The worst car ever? How bad is a Lada?

49 thoughts on “The worst car ever? How bad is a Lada?”

1. I miss my fathers lada niva. We had them in Canada

2. I am sorry who is being a very bad boy ? It’s certainly not Russia it’s you hillbillies who started this whole mess.

3. Good old Lada Signet

4. Hi Robert, greetings from Romania! If you like eastern bloc cars you might be interested in the ARO 4×4 brand. It is defunct but if you get a Aro 244 or 243 you can easily swap the power train. It looks like a romanian G Wagen (and the first 24x series appeared before 1979 so it was made before the Geländewagen). And it had independent front suspension from the get go. Awful cars to maintain, parts are basically non existent, the build quality was crap but the cars were decent off roaders – like some sort of a Lada Niva.

5. Worse engine compared to the Fiat 124? I don’t know, can’t consider an OHV engine better than an OHC🤷‍♂️

6. Wow-wow. Actually Lada 2101 had better engine then Fiat 124. Ussr had bought one if most advanced engines Fiat had with ohv instead of pushrods like engine in Fiat 124.

7. I hate those cars

8. One of the worst cars in history.

9. The price of a Lada in way worst condition than that one goes for about 30k in cuba…it still the most common car in the country.

10. I had two VAZ 2107s (1991 & 2001). I was the only one in my Russian family who bought these – they chose to buy innomarki (foreign cars) as soon as it was possible. Parts were so cheap back then – $15 per Bulgarian tire (tubed), $25 for a carburetor, $25 for a front bumper, etc. I carried an extra transmission in the the trunk just in case – once, we had to change it out so we rolled the car over on the side. I always carried two tires in the trunk – once a week I would get a flat so you needed a spare spare to make it to the tire "remont" stand. Neither the 1991 nor 2001 came with a radio. I did a lot of singing. Neither came with an automatic choke – you had to reach on the left under the steering wheel to pull the manual choke. Fixing the car involved, generally, a sledge hammer. And curse words. By the way, the 2107 designation referred to the fact that it made 75 horsepower out of a 1.7 liter engine – hence the "7". In the winter when it was -20, you would just stop any car on the street and ask him (always a him back then) to let you jump the battery. Even then, you either waited 25 minutes for the transmission to warm up or you put newspapers under the engine block and set them on fire. My brother-in-law had a kopeeka (2101), which had been built in 1978. Nearly all of the parts from his car fit both of my cars.

11. LADA is one best communist era cars..

12. Americans before 2022: Cool Russia vehicle
    Americans in 2022: Worst communist car

    How about you stop your degeneracy right there

13. My Dad Had Two Ladas and they're one tough cars Those Russian knows how to build a good solid car

14. Funny thing with the 5 speed gearbox is that a box from polish FSO Polonez (which was based on kind of a hybrid between fiat 125 looking chassis and underpinnings of 1300/1500, called Polski Fiat 125p) is actually plug and play compatible with Lada engines (either 1.3 'belt' engine and 1.6 'chain' engine) and it is (or was) common conversion in Ukraine, also highly regarded for alleged reliability (I had many of those cars, and haven't seen a gearbox of either make that would not have a whining gear or two, or three, or five). In my personal experience there is nothing wrong with a Lada 5 speed, apart from the obvious fact of shit quality and antiquated design, so I do not really understand the appeal of an FSO box in a Lada. Oh, I probably know what I am talking about because I drove a 120USD lada in 2009 from Poland to Kyrgyzstan. That was the gateway drug to driving Trabants, and Fiat 126p literally around the world. Ask me anything.

15. Ladas are great cars. Robust, will take any load you can throw into them, can be repaired by anyone and for cheap.

16. One and only good thing about soviet cars is – they get you home, whatever happens. Main reason being, of course, that you embark on every short trip like its Paris – Peking rally, trunk full of tools, wires, spare parts and things you can make a spare part of. In late teens early twenties I had Moskvich 412 and it caught fire, alternator fell off, fuel pump disassembled itself, starter broke, sparkplug snapped, (not on the same day though 🙂 ) but I still got home! Eventually rust ate it.

17. Like most things from USSR, the idea of everyone driving the same car actually comes from Nazi Germany. It was Hitler's project to provide everyone with a VW Beetle and an autobahn where to drive those cars. They even had some elaborate saving scheme for families with buying postmarks etc. Watch James May's video Cars of the People

18. Test drove one in the 80s (Fiat 124 based predecessor model to the Riva). The steering was vague (worm and screw I believe rather than rack and pinion) the acceleration and power were OK (though not great). It didn't handle that well and was very basic inside. By the standards of their era they were OK. People bought them because they could be had new for the same price as their 3or 4 year old western equivalent. I think secondhand was probably the better option but context is everything. If you compare them with a modern VW Golf they are of course terrible. However, in the UK the cars they were up against were the Morris Marina and the Ford Cortina etc. Those cars were somewhat better but not like the massive gulf that exists if you compare a Riva to a modern saloon.

19. I agree with the one government issued car to every person. Nice and simple, cost effective as heck.

20. I also find (most of) the eastern block cars to be very interesting and honestly quite charmy even though they are simple and bears a reputation of being bad. The GAZ, UAZ, VAZ, Tatra, Moskvitsh and so on are pretty cool cars, and they are also a extremely rare sight here in Sweden as well. I have only encountered 4 different Lada Nivas, and they were all identical, dark blue. They could all have been made anywhere in between 40 to 10 years ago lol. I have also spotted an old light gray Moskvitsh 412 once, and it even head 2 extra headlights, which I guess Isn't very usual. In Norway I saw 3 PRISTINE condition Lada 2103's on a car meet, they were limegreen, darkblue (this one with red interior) and a babyblue one. There was also this monstrous Tatra 8×8 that was stripped down, and the sound of it running was unlike anything I've ever heard in my entire life, it was a genuine monster. I spotted a military green UAZ as late as last week even, pretty cool. Eastern block cars are so different from all other cars, and is why I find 'em interesting.

21. Great 👍 review ! Here in Canada they were known as Lada 1500 or Signet back in the 80s and 90s . They were pretty roomy and seemed fairly reliable and very basic transportation .

22. Niva 4×4 is the best Lada

23. no absolutely not

24. Man, you need to get around those cars more to get to know what the deal is – "slightly" different is completely wrong 🙂 The 70s were the best years for those cars, 2101 and 2103…early 2106 and niva 2121. 80s and the 2105/2107 was the "perestroyka" times – basically plastic crap on rusty box with 4 wheel carts, hopeless cr*p. Ive personally had 6 of those (2101, 21011, 2103×2, 2106, 2121) and been around countless more from a wide range of production years, trust me when I say this and go dive the rabbit hole 😉

25. Lada actually made some ok cars but this model was definitely not one of them.

26. Not bad at all, LADAS are simple and robust. Like driving an american big caddilac, and comes with a toolbox that
    could serve an entire car repair shop. Leave them in the snow in -40C for a few weeks, turn the key and there you go.
    They have a long life, according to videos from Russia.. Saw one crash into a container, and it was still square as a brick,
    the container had a problem.
    Saddest is I tried to buy one from a dealer in Norway, Ferrari Red, black fake leather interior, radio, five years old and
    cheap, but my girlfriend at the time refused to show her face putting around in a LADA, so.. Maybe another time 😉

27. Yet it was widely exported to other countries

28. Search here on YouTube for Trabant USA or VAZ USA

29. No thanks.
    No pinko commie bs for me.

30. I have a Moskvich 2137 kombi (station wagon), personally I like it more then the Lada 2107. I think it looks better, more comfortable – even with my 195cm. Although all Moskvich cars have 4 speed transmissions. Well, if I want I can swap the original to a 5 speed Lada transmission…
    Also, Moskvich still has a starting handle in case your battery goes flat. (Mine is 1988, still has it)
    Does a Lada have a starting handle? NO!
    To be honest the Lada has more power, quicker, better acceleration. Moskvich has more torque. In Kyrgyzstan you can see people hauling multiple tons of metal and other heavy stuff with them.
    Lada is cool, but for me the Moskvich is better.

31. Lada was an OK car until 1980. After that was just plain obsolete. now it could be cool again because there are tons of tuning and restomod parts for it, the fist two generations 2101 and 2103 look good and is a cheap classical rwd car. I don't really like the look of the 2105 or 2107, unless they have the VFTS body kit.

32. I'm surprised that he didn't find one that started its life in Canada.

33. I wouldn't let you park it in my driveway!

34. I have a new niva ( bought brand new in 2019) it's a really good car. In general ladas are good but not fancy.

35. lada is ok car for could parts off earth.

36. Well? How bad is the Lada?

37. As a native russian I drove a lot on a similar car, 2104 exactly, basically rhe same model with a large "universal" body. It was the worst driving experience in my whole life (except maybe Lada 4×4). There are 2 big problems with these cars: their quality was dropping continuously during all production period and bad quality noname parts (even official factory produced new cars with such parts). Even awfully rusty 20-years-old Mazda 323 gave me much more pleasant experience.

38. I have been living in Russia for over a year. I see a lot of these old Ladas especially in the South. The fact that there are so many survivors driving around tells me they probably aren't such bad cars.

39. When I was a child, we had a 2 stroke Trabant 601 Kombi. My parents wanted a Lada 1500 or Skoda Favorit like everybody else, but they had to compromise because of the years long waitlist for new cars. Later we had a Wartburg 4stroke. One of my friends drove a Skoda 120 to college. These cars were everywhere in the '90s and early 2000s, but most of them rusted into the ground by 2022.

40. Well thats one to be spoiled for a car i was really hoping Robert would get

41. They were available with TBI in Germany since 1992 and went to SPI in the 2000s. You could get a 2107 with EURO4 emissions standard in the 2000s, and you can still buy brand new Nivas with EURO6 nowadays.

    I've had a 1998 2104 with the 1700 "BigBlock" and TBI. It made 84 HP, and it really was a useful and reliable car.

42. Sorry mate, but no! I started my motoring life exclusively with Ladas, because those were the only vehicles available at the time. I know them very well. SHOCKINGLY HORRIBLE… is what they are. There is not one upside to owning or driving a Lada. But enjoy yours. What else can I say

43. Lada is license built Fiat 126, this is only reason why it can be considered usable.
    Genuine russian machinery is.horrible.shit

44. #VINwiki How does the Lada compare to the Yugo ?

45. I had a lada when I worked in Russia, it’s was bril, very basic and worked started every morning even at minus 20 C !

46. I would recomand to you to have a ride with a V8 Volga. My father had one in the early 90's, I was a kid and enjoyed very much that car. It's like a Russian Cadillac.

47. “Drove it around the bloc” oh yes it did

48. despite their bad reputation I want one just for fun!
    in canada good luck to find one!
    1- they are in terrible shape (they aged very badly)
    2- too expensive for what they are if you find one 5k and up

49. You can see, at the grill, that your car had or was prepared for headlight washer . In 1985 , I worked at the importer of Lada in Denmark . Most 2105 were 1300 4 speed . I still remember the directors Lada 2106 1600 , with vinyl roof …..nice car then .

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