Russia’s much anticipated new ‘sanction-proof’ Lada has been derided as a flashback to the USSR without any airbags, an anti-lock braking system, modern seat belts or satellite navigation.
The Lada Granta Classic 2022 was designed to use components only from Russia and its allies, but it also means it has no anti-emissions kit, with Russian car journalists reporting that the new car will only meet European pollution standards imposed in 1996.
Well, yeah, yeah but…..Ladas.
OK so they were an old design even when first made. Build quality was just terrible – we bought two Moskvitch vans fresh from the factory (Renault 4 based designs) and the first task was to strip and reassemble them. Right down to cracking open the gearboxes, really, everything.
If you had one that had been properly made – middle of the month perhaps, for those planned economy reasons. Early week wouldn’t have parts, late week of the month would be building too fast to meet plan – they were solid and worked and cheap. Nowt fancy at all but they could indeed deal with Russian weather which is a feat in itself.
There is a significant market in Russia for something like that. Build quality’s the thing tho’