Togliatti was an italian communist, and the town was named after Togliatti after his death. The man had nothing to do with establishing the factory or negotiating the co-operation between Fiat and the soviets. He was already dead by the time they started the project.
they tried to keep video casual and accidentally mushed together the fact that italians were involved with the production and that togliatti was italian man
Some journalists said Rotary engine technology was given to USSR by German luxury cars automaker NSU, right before it got eaten by VW and became part of Audi.
@@danielf.285 You can try to look for engine РПД-411 (RPD - 411) This and others have been used in those cars. However performance was impressive for that time, lifetime of the engine did not exceed 10000 km (while NSU engines in model Sportprinz were able to go 30000k)
Supposedly, some factory test rotaries were also put into RAF ambulances. My dad used to work as a sanitarian on an ambulance crew and remembers a couple of shifts they had with a RAF factory driver at the wheel and a rotary under the hood
Your approach is unique. Well done! I mean from the point of view that almost 100% of soviet car reviews done by british and in general west journalists are always ironic, mocking, degrading. Of course most of those cars were had too many disadvantages in comparison with the western cars BUT for millions of people those were the choices they had for a car back those years and everybody must consider that and respect it. My family (I'm from Greece) we had back in 80s a Lada Nova/Riva 2105 and I steel remember how tough it was and great value for money back then. Too many trips at the my dads home village for holidays and it didnt sweat neither in highways or on old dirt village roads. My dad I remember was between that Lada and an Opel Kadett D and he chose the russian one cause it was cheaper but way bigger inside. So, we must not throw stones by the fact that those cars were from the communist era and that necessary means they are VERY BAD and ancient. No.
The Lada Riva & Niva are great cars that last but lack the options that most Westerners want. The Niva was the best compact SUV made, and the Riva was even a decent taxi cab that lasted half as long as a Mercedes 300D, but cost much less to buy...
I second the notion of a respectful review. It's not your usual "look at this sh*tty Soviet car, lmao" by some brits and that's why i liked it. Yes, the cars were outdated, not without flaws, but were still loved/lovehated by their respectable owners, because their did their job done for many years. A like from me for the two reviewer gentlemen.
My grandpa worked for the Chinese aerospace department in Beijing, was assigned a VAZ and a driver just for him back in the 80s. Remember back in those days most people in China don't even have bicycles. Its like the ultimate cool dad story and my mom loves to tell me that all the time lol
I used to own a 16 valve Lada Riva - 2 in the engine and 14 in the radio - but that is just a joke. I really loved it and wish I still had it. It was very reliable and pleasant to drive. Also had a fantastic heater !
Today's fact: Why old cars have whitewalls tires Early automobile tires were made of pure natural rubber with various chemicals mixed into the tread compounds to make them wear better. The best of these was zinc oxide, a pure white substance that increased traction and also made the entire tire white. However, the white rubber did not offer sufficient endurance, so carbon black was added to the rubber to greatly increase tread life. Using carbon black only in the tread produced tires with inner and outer sidewalls of white rubber. Later, entirely black tires became available Source : Wikipedia
My uncle have 1979 Lada 2101 and is still running propprly ,very simple and amazing car .....the specific smell of leadther and the amber head of the gearleaver is pure clasic! you can run them forever ...after time people think that they will recive and update and go to space!
@@radost0514 This trash was made into 21 century, and it won't compare to any 50 year vehicle from a reputable manufacturer.... Stop spreading russian propaganda of some kind of equivalency
You should have at least asked the latvian fella to correct you on few bits, because it is rather inaccurate at places. Lada to go to universities... certainly not, maybe in 90s' after fall of USSR. In soviet time you would have been at least 30+ (after university or professional training), some leeway can be made due to the corruption and buying the coupons, having undeclared wealth and looting in the factories, but as general rule you would have to be at least 5-10 years employed before the first car. Lada for masses and Volga you could not even buy?! Not quite accurate... reality is that you could not just buy either, but the wait for Lada would need to wait to be allocated one (5-10 years!) and for Volga it was more about connections and standing. Volgas would have been more like company car for director of that company, not personally owned. It was not impossible, but say unusual for person to own Volga - required having friend in the party and paying bribes, the concepts not quite understood in western world. As well, you would be at risk of scrutinised by KGB (as to why you even owe such car), so better make sure your friend in party is really high ranking one. There was as well mistake in terms of Volgas age - GAZ 24 was designed in ~1966, similar year as Lada and that your second generation was from 1983, it makes no difference - you need to understand that soviet cars hardly changed at all since 60s. Then it comes to Volga taxis - yes there were Volga taxis, but again you need to understand that it was only hard to get Volga as private individual - as a company car it was rather normal and taxi was a comparable luxury at the time. Again not all taxis were Volgas - perhaps in key cities like Moscow, Kiev they used Volgas, but in smaller cities there were cheaper cars to use - same Ladas and Moskvich, both as well available in estate versions an popular taxi cars. This is as well where you contradicted yourself with MB 190E - Volga was not at all equivalent to it. Closer to Maybach in terms of affordability and perhaps to E-Class in terms of (soviet) Luxury, in other hand Lada would have been soviet equivalent of 190E or BMW 3-Series for that matter. And probably final point - yes you could sell millions of bad things if that is the only thing one could buy!
considering the trolling in the past videos of carfection i can only assume that any inaccuracies in this video were deliberate trolling as well - they also may be targeting the fat rich demographic of soviet emigrants that assimilated with the west so much and forgot about the real hardships of ussr and current post soviet fake capitalism
Have yet to see any evidence of this waiting time bullshit that people claim, you have to wait for new cars today as well, in Soviet Union there were public transport everywhere most of it cheap so car manufacturing was a low priority, fact is this GAZ in the video is a 60s car and by the 80s there were quite a lot of interesting cars to get, specially Moskvitch ones.
@@SMGJohn You did have to wait about 5-10 years for a Jiguli (lada)(5-7000 roubles) or a Moscvich(4,500-6,000 roubles) up to the 80's. On the other hand Zaparozhets(made modifications for invalids)(3500- 4500 roubles) had a 1 - 3 year waiting list and as correctly said you could not/almost impossible to get a Volga (??20,000?? roubles) privately. If you worked in a star city ( secure cities from 50,000 to 500,000 inhabitants, not on maps) your waiting times were about 3 weeks. Then you could drive it out and go to the second hand market and ask for a 20% premium.
Back in those days in Sovjet. - I will order a new Lada - It's OK, you will get it in four years - Will it be in the morning or the evening? - It will be delivered in the morning - Sorry, I can't then - Why not? - The plumber is coming then
good propagandic joke. But as i remember it was around 1 years of waiting, and not like we needed cars so much like today, public transport was free, other transport was very cheap, people also worker close to thier living homes, and used cars for holidays mostly. Not to mention those cars lasted 40 + years for many people, so 1 year of waiting wasnt that bad. Cost around 4000-8000 rubles, and it was not that much for working family to save in few years. Today cars cost 30000 + euros/dollars and break in few years
@@NostalgicMem0ries In many europeans countries , it was carbuyer rules in the fifties. In Norway, normal people was not allowed to buy cars before 1960. In UK, you had to wait one year, and wasn't allowed to sell it the first four years. Yeah, there was many rules, and the cars lasted as best in three years in those days.
When I was a kid, my old neighbour still got his East German Trabant 601. For me it’s quite an alien car since I grew up with VW, BMW, or Mercedes. I remember me and him was driving around the neighbourhood in his Trabant, a car that I would say the worst car I’ve ever ride. So noisy, fragile, and incredibly slow since it’s only powered by a 2-stroke engine. Yet it’s one of the most exciting retro car experiences I’ve ever had! Unfortunately he passed away about 10 years ago, then his family donated his Trabant to some place that I don’t know. Never saw that old beast again since 🙁
A former acquaintance of mine bought a like new 1990 Trabant in Germany for $50.00 USD right before the DDR wall fell, reglued a 1970 Trabbie P601 VIN to it and transferred the title to the new VIN. That way, he could legally drive it in the US when he brought it over from Deutchland. Simply an amazing car for the $. It demonstrated how good engineering could create an inexpensive and relatively reliable car for the masses. No gas pump, no radiator, no fuel gauge, a polymer rustless body, FWD, a reliable manual all synchro tranny, no power steering, no power brakes, no ECU, no AC, no standard heater and easy repair ergonomics made this a very popular car during its time. Unlike the cars in this video, the Trabant was based on a pre-existing German design and was built in one factory in Saxony, DDR. They have since gained collectible status like the Citroen 2CV and are very popular in Europe-John in Texas
My father had a GAZ-24 back in the day, a white one. It's the car I learned how to drive in. It was a majestic thing back then - you felt invincible, felt like if you hit anything it'd leave a Volga shaped impression in it. The grille made of solid steel, built like the tank it was. Sure, it had a tractor engine, same as the one in UAZ utility vehicles, but its presence meant people just got out of your way. Its size was something to behold back then - a lot of people used booster pillows so they could see above the dash. Unfortunately not built to last, most rotted away, the interior plastics turned to dust and that was it. But when new, a white or a black one, with those steel hub caps, you could get one new (after waiting years and years for it) and you could resell it straight away for a lot of profit. This is how exclusive they were.
they were referring to the year of manufacture of that specific vehicle, but I agree that they should have mentioned the fact that the project was much earlier and, unless mistaken, was compatible to what was sold in the west in the same period.
@@fmac6441 That's the case with a lot of Soviet cars--even the Trabant was cutting-edge when it was introduced (FWD was basically unheard of in 1957), and they were absolutely on par with their competitors in the West. Brezhnev's conservatism is the reason they were still selling the same cars fifteen or twenty or twenty-five years later; the Era of Stagnation was the way it was because of the leadership's risk aversion and unwillingness to change.
The first Volga's 24 were made in the end of 60s. It would be correct to compare this model with Mercedes w115. In 80s GAZ already had a new generation of Volga 3102 which might be compared with w123. Of course Mercedes was more technically perfect but the difference was not so much as they tried to show in the video. Beside that Mercedes was one of the best end expensive car in the world.
Cheers, a Hungarian is here from Canada. These were the wao cars when I grew up. Skoda came second, dacia, moskwich weren't much desired. On the 2 cycle front Wartburg and Trabant were ok, except were not economical nor long lasting. My Trabant's engine asked for a rebuild at 100k km. Other than that, were no maintenance at all. Every gas fill up was an oil change too. The Lada's manual shifter moves super short distances and very precise nothing today comes even close ( mx 5 maybe ). Needed to use a lot
In my childhood most middle class people had Lada 1200 and whoever got a 1600 was indeed a doctor or a prominent party member. Back then every car had a basic survival toolkit such as, a screwdriver, plier, hammer, some metal wire, metal brush, spark plugs and a can of water. By having those onboard you genuinely believed there was nothing could prevent your machine taking you anywhere. But hey, in those times you had to wait roughly 2 years just to get a phone line assigned, and that was a mere 30 years ago. Now, got smart appliances with AI integration that debates you each morning whether you should have a normal or a decaf coffee based on your assessed mood and energy level. WTF
In '68, people flew to the moon, in' 69, supersonic passenger planes appeared, in 1960, people sank to the bottom of the Mariana trench, there were enough computers with kilobytes of memory for this. now there is nothing but the world of George orvel 1984 and the brave new world of Huxley, so you have a lot of unnecessary gadgets
Ah, the sounds of my childhood. Thank you for making this, I enjoyed it a lot. I have to add that these were pretty much the only options for a car people had in the 70s and 80s. Any car was a luxury and you'd make the neighbors jealous anyway. They weren't reliable at all but they could be fixed in the field which was what most of the owners had to do. The repair manuals were very popular and the black market for the parts was huge because getting them legally was next to impossible. And then the 90s came and Russia discovered imported vehicles.
Thank you for the pride you've shown while reviewing these cars! It's a real history of the large era here in Russia. And the Ladas that you've reviewed are still used here in Russia, including as a base for "Winter drift" discipline - which is kind of an affordable entry ticket into amateur car sports.
@@ursa_margo Very well is "Pride" the correct word for describing the era of the Soviet Union, its culture, its political strenght, its people and of course for all of its rear wheel driven cars. Under the flag of Soviet Union Russia was the strongest - this is real pride! "Respect" is obviously.
The info in the video is incorrect (3:46). The first model (started at 1970) in Tolyatti plant was VAZ 2101, it was slightly updated fiat 124 but mostly identical. VAZ 2106 was introduced much later in 1976 with many styling updates and bigger engine. It was successor of VAZ 2103. I remember when I was a child in USSR it was considered as luxury version of VAZ 2101.
Get the facts right please! Tolyatti factory was not build specifically to make 2106, it was build to make 2101 which was Fiat 124, then it was update to 2103 and only after it became 2106. And its not called "Zhiguli 1600" in Russia its called Shesterka.
@@saucybackport but it's just common knowledge and easy to look up. Their reviews on these cars are pretty good, but c'mon. You can't mess up these facts (and mentioning the car of the year award for the 124 before it even came out on the market is pretty bad too). Another one is telling that everyone was driving a Lada while even with the slightest knowledge people know at least to mention Moskvitch as a quite common car in the East/USSR among a few other brands so saying that 1/56 families owned a Volga and the rest Lada is a bit weird.
those cards were built like tanks, lasted for more than 40 years for many people. My grandfather had 2 zhiguli cars in his life times, one sold after 10 years to make some money, other lasted from 70s to 00s almost 40 years and almost no rust, changed stuff himself, drove all around ussr, it was beast of a car, not like today plastic crap and breaks from minor crash and breaks with electonics. yes it wasnt perfection and comfortability masterpiece, but it was a CAR.
Gaz 24 (24-10 modification) production to 92 and 31-10 version (new design bat the same platform) to 2009. So in 80-early 90s you can buy new 190 in europe or 24 in ussr-russia )
@@arkadieee2407 Its just slight restaling in a modern term. Only differences is a radiator grill (black plastic on 2410), door handles and some interior panel. Its the same car )
The Volga M24 was actually accessable to your average Soviet citizen if you really wanted it. My Grandfather, a shipyard worker (I think he was doing advanced repairs - non routune work, skilled work but nothing special), and in 1978 he started to think and talk about getting a car, in 1979 he bought a 1979 volga m24 Diesel. Now the diesel was super rare in the USSR and was almost only for export, but he just went there and asked "Do you have a 24 diesel?" -Diesel? "Yes Diesel" -Well yes. Then when he had his diesel, he often was allowed to refuel at gas stations for free as the gas station workers almost never saw a non-truck/military vehicle fuel up with diesel and it was like the coolest thing for them. He let them drive around and all. Now it is fun because the Volga diesel REALLY sounds like a tractor, and has LESS horsepower than the gasoline version. Car still runs though, no rust, they live by the Sea in Sevastopol.
i learnt to drive in a lada riva, and drove many of them for the first 6 years of my driving life (when you could pick up one with a years mot for scrap value). there was nothing fundamentally bad with them, they were just 70s tech being sold in the 90s... if you thought of them as such and knew how to check the points gap and can wield a spanner they were fine as an every day car. the later models were less reliable as they fitted more emissions controlling stuff, but the pre cat ones were really not that bad. when i moved to london, id get constant thumbs up from all the eastern europeans in town, it was quite a rare car to see even back in the mid 2000s. i bought a mk1 escort which although older drove far better, but part of me would not be un happy selling the mk1 and getting another lada. The base of the car is actually really good, Double wishbone front suspension, 5 link rear axel, the engines even respond well to uprated carbs and cams. you could swap out the rear diff for ford escort one with a 3mm spacer and even drop in the halfshafts so the back end could handle more power... when they homologated them for rally the the meat of the suspension is left as is, just uprated springs and dampers, its built to take hits and keep on going... the steering box was utter garbage though and you couldn't really make it better without switching to a rack and pinion.
I have owned 3 Ladas and loved every one. The best was a 1979 1600 in white, which was the best motorway car I've owned, solid powerful and reliable, let down only by eventual serious chassis rust, Every one I bought felt like returning to an old friend.
My first car was VAZ 2107, a very nicely modernized version of the 2106, and I honestly loved it. This car had only one part fautly by design: mechanical ignition. If replaced by electronic ignition, it becomes amazing. It was bare-bones, but not to the point where it was ugly. It was tough and allowed me to take her everywhere: in thousands of kilometers long travels, or into water, mud and woods. It was pretty cheap to repair and it didn't consume much fuel (about 7L per 100 km). The suspension was too soft to my liking, but the vast market for tuned spare parts made it a non-issue. Later, I added a limited-slip differential from a Niva, and it became ridiculously off-road-capable. Sadly, it ended its days being picked apart, part by part, by some kleptomaniac, who left only a desecrated body in, like one month of my neglect. It was like seeing a member of your family die.
Lovely video. I'm watching this from Ukraine, as a Western-European. These Volgas and Ladas (the 1500 especially) are still in use as everyday drivers, mostly owned by people who live in villages. They are being kept operable and look nowhere near as nice as the ones in your video. Honestly, the general public could care less about these. No nostalgia about them. I've only ever once seen a cosmetically restored Volga. It smoked and rattled like the end of days.
3:47 - you actually can make millions of bad things if the competition is banned - as it was in the Soviet Union, so nobody had a choice :D the monument to soviet misery is what these cars are.
it is kinda stupid to spew pro churchil capitalism propaganda and assume that one paper pushing party leader had enough engineering knowledge to oppress any free discourse inside the communal factories comprised of hundreds of thousands of workers around the whole union who also had the party memberships - any misery was imposed on the people by themselves
These cars were not rubbish at all! To be honest, anyone who says otherwise is just biased against the Soviet Union. Even if one was correct in the assessment that Soviet cars were somehow inferior, it would be a moot point because the Soviet Union had much more pressing priorities to deal with such as rebuilding a completely destroyed infrastructure with a large portion of the young population dead from WWII.
You do realise there were more car manufacturers in USSR than AutoVAZ and GAZ? Probably not, you are an idiot after all, too busy believing in nonsense rather than getting acquainted with reality. There ton of competition in Socialism but rather than compete for pathetic monitarian value, they compete for all the better reasons, that is why the Lada was not the only budget car in USSR, but it was the better one and you be hard pressed to find anything better for the same price of a Lada anywhere else in the world, there were as many car manufacturers in USSR as there were in USA and Soviets had luxury cars that were comparable to Mercedes, Moskvitch for example produced really amazing luxury cars with all the shit you want in one such as electric windows, driving computers, assisted steering, disc brakes, electric seat adjusters even and all the other fluff. The fact is your point even makes no sense practically, if there were no competition in Soviet Union then why did they make so damn good planes? Why did Soviet Union have so many companies within same categories if there no competition it makes no sense to have 9 different car companies or 12 different electronics companies, use your tiny head kid, I like to remind you how the T-34 came about, it was just not Stalin saying _I want tank now, bring to me_ It was a result of the tractor factories competing against each other for best tank design, each factory in USSR at the time had their own design teams which would compete all the time, the T-34 was born out of this competition, remind yourself they built this fucking thing in less then a day, the engine and gearbox were put together so hastily that gear teeth were not always aligned, yet the T-34 was so reliable, so easy to fix you be hard pressed to find anything similar at the opposite end, America used twice the factories Soviet did to manufacture their Shermans and yet they still could not get close in numbers. It is by Socialist thought that, only when all needs are met, can luxury be made, and the Soviets followed this line of thinking till their very end.
Engineering competition was always encouraged in the union but civilian production was on the backburner because it was ordered by the politicians rather than driven by demand. Ladas were sold by tens of thousands in UK. Niva was a groundbreaking car, the first SUV, that had no counterpart until Suzuki Vitara came out a full decade later and is still rolling across many rural areas outside of ex-USSR.
5:43 get people to university.. just shows how far the westerners stand from the people behind the curtain we know damn well, those soviets students, who rarely had enough money for food were not driving anything at all
Of course 2106 is based on 124 as it is face-lifted and better equipped, incl. stronger engine, 2101. 125 was built on licence in Yugoslavia and Poland.
Back in the mid-80s I owned a Lada for a short while before selling it to a buddy and "upgrading" to a Morris Minor 1000 van that looked like a shrunken American woody. Definitely an "interesting" automobile to own and drive. Come MOT time you'd best know someone with a welder.
Great video, entertaining and funny. I have a fascination with Russia and Russian stuff, but on top of that, I actually used to have a Lada the same as the one used here!. Mine was red and had alloy wheels, but otherwise the same. In the handbook it said what the maximum 'cruising speed' was, and while I don't remember what it was (it was given in km/h), it did say that this could be done on paved or unpaved roads!!. It was a tough car, that is for sure!. Still find myself now and again looking on websites featuring cars for sale Europe or world wide to check prices and ponder what it would be like to have one now. Very rarely ever see them on UK websites. One thing I would have liked mentioned in the video was opening 'quarter lights' (the small triangular shaped windows in front of the main door window). Not sure exactly why, but I would so much love a car with opening quarter lights now!.
Both of these cars are very common in Cuba, my dad owned a 1971 Fiat 125 which is basically a rebadged Lada with a way more luxurious interior and sunroof which was rare.
I'm a bit late to the party, having only just found this brill vid. I knew a couple in the early 90's who befriended a Bulgarian family when they visited the country. The husband came over to Nottingham, staying with my friends, whilst working in our local pub for 8-9 months. He earned what he considered to be a small fortune. He paid his brother to fly over here, buying himself and his brother a Lada Riva each, they then drove them both home, saying they'd never have been able to afford a car back home. They also filled the boots up with a shed load of spare parts, including a gearbox ( or possibly two? ). Some of which they intended to flog back home. How times have changed.
The VAZ-2106 Zhiguli (alternatively Zhiguli 2106) was a sedan produced by the Soviet (later Russian) automaker VAZ, and later, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, also by Russian Izhevsk Avto and Ukrainian Anto-Rus. In export markets, it was known simply as Lada 1600 or alternatively as Lada 2106, by its famous commercial name and was also popularly nicknamed Шестёрка (Šestyorka, in English; The sixth one) in domestic market. A hugely popular car and one of most successful Lada models. VAZ-2103 Zhiguli. Better known by its famous export name Lada 1500 outside of its native Soviet union and popularly nicknamed Тройка (Troika, 'three') in domestic market. VAZ-2101 "Zhiguli" , commonly nicknamed "Kopeyka" (for the smallest coin, 1/100 of the Ruble),
I was born late 60s ! Grew up in communist Hungary! I was only a child in the 70s and early 80s, but a clearly remember these cars ! The Lada 1600 hundred was the absolute pinnacle of car design in those days ! Especially the 1600 ! It was unobtainable for most ppl ! Only the top 1percent could afford it . The lower models were more common (1200 -1300) but even those were a dream come true for most who managed to get one ! The other one the Volga was for the one percent of the one percent ! Party secretary, factory manager , police chief! Only those ppl would have it mostly in black color ! When I say Factory manager I mean like the huge Iron smelter and Machine builder factory we had in our city that employed 30000 thousand ppl in three shifts ! The boss of that factory had a black Volga with his personal driver ! For regular Joes a Volga like that was same as a Rolls-Royce for an average westerner pretty much out of reach . Most ppl didn't drive anyways, and the few percent that did, were driving Trabants or Polski Fiat 126, which was the size of a go-cart ! There were also Skodas and Dachias all communist products and they were all stinkers every one of them ! Cars at the time were huge status symbols in the Eastern block ! If one owned a new Lada 1500 , it meant that that person's ship came in......
Really cool cars! People say these are unreliable but the reality is that they not, if they are taken good care, they can be more reliable than a W123 Merc
I remember that black Lada William Hurt drove in Gorky Park. I found it charming and always wanted one. You should meet up with him and ask how it was to drive.
As a Lithuanian im offended you didin't even mention Latvija Van car. The car has more history than these shit boxes combined together. :D Cheers lads.
I thought I'd never see these two again talking about history. This is sound so much like the XCAR days. The story of an actual Spy by night and driving an Aston Martin by day is one off my favourite video in this channel #bringbackxcar
We Russians like putting the engine from a GAZ 53 truck in the Volga. A Toyota 2uzfe engine is also a popular option. I'd have one, as a muscle family car. The шестёрка (shestYOrka) is a classic Russian classic, the 1,6 litre engine is the best engine out of the classic blocks (I have that engine in my 2104). There are plenty of 2106 Ladas still bouncing from one pothole to the next in the regions. Russian cars are the best!
Mr. Palmiro Togliatti had nothing to do with the automotive industry, he was a prominent figure in Italian Communist party therefor city was named after him considering factory and technologies bought from Fiat.
The Gorky town (Nizhni Nogorod) isn't 200km north of Moscow. It's 400km East. The first gaz 24 was issued in 1969 so that's why it's a 60s' car. Tolgiatti didn't build a factory. The 2106 wasn't the first model of the VAZ. Fact checking? No, never heard of.
"now, you don't make millions of cars if they're bad, you know? they've gotta be pretty successful in that market..." this man does not grok the Soviet Union.
I had a 71 Fiat 124 sport coupe. It was an easy car to like, but was the worst car I've ever owned, including a 74 Monte Carlo and a 93 Jeep Cherokee. After only 5 years of ownership the front passenger floor board and seat mount were completely rusted through because Fiat (in all of its wisdom) sealed the metal wheel wells with a tar-impregnated foam material, which of course suffered shrinkage over time, following which rain water would run right into the interior of the car, under the carpeting, and voila! Rusted out floor boards. Genius. Curiously, I saw a Ferrari Boxer at an auto show not long after, and Ferrari used exactly the same system to seal the wheel wells in that model as well, which made me laugh out loud when I noticed it. From that car on, I vowed I'd never own another Fiat again - and haven't.
It seem like Vodka roulette stings as much as the Russian roulette. The Lada is a very familiar car I grew up seeing so many Ladas on the road,kind of rare to spot one now,they were as tough as some of those old tough Fiat trucks that just won't die.
Next time if you drink vodka, try it with some leavened cucumbers. I know it might sound strange at first, but they just harmonize perfectly together. So well actually, that you can drink a whole bottle without noticing - at least that's what happened to me.
Hell yeah, my grandpa had the exact same white Lada, my dad had the GAZ. I grew up watching the A-team, Dukes of Hazzard & Knight Rider in the 90's. After that I went out to play sat in the GAZ & imagined it's a cadillac or a chevy from the series lol. Ah the memories.
At around the 11:20 mark, I wouldn't say the other 56 would buy the Lada. The Lada was considered to be a luxury car by the Soviets, and was very hard to acquire due to its high price - like the Niva (although that was even harder to get). In order to buy the Lada, people had to save money by eating the cheapest food, and not a lot of it. A far far more attainable car at the time was a Moskvich, which was far cheaper, and is usually what normal people bought. My dad had experience driving both the Moskvich and the Lada back in the USSR, and he said that although the Moskvich had less space, and was less 'luxurious', it felt far more stable on the road compared to the Lada, especially in winter weather. He said that in the winter, the Lada had a tendency on drifting on the road, and you had to be very precise with the steering and throttle to keep it on the road. According to him as well, the Lada that came after the one in the video (pardon my lack of knowledge of the model numbers), was far worse than its predecessor.
Am latvian. 1. Really sad that you didn't talk about the RAF van. Lots of latvian history there. 2. Went to St. Petersburg in November. 2/3 of the cars there were new Lada SUVs. Saw maybe 10 žiguļi (still driving), but all of them were so beat up I couldn't refrain from laughing. (think duct tape, fasteners and veeery bent bumpers) And Cayennes.
And for ironic; my 2WD Nissan D21 pickup strongly reminds me of a Volga; 4 banger, 5spd, (dead) power steering, etc. Truck is crude but easy to maintain.
Togliatti was an italian communist, and the town was named after Togliatti after his death. The man had nothing to do with establishing the factory or negotiating the co-operation between Fiat and the soviets. He was already dead by the time they started the project.
I was just about to write a similar comment.
they tried to keep video casual and accidentally mushed together the fact that italians were involved with the production and that togliatti was italian man
Thanks for the correction, a bit of editing and poor memory sort of jumbled our message there, you are right.
Me too. Matti just saved me typing it.
Honestly - a simple googling would have revealed this being an utter and complete baloney.
For soviet Militia (Милиция) was another interceptor car - VAZ 2103/2106 with rotary engine and it was even faster than KGB version Volga.
We heard about that one - sounds insane!
A rotary in a soviet automobile? I've never heard of that :o
Some journalists said Rotary engine technology was given to USSR by German luxury cars automaker NSU, right before it got eaten by VW and became part of Audi.
@@danielf.285 You can try to look for engine РПД-411 (RPD - 411) This and others have been used in those cars. However performance was impressive for that time, lifetime of the engine did not exceed 10000 km (while NSU engines in model Sportprinz were able to go 30000k)
Supposedly, some factory test rotaries were also put into RAF ambulances. My dad used to work as a sanitarian on an ambulance crew and remembers a couple of shifts they had with a RAF factory driver at the wheel and a rotary under the hood
Hey Niko !! It’s Roman, Let’s go bowling.
Niko are serbian, Serbia in Cold War was part of Jugoslavia. Jugoslavia and USSR wasn't friends.
@@РусланКасымжан Gaz Volga 24 or Lada?
@@panagiotisrokas187 Gaz volga 24
@@РусланКасымжан Gaz Volga 24. The best car in Soviet Russia. Car legend.
Not Ganz. Gaz is the correct.
@@panagiotisrokas187 My mistake. Mistake corrector are awful(
The Volga has a special place in my heart. Looks badass from all angles
Your approach is unique. Well done! I mean from the point of view that almost 100% of soviet car reviews done by british and in general west journalists are always ironic, mocking, degrading. Of course most of those cars were had too many disadvantages in comparison with the western cars BUT for millions of people those were the choices they had for a car back those years and everybody must consider that and respect it. My family (I'm from Greece) we had back in 80s a Lada Nova/Riva 2105 and I steel remember how tough it was and great value for money back then. Too many trips at the my dads home village for holidays and it didnt sweat neither in highways or on old dirt village roads. My dad I remember was between that Lada and an Opel Kadett D and he chose the russian one cause it was cheaper but way bigger inside. So, we must not throw stones by the fact that those cars were from the communist era and that necessary means they are VERY BAD and ancient. No.
In other words, they're flawed like everything else, but also do have advantages too. Pros & cons to everything or just about everything.
This is a fiat 😂
The Lada Riva & Niva are great cars that last but lack the options that most Westerners want. The Niva was the best compact SUV made, and the Riva was even a decent taxi cab that lasted half as long as a Mercedes 300D, but cost much less to buy...
I second the notion of a respectful review. It's not your usual "look at this sh*tty Soviet car, lmao" by some brits and that's why i liked it. Yes, the cars were outdated, not without flaws, but were still loved/lovehated by their respectable owners, because their did their job done for many years.
A like from me for the two reviewer gentlemen.
@@davidhollenshead4892 "Niva was the best compact SUV made" Actually Niva was THE first SUV ever
My grandpa worked for the Chinese aerospace department in Beijing, was assigned a VAZ and a driver just for him back in the 80s. Remember back in those days most people in China don't even have bicycles. Its like the ultimate cool dad story and my mom loves to tell me that all the time lol
was your grand pa alive when movie Gravity with Sandra Bullock came out?
@@saucybackport funny that you mentioned it, the answer is yes. However he passed away like 9 days after the movie was out...
Now China is the spearhead of EV innovation, with BYD kicking Tesla's ass domesticly and soon worldwide 🫡🇨🇳
I used to own a 16 valve Lada Riva - 2 in the engine and 14 in the radio - but that is just a joke. I really loved it and wish I still had it. It was very reliable and pleasant to drive. Also had a fantastic heater !
Wasn’t leather, vinyl
@@MegaSeventy4 he didn't say leather
How did a 4 cylinder engine work with 2 valves?
@@notroll1279 Because it was Russian.
@@kovacsbence5521 yeah, probably...
This is very nice. Two people that, like me, loves cars. Thank you very much. I enjoyed the video.
Today's fact: Why old cars have whitewalls tires
Early automobile tires were made of pure natural rubber with various chemicals mixed into the tread compounds to make them wear better. The best of these was zinc oxide, a pure white substance that increased traction and also made the entire tire white. However, the white rubber did not offer sufficient endurance, so carbon black was added to the rubber to greatly increase tread life. Using carbon black only in the tread produced tires with inner and outer sidewalls of white rubber. Later, entirely black tires became available
Source : Wikipedia
it's the same like using baby powder with zinc oxide to fit inside latex pants or diving suit
So whitewall tires were more economical to produce and not an aesthetic touch? Interesting completely the opposite of what I thought
My uncle have 1979 Lada 2101 and is still running propprly ,very simple and amazing car .....the specific smell of leadther and the amber head of the gearleaver is pure clasic! you can run them forever ...after time people think that they will recive and update and go to space!
You mean it runs like shit, the same way as when it was new.
@@pretol7920 thats the romantic aspect of the it....almost all 30-50 year old cars are pure shit to drive
@@radost0514 This trash was made into 21 century, and it won't compare to any 50 year vehicle from a reputable manufacturer.... Stop spreading russian propaganda of some kind of equivalency
@@pretol7920 russian propaganda wow ...not doing any of that ...we just grow around that type of cars..i am not Russian...
That VAZ 2106 with the 1600cc engine was way better than anything else in the Eastern Block. Loved that thing.
Fascinating and very insightful video! Thanks guys 👍🏽 most enjoyable ✅
You should have at least asked the latvian fella to correct you on few bits, because it is rather inaccurate at places. Lada to go to universities... certainly not, maybe in 90s' after fall of USSR. In soviet time you would have been at least 30+ (after university or professional training), some leeway can be made due to the corruption and buying the coupons, having undeclared wealth and looting in the factories, but as general rule you would have to be at least 5-10 years employed before the first car. Lada for masses and Volga you could not even buy?! Not quite accurate... reality is that you could not just buy either, but the wait for Lada would need to wait to be allocated one (5-10 years!) and for Volga it was more about connections and standing. Volgas would have been more like company car for director of that company, not personally owned. It was not impossible, but say unusual for person to own Volga - required having friend in the party and paying bribes, the concepts not quite understood in western world. As well, you would be at risk of scrutinised by KGB (as to why you even owe such car), so better make sure your friend in party is really high ranking one. There was as well mistake in terms of Volgas age - GAZ 24 was designed in ~1966, similar year as Lada and that your second generation was from 1983, it makes no difference - you need to understand that soviet cars hardly changed at all since 60s. Then it comes to Volga taxis - yes there were Volga taxis, but again you need to understand that it was only hard to get Volga as private individual - as a company car it was rather normal and taxi was a comparable luxury at the time. Again not all taxis were Volgas - perhaps in key cities like Moscow, Kiev they used Volgas, but in smaller cities there were cheaper cars to use - same Ladas and Moskvich, both as well available in estate versions an popular taxi cars. This is as well where you contradicted yourself with MB 190E - Volga was not at all equivalent to it. Closer to Maybach in terms of affordability and perhaps to E-Class in terms of (soviet) Luxury, in other hand Lada would have been soviet equivalent of 190E or BMW 3-Series for that matter. And probably final point - yes you could sell millions of bad things if that is the only thing one could buy!
considering the trolling in the past videos of carfection i can only assume that any inaccuracies in this video were deliberate trolling as well - they also may be targeting the fat rich demographic of soviet emigrants that assimilated with the west so much and forgot about the real hardships of ussr and current post soviet fake capitalism
@Antler Wales Not as nauseating as the pickled fish we ate.
Have yet to see any evidence of this waiting time bullshit that people claim, you have to wait for new cars today as well, in Soviet Union there were public transport everywhere most of it cheap so car manufacturing was a low priority, fact is this GAZ in the video is a 60s car and by the 80s there were quite a lot of interesting cars to get, specially Moskvitch ones.
By the way in the 60s Fiat 124 was the best D segment car. So at least at that time the lada was not outdated at all
@@SMGJohn You did have to wait about 5-10 years for a Jiguli (lada)(5-7000 roubles) or a Moscvich(4,500-6,000 roubles) up to the 80's. On the other hand Zaparozhets(made modifications for invalids)(3500- 4500 roubles) had a 1 - 3 year waiting list and as correctly said you could not/almost impossible to get a Volga (??20,000?? roubles) privately. If you worked in a star city ( secure cities from 50,000 to 500,000 inhabitants, not on maps) your waiting times were about 3 weeks. Then you could drive it out and go to the second hand market and ask for a 20% premium.
Delightful, tongue-in cheek and such an amazingly simple and totally brilliant idea for a show.
Thanks. More like this in our magazine - www.performancepublishing.co.uk/mp.html
Back in those days in Sovjet.
- I will order a new Lada
- It's OK, you will get it in four years
- Will it be in the morning or the evening?
- It will be delivered in the morning
- Sorry, I can't then
- Why not?
- The plumber is coming then
the plumber will install the sewage pipe after four years of pooping into a bucket
@@Арс-т8м Теперь лучше?
good propagandic joke. But as i remember it was around 1 years of waiting, and not like we needed cars so much like today, public transport was free, other transport was very cheap, people also worker close to thier living homes, and used cars for holidays mostly. Not to mention those cars lasted 40 + years for many people, so 1 year of waiting wasnt that bad. Cost around 4000-8000 rubles, and it was not that much for working family to save in few years. Today cars cost 30000 + euros/dollars and break in few years
@@NostalgicMem0ries In many europeans countries , it was carbuyer rules in the fifties. In Norway, normal people was not allowed to buy cars before 1960. In UK, you had to wait one year, and wasn't allowed to sell it the first four years. Yeah, there was many rules, and the cars lasted as best in three years in those days.
@@protestagain maybe in your country. From my experience and my family, zhiguli cars lasted for 30+ years. Have 4 5 examples from my family.
When I was a kid, my old neighbour still got his East German Trabant 601. For me it’s quite an alien car since I grew up with VW, BMW, or Mercedes. I remember me and him was driving around the neighbourhood in his Trabant, a car that I would say the worst car I’ve ever ride. So noisy, fragile, and incredibly slow since it’s only powered by a 2-stroke engine. Yet it’s one of the most exciting retro car experiences I’ve ever had!
Unfortunately he passed away about 10 years ago, then his family donated his Trabant to some place that I don’t know. Never saw that old beast again since 🙁
A former acquaintance of mine bought a like new 1990 Trabant in Germany for $50.00 USD right before the DDR wall fell, reglued a 1970 Trabbie P601 VIN to it and transferred the title to the new VIN. That way, he could legally drive it in the US when he brought it over from Deutchland. Simply an amazing car for the $. It demonstrated how good engineering could create an inexpensive and relatively reliable car for the masses. No gas pump, no radiator, no fuel gauge, a polymer rustless body, FWD, a reliable manual all synchro tranny, no power steering, no power brakes, no ECU, no AC, no standard heater and easy repair ergonomics made this a very popular car during its time. Unlike the cars in this video, the Trabant was based on a pre-existing German design and was built in one factory in Saxony, DDR. They have since gained collectible status like the Citroen 2CV and are very popular in Europe-John in Texas
My father had a GAZ-24 back in the day, a white one. It's the car I learned how to drive in. It was a majestic thing back then - you felt invincible, felt like if you hit anything it'd leave a Volga shaped impression in it. The grille made of solid steel, built like the tank it was. Sure, it had a tractor engine, same as the one in UAZ utility vehicles, but its presence meant people just got out of your way. Its size was something to behold back then - a lot of people used booster pillows so they could see above the dash. Unfortunately not built to last, most rotted away, the interior plastics turned to dust and that was it. But when new, a white or a black one, with those steel hub caps, you could get one new (after waiting years and years for it) and you could resell it straight away for a lot of profit. This is how exclusive they were.
same story here, man))) my father's white GAZ24 and me learning how to drive it)))
Very interesting segment, great idea to show case old Soviet cars with loads of interesting facts. Thanks for sharing this with us
Volga 24 was a 70’s car.
1976 Volga and Mercedes w123 were direct competitors.
они имели ввиду что по кострукции волга была аналогична 60м годам
they were referring to the year of manufacture of that specific vehicle, but I agree that they should have mentioned the fact that the project was much earlier and, unless mistaken, was compatible
to what was sold in the west in the same period.
@@fmac6441 That's the case with a lot of Soviet cars--even the Trabant was cutting-edge when it was introduced (FWD was basically unheard of in 1957), and they were absolutely on par with their competitors in the West. Brezhnev's conservatism is the reason they were still selling the same cars fifteen or twenty or twenty-five years later; the Era of Stagnation was the way it was because of the leadership's risk aversion and unwillingness to change.
The first Volga's 24 were made in the end of 60s. It would be correct to compare this model with Mercedes w115. In 80s GAZ already had a new generation of Volga 3102 which might be compared with w123. Of course Mercedes was more technically perfect but the difference was not so much as they tried to show in the video. Beside that Mercedes was one of the best end expensive car in the world.
"it is a bit of a barge to drive", I found that funny because that's what it's literally been called by soviet people - "баржа" (a barge). 😀
@Lata Lal Rolls-Royce have dope classic cars
Cheers, a Hungarian is here from Canada. These were the wao cars when I grew up. Skoda came second, dacia, moskwich weren't much desired. On the 2 cycle front Wartburg and Trabant were ok, except were not economical nor long lasting. My Trabant's engine asked for a rebuild at 100k km. Other than that, were no maintenance at all. Every gas fill up was an oil change too.
The Lada's manual shifter moves super short distances and very precise nothing today comes even close ( mx 5 maybe ). Needed to use a lot
In my childhood most middle class people had Lada 1200 and whoever got a 1600 was indeed a doctor or a prominent party member. Back then every car had a basic survival toolkit such as, a screwdriver, plier, hammer, some metal wire, metal brush, spark plugs and a can of water. By having those onboard you genuinely believed there was nothing could prevent your machine taking you anywhere. But hey, in those times you had to wait roughly 2 years just to get a phone line assigned, and that was a mere 30 years ago. Now, got smart appliances with AI integration that debates you each morning whether you should have a normal or a decaf coffee based on your assessed mood and energy level. WTF
In '68, people flew to the moon, in' 69, supersonic passenger planes appeared, in 1960, people sank to the bottom of the Mariana trench, there were enough computers with kilobytes of memory for this. now there is nothing but the world of George orvel 1984 and the brave new world of Huxley, so you have a lot of unnecessary gadgets
@@spacegangster2588 we just went from marxist communism to capitalist communism.
@@guguigugu Words have meanings, even if you don't understand them...
I've had a blast as well Guys, thank you very much and keep travelling around the planet comparing for us!
Thanks!
Ah, the sounds of my childhood. Thank you for making this, I enjoyed it a lot. I have to add that these were pretty much the only options for a car people had in the 70s and 80s. Any car was a luxury and you'd make the neighbors jealous anyway. They weren't reliable at all but they could be fixed in the field which was what most of the owners had to do. The repair manuals were very popular and the black market for the parts was huge because getting them legally was next to impossible. And then the 90s came and Russia discovered imported vehicles.
Thanks! Glad you liked it, we had a great time. More in our magazine like this - www.performancepublishing.co.uk/mp.html
Thank you for the pride you've shown while reviewing these cars! It's a real history of the large era here in Russia.
And the Ladas that you've reviewed are still used here in Russia, including as a base for "Winter drift" discipline - which is kind of an affordable entry ticket into amateur car sports.
"Pride" is not the word you'd use here. The correct word is "respect." But yes, it's refreshing to see British people review Soviet stuff like this.
@@ursa_margo Very well is "Pride" the correct word for describing the era of the Soviet Union, its culture, its political strenght, its people and of course for all of its rear wheel driven cars.
Under the flag of Soviet Union Russia was the strongest - this is real pride!
"Respect" is obviously.
Thanks for coming to Riga and doing the video. Hope you enjoyed your stay!
I learned to drive in a Lada 1500 estate and I can confirm they go sideways in the rain and are an absolute hoot in the snow and ice.
Sounds like my grandpa's Datsun
The info in the video is incorrect (3:46). The first model (started at 1970) in Tolyatti plant was VAZ 2101, it was slightly updated fiat 124 but mostly identical.
VAZ 2106 was introduced much later in 1976 with many styling updates and bigger engine. It was successor of VAZ 2103. I remember when I was a child in USSR it was considered as luxury version of VAZ 2101.
Get the facts right please! Tolyatti factory was not build specifically to make 2106, it was build to make 2101 which was Fiat 124, then it was update to 2103 and only after it became 2106. And its not called "Zhiguli 1600" in Russia its called Shesterka.
Roman Alekseev Not to mention that 2106 has updated 1.6l engine as oppose to 1.1L in 2101/Fiat 124
don't get mad this video wasn't shot in russia and latvian tales are bound to be inaccurate
@@saucybackport but it's just common knowledge and easy to look up. Their reviews on these cars are pretty good, but c'mon. You can't mess up these facts (and mentioning the car of the year award for the 124 before it even came out on the market is pretty bad too). Another one is telling that everyone was driving a Lada while even with the slightest knowledge people know at least to mention Moskvitch as a quite common car in the East/USSR among a few other brands so saying that 1/56 families owned a Volga and the rest Lada is a bit weird.
those cards were built like tanks, lasted for more than 40 years for many people. My grandfather had 2 zhiguli cars in his life times, one sold after 10 years to make some money, other lasted from 70s to 00s almost 40 years and almost no rust, changed stuff himself, drove all around ussr, it was beast of a car, not like today plastic crap and breaks from minor crash and breaks with electonics. yes it wasnt perfection and comfortability masterpiece, but it was a CAR.
Volga GAZ-24: 1966
Mercedes-Benz 190: 1982, E30: 1982
Gaz 24 (24-10 modification) production to 92 and 31-10 version (new design bat the same platform) to 2009. So in 80-early 90s you can buy new 190 in europe or 24 in ussr-russia )
@@Or1s you could've bought Mercedes in 80-early 90's in Russia as well, just the price wasn't comparable to Volga.
@@GetToHellOut Yes, i suppose volga was way more expensive for the russian people to buy than mercedes for german, lol.
@@Or1s there is a 24 model not a 2410
@@arkadieee2407 Its just slight restaling in a modern term. Only differences is a radiator grill (black plastic on 2410), door handles and some interior panel. Its the same car )
Volgas seem to have a strong following these days; especially the 5.5L V8 'KGB' police package models.
The Volga M24 was actually accessable to your average Soviet citizen if you really wanted it. My Grandfather, a shipyard worker (I think he was doing advanced repairs - non routune work, skilled work but nothing special), and in 1978 he started to think and talk about getting a car, in 1979 he bought a 1979 volga m24 Diesel. Now the diesel was super rare in the USSR and was almost only for export, but he just went there and asked "Do you have a 24 diesel?"
-Diesel?
"Yes Diesel"
-Well yes.
Then when he had his diesel, he often was allowed to refuel at gas stations for free as the gas station workers almost never saw a non-truck/military vehicle fuel up with diesel and it was like the coolest thing for them. He let them drive around and all.
Now it is fun because the Volga diesel REALLY sounds like a tractor, and has LESS horsepower than the gasoline version.
Car still runs though, no rust, they live by the Sea in Sevastopol.
i learnt to drive in a lada riva, and drove many of them for the first 6 years of my driving life (when you could pick up one with a years mot for scrap value). there was nothing fundamentally bad with them, they were just 70s tech being sold in the 90s... if you thought of them as such and knew how to check the points gap and can wield a spanner they were fine as an every day car. the later models were less reliable as they fitted more emissions controlling stuff, but the pre cat ones were really not that bad.
when i moved to london, id get constant thumbs up from all the eastern europeans in town, it was quite a rare car to see even back in the mid 2000s. i bought a mk1 escort which although older drove far better, but part of me would not be un happy selling the mk1 and getting another lada.
The base of the car is actually really good, Double wishbone front suspension, 5 link rear axel, the engines even respond well to uprated carbs and cams. you could swap out the rear diff for ford escort one with a 3mm spacer and even drop in the halfshafts so the back end could handle more power... when they homologated them for rally the the meat of the suspension is left as is, just uprated springs and dampers, its built to take hits and keep on going... the steering box was utter garbage though and you couldn't really make it better without switching to a rack and pinion.
I have owned 3 Ladas and loved every one. The best was a 1979 1600 in white, which was the best motorway car I've owned, solid powerful and reliable, let down only by eventual serious chassis rust, Every one I bought felt like returning to an old friend.
My first car was VAZ 2107, a very nicely modernized version of the 2106, and I honestly loved it. This car had only one part fautly by design: mechanical ignition. If replaced by electronic ignition, it becomes amazing. It was bare-bones, but not to the point where it was ugly. It was tough and allowed me to take her everywhere: in thousands of kilometers long travels, or into water, mud and woods. It was pretty cheap to repair and it didn't consume much fuel (about 7L per 100 km). The suspension was too soft to my liking, but the vast market for tuned spare parts made it a non-issue. Later, I added a limited-slip differential from a Niva, and it became ridiculously off-road-capable. Sadly, it ended its days being picked apart, part by part, by some kleptomaniac, who left only a desecrated body in, like one month of my neglect. It was like seeing a member of your family die.
There were even cheaper and more obtainable vehicles in the USSR. Lada and Volga were the high end cars. Also, many people opted for a motorcycle.
Philip Cooper i like old škodas
Oh, those old 2 stroke atrocities they supplied for amputees.
Lovely video. I'm watching this from Ukraine, as a Western-European. These Volgas and Ladas (the 1500 especially) are still in use as everyday drivers, mostly owned by people who live in villages. They are being kept operable and look nowhere near as nice as the ones in your video. Honestly, the general public could care less about these. No nostalgia about them. I've only ever once seen a cosmetically restored Volga. It smoked and rattled like the end of days.
I learned to drive manual on a lada. In my home country these were used and abused as taxis. Durable, cheap parts and easy to work on.
Hi from Greece! My Lada Samara from 1992 works perfectly!
Thank you for keeping it in good shape.
3:47 - you actually can make millions of bad things if the competition is banned - as it was in the Soviet Union, so nobody had a choice :D the monument to soviet misery is what these cars are.
it is kinda stupid to spew pro churchil capitalism propaganda and assume that one paper pushing party leader had enough engineering knowledge to oppress any free discourse inside the communal factories comprised of hundreds of thousands of workers around the whole union who also had the party memberships - any misery was imposed on the people by themselves
These cars were not rubbish at all! To be honest, anyone who says otherwise is just biased against the Soviet Union. Even if one was correct in the assessment that Soviet cars were somehow inferior, it would be a moot point because the Soviet Union had much more pressing priorities to deal with such as rebuilding a completely destroyed infrastructure with a large portion of the young population dead from WWII.
You do realise there were more car manufacturers in USSR than AutoVAZ and GAZ? Probably not, you are an idiot after all, too busy believing in nonsense rather than getting acquainted with reality.
There ton of competition in Socialism but rather than compete for pathetic monitarian value, they compete for all the better reasons, that is why the Lada was not the only budget car in USSR, but it was the better one and you be hard pressed to find anything better for the same price of a Lada anywhere else in the world, there were as many car manufacturers in USSR as there were in USA and Soviets had luxury cars that were comparable to Mercedes, Moskvitch for example produced really amazing luxury cars with all the shit you want in one such as electric windows, driving computers, assisted steering, disc brakes, electric seat adjusters even and all the other fluff.
The fact is your point even makes no sense practically, if there were no competition in Soviet Union then why did they make so damn good planes?
Why did Soviet Union have so many companies within same categories if there no competition it makes no sense to have 9 different car companies or 12 different electronics companies, use your tiny head kid, I like to remind you how the T-34 came about, it was just not Stalin saying _I want tank now, bring to me_
It was a result of the tractor factories competing against each other for best tank design, each factory in USSR at the time had their own design teams which would compete all the time, the T-34 was born out of this competition, remind yourself they built this fucking thing in less then a day, the engine and gearbox were put together so hastily that gear teeth were not always aligned, yet the T-34 was so reliable, so easy to fix you be hard pressed to find anything similar at the opposite end, America used twice the factories Soviet did to manufacture their Shermans and yet they still could not get close in numbers.
It is by Socialist thought that, only when all needs are met, can luxury be made, and the Soviets followed this line of thinking till their very end.
Engineering competition was always encouraged in the union but civilian production was on the backburner because it was ordered by the politicians rather than driven by demand. Ladas were sold by tens of thousands in UK. Niva was a groundbreaking car, the first SUV, that had no counterpart until Suzuki Vitara came out a full decade later and is still rolling across many rural areas outside of ex-USSR.
Two very beautiful examples of GAZ and VAZ. The 2106 has a classy interieur.
The Lada was there to impress tour neighbours as you had to be ALLOWED to buy one. For steppes they had GAZ 469 and trucks. And the Niva
The GAZ 24 V8 is called "Interceptor". They used to be about 15k€ a pop, but values are rocketing.
I love this new type of content, extremely interesting. And in 4K, baby!
Thanks!
5:43 get people to university..
just shows how far the westerners stand from the people behind the curtain
we know damn well, those soviets students, who rarely had enough money for food were not driving anything at all
There were also some more classics like GAZ 21 and also my favorite (which I own myself) the off road SUV GAZ 69.
Ex Soviet citizen here, I find very hard to believe that it was a real vodka they were drinking. No way!
it was!
The Vaz 2106 was based on the Fiat 125 not the 124, the 124-based car was the Vaz 2101, sold in the UK as the Lada 1200
Of course 2106 is based on 124 as it is face-lifted and better equipped, incl. stronger engine, 2101.
125 was built on licence in Yugoslavia and Poland.
@@michalgorny4742125 was so much nicer than the horrible plain 124!
The ECOTY in 1964 was the Rover P6.. 1964 was the first year for ECOTY... The 124 won the ECOTY for 1967
You have to have owned a Lada to know how good they really were, so good in fact that the russians wanted them all back ,
In good hands, they were. And, with mechanical ignition distributor replaced with an electornic one.
There’s a reason why there’s a lot of nostalgia of the USSR since Russians got the taste of capitalism and the hardships which come from it.
Back in the mid-80s I owned a Lada for a short while before selling it to a buddy and "upgrading" to a Morris Minor 1000 van that looked like a shrunken American woody. Definitely an "interesting" automobile to own and drive. Come MOT time you'd best know someone with a welder.
An upgrade!?😁 I would take the Lada any day of the week
Great video, entertaining and funny. I have a fascination with Russia and Russian stuff, but on top of that, I actually used to have a Lada the same as the one used here!. Mine was red and had alloy wheels, but otherwise the same. In the handbook it said what the maximum 'cruising speed' was, and while I don't remember what it was (it was given in km/h), it did say that this could be done on paved or unpaved roads!!. It was a tough car, that is for sure!. Still find myself now and again looking on websites featuring cars for sale Europe or world wide to check prices and ponder what it would be like to have one now. Very rarely ever see them on UK websites. One thing I would have liked mentioned in the video was opening 'quarter lights' (the small triangular shaped windows in front of the main door window). Not sure exactly why, but I would so much love a car with opening quarter lights now!.
this was lovely content :)
Both of these cars are very common in Cuba, my dad owned a 1971 Fiat 125 which is basically a rebadged Lada with a way more luxurious interior and sunroof which was rare.
It is not. Lada is licensed Fiat 124 and Fiat 125 is another car, although very similar.
Don’t forget that the Soviet Union had a great public transport system which meant that they didn’t need cars as much as we in the west.
VAZ 2106 was something like Soviet BMW. Quite expensive actually.
I'm a bit late to the party, having only just found this brill vid. I knew a couple in the early 90's who befriended a Bulgarian family when they visited the country. The husband came over to Nottingham, staying with my friends, whilst working in our local pub for 8-9 months. He earned what he considered to be a small fortune. He paid his brother to fly over here, buying himself and his brother a Lada Riva each, they then drove them both home, saying they'd never have been able to afford a car back home. They also filled the boots up with a shed load of spare parts, including a gearbox ( or possibly two? ). Some of which they intended to flog back home. How times have changed.
The VAZ-2106 Zhiguli (alternatively Zhiguli 2106) was a sedan produced by the Soviet (later Russian) automaker VAZ, and later, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, also by Russian Izhevsk Avto and Ukrainian Anto-Rus. In export markets, it was known simply as Lada 1600 or alternatively as Lada 2106, by its famous commercial name and was also popularly nicknamed Шестёрка (Šestyorka, in English; The sixth one) in domestic market. A hugely popular car and one of most successful Lada models.
VAZ-2103 Zhiguli. Better known by its famous export name Lada 1500 outside of its native Soviet union and popularly nicknamed Тройка (Troika, 'three') in domestic market.
VAZ-2101 "Zhiguli" , commonly nicknamed "Kopeyka" (for the smallest coin, 1/100 of the Ruble),
I was born late 60s ! Grew up in communist Hungary! I was only a child in the 70s and early 80s, but a clearly remember these cars ! The Lada 1600 hundred was the absolute pinnacle of car design in those days ! Especially the 1600 ! It was unobtainable for most ppl ! Only the top 1percent could afford it . The lower models were more common (1200 -1300) but even those were a dream come true for most who managed to get one ! The other one the Volga was for the one percent of the one percent ! Party secretary, factory manager , police chief! Only those ppl would have it mostly in black color ! When I say Factory manager I mean like the huge Iron smelter and Machine builder factory we had in our city that employed 30000 thousand ppl in three shifts ! The boss of that factory had a black Volga with his personal driver ! For regular Joes a Volga like that was same as a Rolls-Royce for an average westerner pretty much out of reach . Most ppl didn't drive anyways, and the few percent that did, were driving Trabants or Polski Fiat 126, which was the size of a go-cart ! There were also Skodas and Dachias all communist products and they were all stinkers every one of them ! Cars at the time were huge status symbols in the Eastern block !
If one owned a new Lada 1500 , it meant that that person's ship came in......
Really cool cars! People say these are unreliable but the reality is that they not, if they are taken good care, they can be more reliable than a W123 Merc
This was up for a year, it's exactly that kind of thing I love to watch, I'm subscribed and somehow it took this long to show up as a suggestion 🤔
My (Finnish) colleague had history teacher for whom Lada was still too capitalist. So he had Moskvich.
I remember that black Lada William Hurt drove in Gorky Park. I found it charming and always wanted one. You should meet up with him and ask how it was to drive.
When he said Dodge Dart I was already getting that feel. Seemed more like the old Plymouth Valiant.
I loved the drinking game but I don't think you were drinking vodka 🤠
The hangover says we were ;)
@@dickvonduisberg2356 how do you get hangover? did you not drink a couple bottels of kvas after returning home
@@dickvonduisberg2356 I second that buddy. The bottle you used is a museum relic from the 70ies. :)
That was a really fun video. Thanks.
can confirm, have seen Volga Amblyulance more than once in my life.
Great stuff!! Thanks guys!!
As a Lithuanian im offended you didin't even mention Latvija Van car. The car has more history than these shit boxes combined together. :D Cheers lads.
I thought I'd never see these two again talking about history. This is sound so much like the XCAR days. The story of an actual Spy by night and driving an Aston Martin by day is one off my favourite video in this channel
#bringbackxcar
Thanks! We spend more time working on our magazine now - www.performancepublishing.co.uk/mp.html
We Russians like putting the engine from a GAZ 53 truck in the Volga. A Toyota 2uzfe engine is also a popular option. I'd have one, as a muscle family car.
The шестёрка (shestYOrka) is a classic Russian classic, the 1,6 litre engine is the best engine out of the classic blocks (I have that engine in my 2104). There are plenty of 2106 Ladas still bouncing from one pothole to the next in the regions.
Russian cars are the best!
I grew up around these cars, why am I watching this? lol
Great video anyway 😀
Mr. Palmiro Togliatti had nothing to do with the automotive industry, he was a prominent figure in Italian Communist party therefor city was named after him considering factory and technologies bought from Fiat.
Thanks - we are learning!
They were really good at their purpose: dignified transportation in very rough conditions in poor economies and non existing servicing network
The Gorky town (Nizhni Nogorod) isn't 200km north of Moscow. It's 400km East. The first gaz 24 was issued in 1969 so that's why it's a 60s' car. Tolgiatti didn't build a factory. The 2106 wasn't the first model of the VAZ.
Fact checking? No, never heard of.
"now, you don't make millions of cars if they're bad, you know? they've gotta be pretty successful in that market..."
this man does not grok the Soviet Union.
I mean at least its not a zap
well it was made to be cheap as posseble and that it can go on -50 in siberia so all things coniderd it mediocre car
1:08 good to see some latvian recognition
We love Latvia!
I had a 71 Fiat 124 sport coupe. It was an easy car to like, but was the worst car I've ever owned, including a 74 Monte Carlo and a 93 Jeep Cherokee. After only 5 years of ownership the front passenger floor board and seat mount were completely rusted through because Fiat (in all of its wisdom) sealed the metal wheel wells with a tar-impregnated foam material, which of course suffered shrinkage over time, following which rain water would run right into the interior of the car, under the carpeting, and voila! Rusted out floor boards. Genius. Curiously, I saw a Ferrari Boxer at an auto show not long after, and Ferrari used exactly the same system to seal the wheel wells in that model as well, which made me laugh out loud when I noticed it. From that car on, I vowed I'd never own another Fiat again - and haven't.
It seem like Vodka roulette stings as much as the Russian roulette.
The Lada is a very familiar car I grew up seeing so many Ladas on the road,kind of rare to spot one now,they were as tough as some of those old tough Fiat trucks that just won't die.
What a fabulously entertaining piece.
Thanks! We had great fun. We also have a magazine out with similar features - www.performancepublishing.co.uk/mp.html
the old ladas are pretty nice startting in cold weather :DD
10:00 gaz 24 has sustitute in 1980: gaz 3102
Next time if you drink vodka, try it with some leavened cucumbers. I know it might sound strange at first, but they just harmonize perfectly together. So well actually, that you can drink a whole bottle without noticing - at least that's what happened to me.
0:14
+1 ..to the one on the right: pretty much Perfect "little Water" walk! ..just drunk or tight pants?
Lada Нива when?
From most angles, the style of that Gaz 24 is very similar to a 1967 Australian General Motors HR Holden.
Next: VAZ 2101 vs GAZ 21
Volga Siber based on Chrysler Sebring
@@saucybackport and how is it related to this comment?
Hell yeah, my grandpa had the exact same white Lada, my dad had the GAZ. I grew up watching the A-team, Dukes of Hazzard & Knight Rider in the 90's. After that I went out to play sat in the GAZ & imagined it's a cadillac or a chevy from the series lol. Ah the memories.
At around the 11:20 mark, I wouldn't say the other 56 would buy the Lada. The Lada was considered to be a luxury car by the Soviets, and was very hard to acquire due to its high price - like the Niva (although that was even harder to get). In order to buy the Lada, people had to save money by eating the cheapest food, and not a lot of it. A far far more attainable car at the time was a Moskvich, which was far cheaper, and is usually what normal people bought. My dad had experience driving both the Moskvich and the Lada back in the USSR, and he said that although the Moskvich had less space, and was less 'luxurious', it felt far more stable on the road compared to the Lada, especially in winter weather. He said that in the winter, the Lada had a tendency on drifting on the road, and you had to be very precise with the steering and throttle to keep it on the road. According to him as well, the Lada that came after the one in the video (pardon my lack of knowledge of the model numbers), was far worse than its predecessor.
This is a no-brainer! I see british lads visiting Latvia and reviewing soviet cars, I PRESS LIKE!
Am latvian.
1. Really sad that you didn't talk about the RAF van. Lots of latvian history there.
2. Went to St. Petersburg in November. 2/3 of the cars there were new Lada SUVs. Saw maybe 10 žiguļi (still driving), but all of them were so beat up I couldn't refrain from laughing. (think duct tape, fasteners and veeery bent bumpers) And Cayennes.
They are both very cool!!
My first car was VAZ 2106 from 1985. Truly an atrocious thing. We used to say "once you learn how to drive a VAZ - you can drive any car"
And for ironic; my 2WD Nissan D21 pickup strongly reminds me of a Volga; 4 banger, 5spd, (dead) power steering, etc. Truck is crude but easy to maintain.
The last scene is priceless
Still got the hangover
Yeah, my favourite automotive duo's back! Yihaaa! 😂
Hello, thanks.
The ZAZ-968M is a brilliant vehicle.
what gear was that?
3 and a half