the car. At least, this is how I saw Ladas used when I lived in a former SSR.
The back seat should also be able to contain 200 litres of sauerkraut in a wooden barrel and half of the pig you killed in the morning.
The method of propping it on its side was even used by the Lada rally teams to perform maintenance.
Very atmospheric comment. I can just picture two Russian guys with a Lada propped up on a chunk of wood, cursing as they work on it. The air thick with Slavic profanity and the smell of cheap Russian tobacco...!
And they still are used this way in some of the former sister states of the SSR - I'm still wondering if I should pick one up in Moldova for about 1000 euros 😅
@@bloodybritbastard of course! It will survive a nuclear war and still run 😆 (joke about nuclear war)
From a Trabant to a Lada. You're going up in life
But not far.
More like sideways.
@@leifhietala8074 Back in the day when both of those were on the road at the same time it was a huge jump. A lot of people never made that even, simply because they couldn't afford it or didn't have some connection to even get a Lada.
If he continues to be a compliant worker, he will be assigned a Gaz Volga in 110-120 years.
Where do you go from a Lada?
I knew a bus driver. He loved his Lada Riva. He said it was the closest a car came to the feeling of driving a bus. I'm still not quite sure what to make of that statement.
lack of turn 😂😂
I grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada in the 1980s and 1990s. My parents owned two of these. One was poop brown, one was a pee yellow. The yellow one, our dealer actually sold a dealer installed option automatic transmission by buying Chevette 3-speed automatics from the Chevrolet Oldsmobile Cadillac dealer across the street. My mom couldn't drive a stick, so that's what my father bought her. My father was so cheap he figured why buy a new car when he could get two for the price of one. The rustproofing was horrendous. After a few years I can remember looking down at the carpet and seeing the road flash before me. At least they came standard with a tool kit in the trunk. I will say these were popular in Eastern and Atlantic Canada because they had decent ground clearance in the snow and handled potholed roads well. Rustproofing aside, these powertrains were tough as hell. They were cheap, and they sold very well, along with the Hyundai Pony. But, when Hyundai joined the Canadian market with the Pony and Stellar, it I think was the death knell for Lada in Canada. They stopped selling new cars in Canada in 1997.
The happy Trabant was the start I didn't know I needed to my day. ☺️
Social hacking a car
Trabant is the new Herbie.
And inquiring minds want to know if Michael was bouncing the car around from behind the bumper or from the back seat.
Made me realize how adorable the Trabant is
@@Poopsticle_256 I think most cars that have round headlights can be adorable. I would say even the truck from The Duel can be adorable.
I vote for a Wankel swap. Make use of all those digits on the tach.
Lowered with a lip kit, mesh wheels and a 12/13B street port would be amazing.
I second this
I am in the process of swapping a rx7 13b twin turbo into a 1967 MGB roadster
Truly a Lada that would even make Rob Dahm jelous. I'm all for it.
Agreed. Build the most powerful naturally aspirated (regular unleaded) Mazda wankel you can. Upgrade the car to full KGB spec.
Good work, man. I had a Lada 2106 for a few years. Cost me a fortune to rebuild the suspension every few thousand kilometers, was gas thirsty as an airplane, but took me where I wanted to go. I, personally, noticed that every Lada had its own character - pedals, shifting, engine - never the same.
Never the same, every Lada is a soul of its master 😂
Same build "quality" as British cars back then - nothing ever fitted properly together, it was like they were assembled with hammers and pitchforks 😂
Rebuilding suspension every few thousand km? This car specifically has a suspension setup meant to last on Russian roads. I've seen these with 200k+ km original suspension here in Russia (I'm American) so I'm gonna say that's not true at all
@bldontmatter5319 You owned them yourself, or someone told you that the car had the original suspension for 200 thousand km? I can easily tell you that my Lada was so good that I didn't change oil in it for 500 000 km. Do you see the difference? Even expensive German shocks didn't last for more than 20 000 km, and I'm not talking about Moscow, my dear American friend.
@@igorpro8462 in what world do shocks last lest than 20k km??? In WHAT WORLD... I've beat cars to heck and off-roaded like crazy even on cheap shocks, and they lasted 20k+ and then some.
We (family of four) moved from Hungary to Britain (and back, a couple of years later) in one of these :) It was an experience
I literally yelled "GOOD GOD" when you said the price. You deserve the 5 speed transmission.
I was expecting $1500
You gotta remember the $5k shipping from Europe to North America
I just checked on "How Many Left" and there are 4 left on the road in the U.K. compared to 1700 in 1995.
In contrast there are 4700 Jaguar E Types.
@@MrDuncl at one point you could go to the scrap man and pretty much they would pay YOU to take away the Ladas they already had. Long gone are the days of a twenty quid Lada with a short MOT that was a hugely desirable car for those pan-European road trip adventurers.
It was a good choice for it, too. You could kit it out with a bunch of British/Western bling - Cibie spots, seats pinched from the huge pile of BL seats at the breakers that were a step up in comfort, a decent stereo, a roof rack and other such goodies, and by the time it broke down you were in the part of Europe where they were common enough to be easily repaired.
@@samwalker7567 I, and others, have commented elsewhere in this thread that most of the Ladas ended up going back to Russia as the parts (like engines) were worth far more there than in the U.K.
The fact that both you and the seller didn't notice how many gears this car has is adorable.
Imagine buying a manual car and not thinking once about checking the gear count.
@@jwalster9412 Imagine posting a comment so joyless.
@@Hartley_Hare Imagine being a clown your entire life.
@@hansjerkov7611 What a strange binary - either a clown, or someone grindingly grey and joyless.
@@Hartley_Hare Strange indeed.
When you drive a Lada, you drive it for the feeling! The smell of the enteriour of an old Lada is unique! And I tell you, as I experienced: the older Ladas, the round headlights versions were a little bit more fun to drive. They were a little more stabil on the road, the gear was better shifting one, and you could upgrade it with a fifth gear. The only thing that was dangerous or funny of this car, that the back of it was so light, that in wintertime you had to have two sacks of sand or cement in the luggage room to be able to start runnig with it on snow, and not to spin around all the time. We loved that car back in time here in Hungary!
You have ice in Hungary? Here in Finland every cool kid and their cousin had a Lada for a winter car, they were good for Snow drifting and cheap to replace when you wrapped it around a tree.
@@vihreelinja4743 that is one of the reasons why they are becoming expensive in Russia these days. Everyone wants a cheap RWD car to drift that can be fixed by any kid on the block.
I'm a Canadian, Calgarian to be exact and I remember seeing the rivas everywhere in my childhood but never any of the lada cars. I nearly pee'd myself the other day those when one our cities garbage trucks was stopped at a red light as I crossed the road it had "DENNIS" in big shinny silver lettering across the front. ...Dennis
You've socially arrived... you went from a lowly Trabant all the way up to a Lada. You've finally achieved rockstar status. Love your videos and your wonderful sense of humor.
Next one should be a Moskvitch 2141!
Edit: good luck finding one that hasn’t rusted into the ground
Next for a GAZ-24 Volga
I fully expect dashcam videos on a snow-covered road from him now.
Surely he’s about to be feted in a chauffeured ZIL.
@@user-bv7um1ds7y 24 is not that fun as 21 I think. Most of the 24s having a huge rust issues.
Greetings from Yakutia!
Somewhere in 1998, when I was 10 years old, my father bought a red Lada 2107. It seemed to me the perfect car. How I loved to sit in the front seat and listen to music. My father has been dead for almost a year now. I almost shed a tear when you showed the dashboard. Memories flooded back. Thank you.
Yakutia!? Is that not that one city in Siberia that is super cold!? You must be pretty tough to be able to live up there. Respect and love from India :)
@@death_parade Same things from deadly cold Yakutia tо deadly hot India)
Привет из Республики Молдова
Türkiyeden yakutya'ya sevgi ve saygılar bu araçlar bizdede çok sevilir
@@death_paradeit's a region, not a city, and its big cities are relatively nice places to live. Summers are usually hot, up to 37 C
My dad had a Dennis before I was born. It had big decals saying "MAY THE FUNK BE WITH YOU".
It's one of those stories we hear every Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The automatic in Dennis might've been an importer option. The importer in Finland offered cool options as well, like sunroof for 210x or a turbo for Niva.
I think Meihemi reviewed a Lada that had automatic heated seats.
It was just a themal switch that activated when temperature went below some threshold, and you couldn't turn it off.
@@TopiasSalakka Yeah even the later Samaras had that kind of bullshit, don't know if it was factory or importer. Dad bought one new. Also had the only gearbox I know that was better when you took parts out of it.
The automatic was basically a Canada import upgrade (downgrade technically) We had 2 automatic 2104’s they were converted by Lada Canada when they were imported. They used the same 3 speed automatic transmission you would get in a Chevette I believe it was the th250 *maybe it’s been a few decades. Another fun fact is you could not use a manual transmission starter on it as the bendix was different. We put over 200k kms on both of them before they finally rusted to the point they were unusable. Both drove up onto the rollback on their way to the scrappers.
Greetings from Hungary! This 2107 with the big chrome grille was called “paraszt-merci” in Hungary which roughly translates to “peasant-Benz”.
Btw, unlike any other communist countries (edit: as it turns out from my fellow former eastern block viewer’s comments, not unlike, but: like other commie countries), you could have a western car in Hungary if you had the money to buy and to pay the taxes - only problem was Hungarian currency was not (officially, easily) convertible to western currencies, so most people with western cars actually earned the money in the west (export company employees, sportsmen, entrepreneurs, truck drivers) bought the car and moved back to Hungary, or bought those cars second-hand from the previous ones. Mercedes W115 was popular, as well as Fiats, VW Beetle, some French cars. Like 90% of the cars were commie cars tho.
And… you should definitely get a rear-engine communist era Skoda once. Better than Trabant, worse than Lada… and a very interesting one. Very popular in the countryside. Aluminum OHV four-cyl four stroke with only three crankshaft bearing, a legendary (and pretty crappy) engine which was in production from 1933 to 2003, unique layout, unique sound, unique problems, terrifying handling, but very much fun. You’d enjoy. And we’d enjoy the videos about it :P
I vastly preferred those Skoda's to the Lada and I thought the engine was bloody awesome. My Felicia came with that 1.3 and it absolutely rocked. I admit, the older 1000cc units were a little wimpy and I had plenty of experience with those as well - but you're right, incredible fun!
They sold Skodas in Canada in the early 1980s. I doubt there are any left on the road though!
Hell yeah! Magyarok for the win 🙏
You're mixing two engines together, Škoda had the old pre-war engine in the old 60s Octavias, all the rear engined, and the later FWD Škodas had an engine newly designed in 1964.
Also Czechoslovakia too had a great selection of Western cars, often even sold for Czechoslovak currency, for instance the price difference between a Lada 1600 and a Cortina 1600 was only few thousand crowns in the mid 70s (79,000 for the Lada vs 85,000 for the Ford)
My grandmother had a rear engine skoda in the 90's in the UK, I don't remember it super well but it had that amazing 70's-80's styling on all the gauges and lights. Shame it only ran on lead petrol though.
Ladas were pretty popular here in Finland. They were robust, reliable, easy to service and cheap. Also, they worked well under cold winter conditions. They obviously did not have any decadent western comfort features like electric seat heaters et cetera.
Some Lada Niva models offer heating seats as you know but these didn't, even though they had an electric defroster on the rear windshield.
@@HeroManNick132 This is something of very rare exporter options, not a factory-made accessory, you know.
The main thing is to take the battery home when it's too cold
@jaakkooksa5374
Finns don't need seat heaters, Finns compensate by pouring vodka into themselves.
Finland is a beer country and thwe don’t even have a vodka company here
My dad had a lada around 2005, I believe a 2105 in white color. He still says from time to time that he misses that car, that it was reliable and it was easy to service at home with he's tools (He had to fix easier parts of his trucks)
you miss it, until it broke every week.
Lada is not a good option.
@@nikostalk5730 you seem obsessed with hating on this thing
@@bldontmatter5319 just trying to send a message "this is a lie", that's not hate.
@@nikostalk5730my step-granddad had it and loved it too. Some people' experience differs from yours, it's not a reason to call them liars.
I had a blue Lada, with a Weber carb conversion, and extractors.
Also had a full dash, with tach, oil, volts, temp and gas gauges.
It was a beast, and the worst thing was the manual timing chain adjustment. Not hard, just annoying.
Wish I'd never sold it.
Had a Fiat 125 twin-cam, and the Lada would leave it standing.
They both sounded great!
I remember the local lada dealer could modify you lada 1600SLX to go from 0-60 mph in 10 seconds. I only had the 1200L
Greetings from Finland. In the 80's Lada was the most sold car here for many years. I had 2 of this model. 1,3 and 1,6. Cheap, reliable, easy to service, very warm in winter.
“Reliable” - you probably weren’t driving up hills, these would constantly break due to overheating, in my country, when going up a hill. The car that had the bonnet open most often
@@aliancemd So, where do live? Austria, Swizerland.. I guess we don't have very big hills in Finland. I had 5 different Ladas over the years. Only one that didn't take me where I wanted and broke down on the road was the last one,. a Samara. Fuel gauge was broken.
@@aliancemd Mate its FINLAND if you make anything overheat there I will buy you a cookie. This car was made for cold not hot. Not to mention these countries are mostly flat and not mountainy.
I watching to find something like that now.
Today's new cars are nightmare 😒
@@aliancemd your car probably had problem with thermal sensor which enables electric fan. I've traveled three times from St.Petersburg to Crimea and all over mountains without single overheat on my lada 87'.
The Econ gauge is likely just a vacuum gauge. It goes from yellow to green to red because your engine is most efficient at whatever the “green” zone is.
You might have a vacuum leak at that gauge that is causing the engine to run weird at times. That’s worth investigating.
From all the 2107s I ever worked on, I've never had a failed econ gauge that wasn't a vacuum hose. I'd just fix it for free whenever I was doing something else on people's cars because it annoyed me.
Also many vehicles vacuum moves the heater baffles.
Yeah I was assuming it was linked to RPM, since high/low is less efficient. Vacuum would make sense
@@lynnryckman7300 not in a Lada. It's a cable driven.
Yes, i'm not familiar with Ladas, but the 'economy gauges' were an optional extra on Volvo 240s (along with voltmeter, outside temp, oil pressure etc) and work exactly as you state.
I remember seeing a 1975 Lada Niva in my small italian town. It went everywhere at any time, any condition of the road. It was like the Panda 4x4:rugged, simple, not too big, cheap and agile. A mountain goat
Greetings from a fellow Oklahoman. I live in N.E. Oklahoma near Claremore. I stumbled onto your video because I have been studying and learning the Russian language for over a year. Don't know why 😂 but I have fallen in love with the Russian people and their culture. Your videos are fun to watch. Don't lose the humor.
These(2106, 2107) are really often used as a fun winter-drift cars here in Russia. I am regularly seeing them wrapped around a pole or in a ditch, what a view to witness😊
there's a lada rally league .. where 120hp tuned drift/b group type cars exist.. way more interesting rally than wrc imho . a lot of crashes etc. felt like B Group of 80s .
if they werent so fcking expensive, i would def buy ladas for rallying in the field or destruction derby purposes :D
Considering, you can buy it in russia just for $100 in shape of "It works sometimes... I think", it was a first car that my friends have bought back in the days for most of them. Parents often don't care about it even if you not adult enough to drive, because well, it real achievement if you at least start that thing.
@@delancre5858 more like 1000$, but yes
Anything over 50km/h makes the Lada a death trap. They have one of the WORST crash-test results in automotive history. Stick to suburban roads. They have an engine you can't kill, but a body that will crumple and kill anyone inside it at speed. Look up any Russian crash video channel if you want to see Lada's collapsing in crashes.
@@delancre5858 with the current situation, car prices in Russia gone up drastically and so Ladas in such condition would cost you anything from 600$ up to 1500$. Sadly, for 100$ you'll find nothing
Amazing video!
I am from Russia myself, and my dad used to own this one (in white though). It was a while ago, and it surely wasn't "the nicest car" one could get in the 90's, but it was extremely common.
It is cheap, easy to maintain, especially if you know at least something about cars. But even if you don't, the prices for fixing this kind of car if something breaks is not a big deal. It works fine when the temperature is -30 C or lower. And it can definitely do what a car has to do at first place - bring you places. Yes, that sums it all, but nobody expects more really. It's a cheap basic car.
No comfort, no fancy interior, no nothing. Sometimes I see people trying to make these look fancy, spend a lot of money on sound system/nice seats etc, but I never really understood that. Nothing can make this car fancy enough for the money you would have to put into it. But a lot of teenagers buy these as their first car and some are having lots of fun, drifting too X_X
Funny thing, in some places it is very useful even nowadays. I know a couple of people who get this sort of car (or something like Niva) in addition to the other cars their families own, so that they would have a car that can be used for nasty things. Like carrying heavy/dirty shit around, using it in places like villages where there are no normal roads and you would need nothing more but "something that can carry you and your stuff around". Not everyone can buy something expensive and shiny for this sort of thing. Plus, since it is cheap, Lada can be the only option for those who cannot afford more.
After watching this video I kinda want to have a ride in one of these. Just for the sake of good memories. Not about the car, but about the time spent in it with nice people.
Армяне в Сочи продают жиги по 250-300 тысяч минимум, так что они у нас не особо дешёвые :D
@@AlexPeregar а что собственно в Сочи дешевое 😅
@@AlexPeregar не знаю, сколько где стоят жигули, но предположу, что всё равно недорого по сравнению с другими вариантами))
@@AlexPeregar в Самаре бери
@@peanutdnt по деревням ездить неспешно еще ладно, но на любой трассе не дай Боже авария и в этом shitbox просто не выжить.
when I was a kid In Jamaica these were very popular. People especially loved the headlights which were like search lights and very needed on twisty bumpy unpaved country roads.
The mechanics would adjust those brakes to make them sharp but one thing he didn't mention is that its ONE system so when you brake you got brakes on all four DRUM brakes t the same force so making them sharp would literally throw everyone out of their sets every time and when you lost brakes you LOST ALL brakes.
Even now in a parish called St Thomas they are still popular as route taxis because they are unkillable.
Yeah man, a real thing. Back in the 80s, if you don't have a LADA, nothing not going on for you. I still see a few from time to time, in good condition.
I recall seeing a brand new Lada Niva in a showroom in Ottawa's Little Italy in the late 80s and the painted underside was completely flash rusted and the valvetrain sounded like a coffee can full of gravel in a paint shaker.
There is one idiom about Lada - it is never 100% fixed, but it is never 100% broken either. Even if something breaks on the go, you can screw it on here, turn it there on the same go, and drive to your destination. That is why Lada was loved and loved to this day. In addition, for many folks, this is the first car, as it is cheap, usually around $ 300 and it is cheap to maintain and service. Your Lada is in very good condition by the way. Its Awesome
That's why I always wonder at why folks call the Lada reliable. You hit a pothole and the doors won't close, but that's fine because if you hit another one with the right tire, they probably will. They break at the drop of a hat, but you can fit all the tools you need to keep them running in that same hat.
@@SBBurzmali, you know, I am not really sure where I heard it, but I suppose that the reliability paradox stems from different viewpoints - „In the West ‚reliable‘ means that the thing won’t break for a long time, however in Russia, it means that when it inevitably breaks, you can easily fix it, at least to some semblance of working state“.
As if „Nothing is eternal, so reliable == fixable“.
There's nothing 🙅 that lada can't handle!!!
And they are very cheap to fix....❤️😤
Lada or zhiguli in ussr was license from Italy company fiat. 124model
My dad had a white Lada. We went on holiday in Austria and Italy not long after the Iron Curtain fell. So this was around 1992-1994. I remember several times when we parked a small crowd gathered and I remember some people taking pictures. For them a Lada was as exotic as it gets
@@notfiveo $7.5K in 2008.
lmao my Uncle had a Fiat/Lancia/Bertone/Pininfarina shop in Denver and we would have people fawn over Yugos that we would get, so much that my Dad swapped a Fiat Spyder engine into one to get even more attention
Your dada had a Lada? Haha.
@@alexkay7823 5k
@@goodguy3271 Depends on the area I guess. Maybe that was the price in russia back then.
Bought a 2105 in 1990 drove it for 2 years, parked in a shed then left until a few months ago, got it running, was still looking good, young people just love it, they have no idea what it was, so retro is what I hear, unbelievable! Its a lada!
The Lada is one of my favorite vehicles, also known as "the Soviet tank" because of how resistant it was in my country (Chile). It became popular in the 80s as a very economical family car given the circumstances of the time in my country
The 5 speed swap would be so cool to see but you do what you wanna! Always a blast to watch your projects and thanks for bringing us along!
I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes
Yea we all want to see you do a 5 speed swap! why wouldn't we want to see you suffer?!
EV restomod, sleeper on the drag strip - power to weight ratio would be stupid baller
Hey, I live in Hungary and still drive a Lada 2105 daily. I drive nearly 20000 kilometers every year and mostly repair it myself. It was my childhood dream, I bought it in 2018. If you need any parts I can help with the shipping, let me know.
Edit: Yes, indeed automatic transmission was an option, but only in western countries. As far as I know it had some sort of a ZF transmission, which was similar used in VW's at the time.
Greetings from Poland, I drive my 2107 1300. Cheap to buy, cheap parts and easy to repair. No electronics. Love it's design too. Before my Lada I had a Cinquecento, Alfa 156 and Polonez 1600. Lada is the best car I had in my life. I don't want anything else.
@@obywatelcane6775 Wow, you’ve got a really cool taste my brother, glad to hear stories like yours;)
I'm from East Germany and do remember well the car's of the Soviet era. As I saw your Logo I fall back in mind, the Ikarus bus! I loved those, they were so loud and when you're seated in the rear you barely can't breath. Every ride was an adventure!
Om Canada we view 25000 km a year as avarage. I commute a little over 104 km a day
notice the uploader of this video does not even reply to you 😂😂😂😂😂
Lada is love. Lada is life🤗
As a previous Lada owner for more than a decade I agree with what you have said , everything except the tank part , I have been in a few medium speed accidents , and I can say that it's a tough car , 30-50 km/h crashes barely bent the doors or the bumpers.
About that engine... maybe part of the problem is that someone really cleaned it up. Stationed in Europe in the 80s, my father was involved with multi-national diplomatic communities and became good friends with his Russian counterpart. He had a Lada, bought second-hand, that was pretty much what you said: It was a car. One day, said friend decided that the total lack of maintenance performed by the car's original owner was part of the problem, so he had a mechanic give the engine a good going-over: valves, rings, lots & lots of gaskets, etc. The result was lower performance, oil leaks, smoky exhaust, and a real case of regret. What happened? Well, it seems that the original owner's semi-benign neglect let all the old oil work its way into all the irregularities, gaps, loose gaskets, etc. that were pretty much everywhere in the engine and fill them in with semisolid gunk that blocked oil leaks, kept the pressure up, and in some cases literally glued the engine parts together.
OMG, this is hilarious
This principle plus Japanese engineering is currently keeping my 200,000 mile corolla running.
I'm in my fourties - and from Latvia - meaning, I learned driving on these - and no, oil cannot do that. If there are loads of gunked-up oil somewhere - the fresh oil will just keep leaking and dissolving the old oil - because, guess what, the old oil is made of oil - just like the new oil.
@@JurisKankalis Let's be generous to our American friends, as they are generous to us, my Eastern European brother. Just don't spoil the fun.
That's the same reason I warn people against deep cleaning dark bores on surplus firearms. The buildup can fill in pitting and reduce imperfections, restoring accuracy. People have deep cleaned their old guns and destroyed their accuracy.
It was fairly typical on older European cars for the center dash vents to only blow fresh air, not heated air. The two W123 Mercedes-Benzes I owned (an '81 240D and an '85 300D) were both that way. If you don't want outside air blowing though them, you get a slider control to shut them off (which I assume that's what the blue slider on the Lada does).
didnt expect to see you here! almost 10 year subscriber, love your content!
@@brandonlehman7440 I used to make that comment or at least think that a couple of years ago. Now I actually expect him to pop up in any of the channels I follow!
Same in the Ford Capri -- dash side vents -- only cold fresh air .... want heat ? Window or legs :D
It's probably just a defect of the air vents. On a Lada, the heat should be going through all the vents.
I read this in your voice.
My dad had Lada Ziguli - 2101. Lasted 23 years. We had a lot of fun and it was easy to fix them!
Hey, a friendly adviser for the breaks:try to gently pump the break pedal before stopping after a high speed drive, the oil in the system doesn’t get enough pressure. I have learned how to drive on a Lada 1200s, so the break system should be the same. Also, if this car has a manual choker - pull it before attacking a hill. The 1200s used to run like hell on premium fuel. Cool car, I wish it had AC on it.
if you need to pump the brakes - there is something wrong with it.
This car used a system with brake master cylinder along with vacuum brake booster, so you DO NOT NEED to pump the brakes, they always pumped while engine is running.
Except its actually in the books to pump brakes on ladas
*brAKEs
@@za_ozero*brAKEs
@@Sam-ob4of theanks 😂
Definitely go for a 5 speed swap, it will be good to see just how simple this thing is mechanically. We had a Fiat 124 when I was a kid, and I remember Dad complaining about the brakes - it also overheated and was a real pain to start in damp weather.
A GS or CX would be much, much, more interesting - both mechanically and to drive 🙂
Well, 124 has a different engine-and different brakes. 124 had OHV engine, 2101 got OHC (from Fiat prototype engine). 124 had rear discs that were terrible for a handbrake. 2101 has bigger front discs and rear drums that work great under a handbrake but are impossible to keep the car in a straight line in the case of hard braking. All are different, you had to know does your particular Lada swings left or right :P
The Lada has a completely different braking system.
2 circuits, brake servo, 2 piston front calipers, oversized aluminium rear drums with cast iron liners.
Best of all, the GS(A) was fitted with a choke light as well! I always thought that was quite common on later carburetted cars, but I guess it may have been more of a European thing
@@Random-nf7qb 2101/2/11 had no servo, and brake cylinder was dual and 2-staged.
@@SterkeYerke5555 No choke light on 2101... but I remembered it when fuel needle started to fall sooner then expected :P
Lada is the brand name they used for export. In the Soviet Union this whole line of Fiat 124 derivatives was known as Zhiguli (Жигули). It's the car that made ordinary Soviet citizens mobile and many still have fond memories of it. Not necessarily because they were great cars but because they were super practical, and they got you around. (In)famously people had to wait for years to get one because production capacity was always limited. At the same time it was also a moderate export success because it was cheap and "good enough" for many even in the West. Professional people in the SU (officials, engineers, doctors etc.) who had to actually drive longer distances for work were often assigned Volga (Волга) cars. They were a step up from the Zhigulis. Larger, more comfortable, more powerful, etc. If possible, you should try to get one of those, like a GAZ-24, and tell us what you think about it.
Agreed GAZ-24 would be interesting, but I really like the sitting-room (and bedroom!) on wheels that is the GAZ-21 - the earlier the better...
@@gagatube I agree that the GAZ-21 is very nice. It's a proper classic car. But GAZ-24 might be easier to find for a reasonable price.
As a GAZ 24 owner, I agree
My dad and I recently restored our GAZ 24 my grandfather bought in the SU. Its so challenging to drive because it feels like it has been built out of tractor spare parts. Repainted it, did the flooring and installed completely new seats, now that thing just glides over everything
moskvich 400 - 401 made soviet citizens and villagers mobile, its was an opel kadett variant, in production 1946 - 56, 247 000 were made.
then there were 402 403 407 from 1956 - 65, 550 000 were made. then there were 408 - 412 and their variants, were made 530 000 in 1963-69, around 2.3million total.
aaand theeen, yes, 2101 came out.
Those ladas are great for drifting in the winter. A very enjoyable car
I ride around in a 4wd Niva all the time. Its very popular here to take a rusty old Lada, slam it, & then stealth sup it up, even replacing most of the drivetrain. Very steampunk.
YES, do the 5 speed conversion! Please. I will watch and even "like" it.
make it ~120hp :D like Lada Racer cars :D
Ah yes our family car.
Dad bought it in mid 1980's and we had it until 2015.
Red color, had headlight wipers, you had to be pretty strong to steer the wheel and took like 6 full rotations of the steering wheel to move the wheels fully, it had back wheel power so dad had to put some 80kg of weight in the trunk when the roads were slippery in the winter to get some traction.
After 30 years the transmission box was still in pristine condition.
We loved that car, when we sold it there was a period of mourning ... we lost a member of our family that day
Yeah, most people today have no clue how it is to drive without power steering and power breaks. Tbh, I only know because my VW Golf would turn off when I turned the wheels too much and then in the middle of the turn I had no power steering or breaking anymore...and of course no power at all. Was quite the adventure driving that one...
How many kilometers did it have after those 30 yrs?
Just asking because this is something what people don't realize when remembering "good old times". We also had our Skoda 120 for 20 yrs and I think it had around 120k kms. And nowadays you can buy a 2 yrs old car with same kms... I'm pretty sure that the Skoda would be in pieces if it did it in 2 years 😁
Not saying everything is better or everything is worse, just a flow of thoughts 😉
@@moos5221 I drove a few cards without power steering... I actually loved the Honda Civic GL... I loved its suspension with the double wishbone setup, and the feel through the steering wheel at speed was awesome
@@moos5221So you also don't really know.
@@robovac3557 Yeah, that's true.
Loving the dialog with Trabby, his happy behavior is wonderful :D
2:58 very true, these cars are everywhere here in Egypt, infact my aunt had an identical Lada to yours in red as well!
I can't put into words how much that conversation with the Trabant cheered me up.
Never a dull moment on this channel!
Econ guage is vacuum most likely, and it's probably the source of a vacuum leak. It may be your air/fuel issue as well.
4 speed transmission version was sold in USSR, 5 speed was made ony for export. My neighbors use to have this car.. Use to be nice for those days. My dad use to ride Lada 21011
haha, at 18 i got my drivers license in one of these. drove it for some years afterwards and gained quite some arm muscles doing it. Actually a good exercise since in my army draft '88 I became a truck driver for a 6T Polcarb with ........ no power steering
12:15 you are correct. The heater has to be absolutely 100% scorching hot. I used to own a stack of early 90s car magazines, and the powerful heater was one of the positive things they have to say about the Lada. The engine apparently has a special system that makes it get to operating temperature extra quick, and in a test versus western cars it was the fastest to heat up.
On that car model the middle vents are for fresh air that bypasses the heater. You simply close them during the winter, and open the bottom vent to warm your legs. Works better than any car I ever owned.
Useful when starting a car in the Middle of a Russian Winter no? I have flash backs from renting a Tesla in the middle of the winter.
(Don't look at me like that, I wanted to see if the AWD actually lived up to the hype with snow tires.) The doors got frozen shut and there is no helping how much torque you DON'T need simply trying to crawl your way through a snow storm. The heated seats are a necessary touch but nothing works when the road has no indicator markers. So don't try and put it in self driving mode. (side note to any rental fleet owners: The guy I rented it from didn't know the silicone/lithium grease in the door jamb trick.) Drives the water off while keeping ice out of the rubber and door latch.
Long story short the AWD does work but, what you loose in range is absolutely NOT worth the cost of a Tesla. Get a hybrid if you live anywhere with an actual winter, especially if you go to places without a solar paneled array from heaven juicing up your local charging station in the dead of winter. Tesla fast chargers are few and far between in those dark nether regions of the great white north. (Include all of Michigan and the land that borders Canada, not just the Jack London "Call of the Wild" bits.)
*Turn down regenerative breaking and have the brakes serviced because they can seize after an entire season of use.
@@REVOLTAR53 I was going to say it's probably this, not unusual for European cars of the era to have fresh air only from the dashboard vents. For optimal heating you want to use the footwell vents anyway.
"a special system that makes it get to operating temperature extra quick" - yes, it's an ingenious system that includes an extra spark plug to set light to the fuel leaking out of the carbi... 😜
@@AaronSmart.online You could warm the car for the passengers and still have cool air for the driver so you kept alert. Worked well.....
Garage 54 has done just about everything you can think of to these. They do run surprisingly well. That's about all they got going for them.
My daughter wants a Lada because of Garage 54.
Not only does it have a reliable engine, but It also has a roof, a heater and seats. That may sound basic but you'd be surprised at the amount of people who would kill to have such commodities.
Reminds me of my dad's 128. It was a total rust bucket but always got him home safely in the middle of the night no matter the temperature or the climate. That's when you understand the real value of a car.
Garage 54 has done things that most sane people would never even think of doing to these 🙂
I think their simplicity works well for them. Parts won't fail if you don't have them in the first place.
Lada starts after a year under water
As a british person, let me explain our currency. One pound refers to a pack of beer and one pence refers to one beer. Hope that cleared it up (most british people totally use this system)
A family member has one in Armenia. Their home is up on a hill in the country side. Pretty steep hill with large holes and rocks. He packs the car with 5 family member and flys it up and down that hill several times a day. His LADA looked stock!
Lada was _very_ popular in Finland during the 70's and 80's due to our close relations to Soviet Union. My parents had two of them, first one was (if I remember correctly) a 1980 1200L, which means it looked like the original Fiat and had a 60hp 1200cc engine. It was mustard yellow. Then a couple of years (and a Skoda 120L) later, they got a 1987 1200S. It looked like the other red Lada in this video, but was beige and mechanically identical to the old one.
Afterwards they moved on to a Saab 99, Citroën Xantia, Volkswagen Passat and a Saab 9-3, which they still have.
There's a beige 1200 that I see quite regularly here in Northern Finland.
Very cool Robert! When I visited western Africa (Ivory Coast) with my parents when I was 14 (43 years ago now), my uncle who was working there at the time picked us up from the airport in a Lada 1200 stationwagon to drive us to his home, roughly 500 km on abysmal roads... There was a sticker on the windscreen that said in French: 'Lada, les dures' or 'Lada, the tough ones'. During the 8h journey through the rainforest that 14 year old did pray all the way that the slogan would be true. And fortunately it was. We arrived without any issues. From that moment on I cherish a profound sympathy for this car and its derivates. I hope you enjoy it and look forward to your many road trips in this Russian relic.
I had one of these in red, but the wagon version. It was called the Lada Signet here. You used to see them on Quebec roads. The Samara hatchback and the 4 door sedan version weren't uncommon either. Also had lots of Nivas. I think mine was 1991.
I'm so glad I'm stumbled onto this channel ! love it.
Hi. Maybe this could be some helpful information:
5-speed and 4-speed gearboxes have different mounting brackets and rubber mounts.
There is 3 different specs of speedometer cable drives, which is located on the gearbox. They vary depending of what gear ratio does the rear end has.
In your car probably you have 4.1 (41/10) rear end - they were common for boxy ladas with 4 speed transmission. 5-speed cars have 3.9 (43/11) rear end. Also there were 4.44 on lada 2102 and 4.3 on lada 2101.
Here in Chile Ladas were quite popular on the mid 80s and early 90s.
2104 and superiors were used as a taxi in almost every city.
The Riva (Niva) is among the top 4x4 you could have back then.
They are stil top. Quality and price, still makes them better than most 4x4 suv's. I had Niva and pulled in mud 3x time larger and havier toyota, plus a small cargo truck. So...
@@user-ev7dm4tg9l they are also popular in germany for hunters and foresters duento their off road capabilities and well they are cheap
The Riva is not the same car as the Niva. The Riva is the sedan, the Niva is the SUV
Niva, is, indeed, one of the best dedicated off-roaders in the world.
I’m really excited for the one year update on this thing
LOVE your narration. it is so funny . It is also great to finally see an American who is self confident enough to also make fun of himself. That is as hard to find as a Lada in America :)
1:54, the greatest moment of cinematography.
I honestly like the way it looks. Then again, that's probably because of my love of old squarebody pickups.
Same, it looks like a small Volvo 240.
I always like to think of it as the russian mercedes benz because of how elegant it looks.
@@lamehomer You must come from the soviet occupied territories to think that this looks like a Benz... cause nobody in the west thought "this looks like a benz" as their first description...
@@pretol2730called it a benz because most lada models had some look-alikes of diffrent car brands.
@@volvo09 It kinda looks like a datsun 510... And even that would be a stretch...
My dad had a Lada. I think he had it from before the 89 revolution when it was a real status symbol to have one since everyone else either had Dacias or Trabants (talking about Romania here) and he'd kept it around for a while when I was still a young lad. Don't remember much about it as he sold it for some reason, don't even know the model, it was just known as the Lada, but I know he was real proud of it. Years later he'd still talk fondly of the thing. I think he and my godfather worked to fix it up. I can only imagine how much it cost him to even get it in the first place.
I really like how small and boxy the lada is. Very cozy and retro.
My parents bought cheap cars back in the 80s having owned both a Yugo 45 and a Lada Riva very similar to this one. The Lada Riva was a 1600ES, a special edition created by the dealership to celebrate their ten year anniversary of importing Ladas. It had a couple of extras like headlamp wipers, a pretty decent upgraded stereo system, a five speed gearbox, colour coded bumpers and metallic paint. It did everything we needed it to, was actually very reliable and was even the only car in the street to start easily during a harsh winter we had back in the 80s.
Similar background to me. We had a Yugo 45a and then a 65a GLX. Then a Lada Riva 1.5 estate followed by a Samara 1.5. The two Yugo and Riva were ok. But not the Samara
yeah not suprised sojevt tech works great in winter XD
I hope you keep your Lada for a while, it’s a great car. Do the gearbox swap if it makes you happy. It looks like your car has room for improvement. I have a 2103 from 1975 with the same engine and mine has great breaks and excelent heating. Look forward to more Lada videos 👍
Greetings from Sweden 🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪
Gearbox swap and dyno test! :D
We had 2 of these 2105s at our workplace in NZ - our mechanic replaced the original carburetor with a 2 barrel (twin choke) Weber off a UK designed 2L Ford Cortina - it ended up with more power than the other Lada and used less fuel!
Wow...I owned a brand new 1970 Fiat 124 sedan back in the day and it was a good little machine , however the southern Ontario road salt affected it badly in a few years. Four wheel disc brakes & Pirelli radials were a bonus. Thanks for the video 😊. ps the Fiat sedan was the platform for the Lada when the tooling was moved to Russia.
The Lada Riva was one of the last cars that was supplied with a starting handle, an old work friend had one from the same year that had the handle, check behind the licence plate for the access hole
guess it actually makes some form of sense for very cold rural areas. if your battery or other electronics die, and you are alone with no one that can push, you can crank on the engine yourself and drive away instead of freezing to death.
@@Digi20 yup, it's winter designed car (at least mechanically)
@@GewelReal as far as I know, people in Syberia had designed multiple ways of preparing it to be a Winter car in more ways than just that - double windows, heated windshield way before it was offered as an option for most cars (they used the same conductive paint you use for the rear window, or whatever it is, sorry, not big on these) and second heater. Also a lot of people used the Webasto or local copy called Binar.
Besides cranking it to start (like i did once, at red lights in front of a bus) the crank was good for pre-lube before using the starter motor.
Это муляж
Here in Canada there was "Secure-a-car", who similarly set up on-the-spot VIN etching on windowglass to prevent theft. A quick set of alphanumeric masks were arranged with the VIN, popped against the side of the window, and gently sandblasted into the glass.
It wouldn't surprise me if this LADA pulled into one of these "parking lot stalls" to have it done real quick and nobody noticed the window was down until it was too late!
The person who owned the car was either p-ed off to no end, or didn't care because he thought no one would notice.
My understanding in Russia is anything without an armed guard is immediately stollen.
Actually ladas have been getting their second life for the last years, because of winter drift(especially Krasnoyarsk winter drift battle where such pilots as Kawabata take part) becoming more popular, and it’s an achievable way to make your first steps in motorsport (with some essential mods for sure😊)
Ladas also used to take part in rally sport years ago, but with much more significant mods
A stock one has nothing to do with motorsport at all for sure😅
There’s actually a lot of content about ladas in motorsport on TH-cam, zaRRubin, Nikita Shikov channel eg
I had several Lada Riva's in the 70s. I loved them. I had both the cars and estates. I don't think I ever had a problem with any of them. It's a pity they were stopped coming into this country. I would love another estate, a big handy car.
0:35 If the Trabant is a rockin' don't come a knockin'.
One of the best, basic 4x4 is the Lada Nivia. Absolutely amazing off road and so basic, there's just nothing to go wrong with it. So you need one of these :)
Nivia or niva?
The later models had a Renault diesel engine.
Still very good.
I test drove a Nivia in Canada, drove it for a bit and my friend who was with me asked what is that smell. We got out of the car walked around the car a few times got back in the car. Went I got back into the car noticed that the parking bark was on, and that it was the source of the smell. It drove well with parking brake on or off, with it off the smell went away. This was the second time ever to drive a standard, have not driven a standard since. It was an ok car but sounded like it was going to shake apart.
@@blokhet I think it's still called just Niva in all markets it's currently being sold to. And I didn't have any clue they have ever put a Renault diesel engine. It must've been such a rare option that was purposed only for European markets. My family once used to have a Niva for 10 years. And up until this day most of Nivas come with 1.7L petrol engine. Which is still a modified version of the one used in LADA 2101 from 1970. They make some tweaks here and there over the years. But the essence is still the same.
Czech headlamps looks perfect, I’ve got same on my ‘1995 2105 too. Really nice condition
6:46 That look away is a perfect "that came out wrong" expression.
I was wondering how long it would take for the Trabant to go full Herbie. It's EXACTLY as adorable as I expected!
There's actually a film called Trabi with that plot.
D,x Love the bit ♥
When growing (in the Netherlands) up we had several Lada's, I believe the 2101. It had the reputation of being a poor man's car, but actually it wasn't a bad car. Because the simple technology, it was pretty reliable. It always started (especially in the winter when the modern "better" cars didn't start) and the maintenance was easy
Darn, we still have Lada in the future?
@@ongkhuongduy3498if you can still buy and drive a 2121 by 2121 that would be kinda dope
@@ongkhuongduy3498 "lada" and "future" can't be used together. It will be in the past, forever. Even modern cars stays at the same quality point as oldest lada (bad, rusty, rubbish materials).
My grandpa sttill has his 2101,he bought it in 1970 something (i dont remember exact year) thats like 50 years of ownership and he still drives it! i might take it for my prom next year cuz it will be funny and unique
"Because the simple technology" - if something is done simply and reliably, this is a sign of ingenious technology. I liked the Lada-2107 when I had it, of course, this car is already 45 years old from the date of its launch. I especially liked the headlight wipers.
At least you had a gas gauge, my 55 VW bug didn't have one and it only had 36 HP, and low gear was not synchromesh. I loved that car! You didn't tell it what to do it told you what you could do! I lived in it for 5 weeks while going cross country it. I think I would enjoy driving you Lada. Thanks for taking us along.
My sister had an ancient VW Beetle as her first car and I couldn't drive it. It was so different from my "modern" Vauxhall Cavelier.
Pretty accurate description of a Lada. I owned five over the years, and paid a few hundred GB pounds for them. If running rich, the carb float height needs adjusting, very easy but can ruin a good engine if not done (bore washing.) Tappets are also often neglected on Ladas.
The part "there's a computer in here" at 13:50 made me chuckle.
Me too - it also made me wonder whether there really is, or whether they did the flashing via some electromechanical way instead
@@Berkeloid0 under the hood, near brake pump, there is a little module with 4 pins. pin 1 +ignition 12v, pin2 cluster lamp, pin3 input from brake fluid level, pin4 input from hand brake. inside the module you have 2 relays in 2 stages driven by caps who charge and discharge via ground from pin 3 or 4
@@Berkeloid0 Depends on your definition of "computer"... All it takes is a couple capacitors, transistors and resistors.
I had one in the UK. LHD. The water that ran off the bonnet was directed onto the top of the steering box. In time the box filled with water. When temperatures dropped below zero the water in the box froze and the steering no longer worked until the engine warmed up the steering box.
Another consequence of LHD was changing the exhaust manifold, or steering box, required releasing one engine mount and jacking the engine up.
This guys videos make me so happy
Greetings from Hungary!
I want to share my experiences about Lada 2107
My grandpa got one in 1987 when it was brand new. We still have that car, and i can tell, it's better as you see. Maybe i have some pink fog, because i grew up in that car, but it drives nicely.
A couple of tips from me:
- the choke indicator isn't factroy built (my grandpa also built in one, but originally there was an voltage light, or something idk)
- the engine runs in your one a bit rough, one carb cleaning would be nice
- the middle air wents working fine, they can blow only cold air in (if you take a look under the hood, you will see the air intake)
- if you want to install headlight wipers, it will be hard, here in Hungary the wiper motors are also rare, in USA i can't imagine, how much they can cost
- the clutch, brake, and transmission must to have problems in your car, one good Lada transmission works really nice, the way on you move the stick must be short, and its quiet (kinda)
- the little ECON instrument is a bad thing, they had this thing after 1990, before 1990 there was mounted an oil pressure instrument, so that will be bad
- the little icon on the window is a hungarian licence plate, so probably this car was also hungarian
- i rather not to buy a Polski, lot of people saying that Polski is better, but not allways. They had 4 disc brakes, witch is nice, but the weren't so good at driving. And the first ones were really good. De newer ones with plastic grill, and other stuff, they were not so good.
- if you will have once a chance, try one Lada from before 1990. The real Soviet ones were better quality
I hope my things can help. Drive this Lada more and more, and you will love it. It's a good car, you just need, to understand it.
And remember: this is a real machine; you dont drive it, you operate it!
Have a nice day, and sorry if i write something wrong, i dont really speak english..
Hey, bro, as actually a Russian, which had 3 2107, 1 2108, 1 2109, i can tell you that the choke indicator here is a factory thing, all the carb lada i've had have the same, and actually if you Google "Приборная панель ваз 2107", you will find out choke indicator on it, or check engine (lol, this crap never worked) if the car with injection engine
@@1mor3tim3w4 thanks, i've learned something new today😅😉
I will ask my grandpa again I think😂
I from Poland and only thing i can say about Polski Fiat 125P is: The younger, The worse, so early ones was pretty good but year after year they was removing things and lowering quality.
Best years to buy is 67-77 after 77 they started removing things and lowering quality breaks were pretty good. Ladas are FIAT 124 after modification. PF 125P is a FIAT 1300/1500 with Body and breaks from FIAT 125
Hello Magyar brother, greetings from Subotica
I've 3 of these car. All were previous 1990 and they were great for the price. Very good under cold temperatures we have here in Canada. They were very popular in Québec. I also had a samara but changed it for a niva after few months.
Congratulations on the car, fellow Lada owner ;)
One thing definetaly worths mentioning if you want to keep it (or any other Ladas): you have to keep an eye on the front ball joints in the fishbones. If the lower ones wear off enough, your wheels will turn out completely. Very hard (I mean harder than normal) steering is one warning, the other one is the knocking (though that only happens at the very last minute). You can change them easily though, if you have the proper ball joint puller (many types don't fit in there).
Also there's no complex electronics in it, the parking brake warning is switched on by a relay, which is placed in the relay box in the engine bay. Actually it's the same light that stays on, if your brake fluid level is too low. BTW in an old Lada there's about a full of 7 pieces of semiconductors in the whole car: 2x3 in the generator and one puny diode in the dashboard. I think that's about the same in the 2107 as well.
Oh, and the engine should be 55kW (74HP) in DIN standards, according to the VAZ books.
I pull the ball joints just by hitting the hub carrier with a hammer and the vibrations loosen the joint.
@@REVOLTAR53 I have a friend who does the same, but I never had the luck for that. It's just always stuck and I have to use a puller on it, even if I change them about 2-3 years (since all of the brands are crap, and even after a few ten thousand km-s they knock...)
But what about the dots in the speedometer? What do they mean?🤔🤓
@@TheStuartstardust it should be the max speeds where you should change gears. In the type 1200 the first is at 40kmp (~25mph), second is around 65kmph (around 45mph) and third is at 100kmph (60mph). Though these are for high revs, normally you change gears earlier. Because of this I think the fourth one should be around 120kmph, so I don't know why there are 5 dots... :/
i want more lada content, there is a little bit of me that wants to buy a niva, id love to see servicing etc on this
I drove one of these things from the UK to Czechoslovakia and left it there. It had no synchro between 1st and 2nd so I had to learn how to double de-clutch which was kinda fun. But it made it.
Very happy memories working on these in the 1980's. My family owned a cab company and we ran the Lada. So cheap to buy back than. We paid £25(!) for a 1300 with less than 30000 miles and 4 years old. We spent £200 on it to get it through the cab test and got 2 years as a cab out of it, earning £125 a week.
We'd buy in bulk timing chains and i could change one in under an hour. Happy days!
Lada was the car of my childhood. It is fairly easy to maintain and use if you live in post soviet country, it has dirt cheap parts, some dating as old as 70s (since lada has very good “backwards compatibility”) and since lada isn’t a premium or sophisticated type of car, you’re not really scared to mess it up, just fix it one more time and you’re good to go. Ladas are also really cheap in Russia, on “russian craigslist” you can get one as cheap as $200-300and it will drive just fine, for a bit. It really warms my heart to see people from all over the world enjoy, critique and explore soviet cars, so thank you for your video & for giving lada a chance, not going complete sceptical about it!
Yes, it’s a part of your and many other people’s childhoods but I don’t think it excuses the feelings of nostalgia for it. I think we should not have positive rose colored memories about such things. We should hate the circumstances and the people whose fault it was why we could not buy , or afford , normal quality imported cars. Because of some historic injustices commuted by the people who ran USSR we were robbed of childhoods with normal cars.
It is also important to think of all the people who have died needlessly as a result of these and other shitty Soviet and post Soviet cars lacking the most safety measures that were common in the normal world.
@@StopFear You’re quite right about USSR, my feelings towards lada and some other soviet cars is pure nostalgia and sweet childhood memories. Coming from town where soviets straight up gassed civilians to suppress rebellion in early 20s I have no sympathy toward communism and communists.
@@StopFear Can you chill a little bit? This whole channel is about old cars. And the comment above is exactly about A car. What you said is not relevant at all, classic internet moment
@@StopFear for a person having the name stop fear, youre posting some cope anti communist bullshit like every other afraid westerner.
the soviets didnt stop people from having a western car, they were a new country building their own cars for pretty much the first time in their history. so the limitations were things everyone would experience in similar conditions. the leadership of the soviet union avoided imports as a matter of national sovereignty.
less dependence on imports is a more secure society and less at risk of foreign influence destroying their country. kruschchev made sure to allow that to return, and it cause the downfall of the society within a few decades.
@@DaniilHomyak yea putting it like that, "gassing" civilians is dishonest and disingenuous. if youre referring to tblisi, and are georgia, this wouldnt surprise me.
they used tear gas. at the same time the USA was using it the same way. did it kill people? probably. but saying they were "gassed" is a clear effort to tie it to the nazis use of zyklon B to purge people. the two are not comparable of course, and every single country has "gassed" its civilians to stop rebellion if thats the terminology were using.
3:24 😂 😂 that’s exactly how I think when I hear prices in pounds , I am always thinking …. Pounds of what ?
my uncle had a LADA with skinseats and he was particular happy for the front hand crank, so he could always start the car with it
So many childhood jokes about the Lada, "What do you call a Lada with a tennisball on the hitch...'the sports model'"
"How many settings does the LAda heater have? 2, Cold, or extremely Hot", "Why does the Lada have heated rear windows? So you can have warm hands when pushing it".
Iconic no matter what :)
A guy goes into an auto parts store, and says to the guy behind the counter, "How about a gas cap for a Lada"? Store guy thinks for a moment, and says "yep, sounds like a fair exchange".
What do you call a Lada with twin exhaust pipes?, a wheel barrow. What do you call a Lada with a sunroof?..... a skip.....
One I remember here in the UK - Did you hear about the 16 valve Lada? 8 in the engine, 8 in the radio.
(which wouldn't work in the US as they call them vacuum tubes there, but never mind)
I can't beleive you didn't mention how nice the door hadles are. Literally the best thing about the car. The click, the sound, the material. Incredible. I love this car.
ITS SO SATSYFYING
Good joke.
I have a Lada 2104 (station wagon version of the 2105), and it is pretty good. I have the 1.5L, 5 speed version. Pretty nice. Does not overheat, even in the 35-40 Celsius weather we are having now.
Also have a Moskvich 2140 (with a 427 body), which I actually like more a little bit, as I think it is more comfortable and has more character, BUT even in the WINTER it can overheat in heavy traffic.
I like them both tho :D
Fresh on the heels of you Polski Fiat video I've come back to this! I don't know what it is, but I love the shape of this car. If only I could find Dennis.
You need to change the channel name to ageing wheel bearings