Video version of this article
0:12:23
Finally, the much anticipated video about my Lada Niva (AutoVAZ 2121). This is like a freakin' car review... or is it? Let's find out...
Link to the video where I talk whilst fixing the cooling system of the Niva: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG8sS0U...
About my VAZ (Lada Niva)
Well, I can forget about this thing until spring I guess. This is not starting when it's cold, not at all.[1]Thankfully I have another vehicle available. Which one? Let's find out.
The good thing though is that we can use the Volkswagen as a freezer for the dog meat.[2]The Niva, will it start? This car comes with the interior that you would expect from a car from the 1970s.[3]Cheap plastic interior, but it works. It's very simple and easily used. Here again, reduction gear to engage the central diff lock. This is a permanent 4x4, so unless you want to have a one-wheel drive, you engage the diff lock. And of course, this car has five gears. This is not the oldest model, so it has an onboard computer made in Hungary.
I have put some proper Italian tires on this one. It's of course a four-seater, you can barely see here because I have so much children, not included when you buy it. The things that you can expect to break on this one is like door handles. To open the trunk you pull a lever, but it broke two days ago, so I can no longer open the trunk, I have to fix it. And this is the second time this happened in the six years I've had the car, so I'm not too happy about that. I'm driving with a trailer right now.
Engine compartment. I've not been forced to do a lot of repairs on this one, but I have been forced to add some anti-rust, anti-corrosion paints, in order to treat rust, "Car cancer". A few small spots. Like here. I had to change the battery, and I also had to change a tube for the cooling system. And also I'll fix the liquid for the window wipers. Windscreen wipers.
The paint job is like with the UAZ done by me, in the same manner. And this time it's more similar actually to the original P-Dot camo. It's very good for autumn and winter. I've had a few tiny accidents, an Englishman backed off into my fender here, and I also ran over a ditch(?). That's the thermostat turning on, because the engine is hot. I've got some paper stuffed in between there, because of squeaking noises that my wife wanted to eliminate. And on the other side, oh you can't see. On the other side here, it's the same, only the handle is broken. So again, not very high quality.
This car has only one fuel tank, it's a civilian car. And it's a 40 litre tank, so the range of this car is about 400 kilometres, a bit more if you go on highways. It's a pretty cool, neat little car, but it only has 4 seats, which is not enough for my family, so we had to buy another car. I do like those Italian road tyres. And these are pretty much the largest tyres we can put on a stock Niva. Oh, I have a... what's it called, sunroof? And this, I didn't really want it to begin with, but it came with a car, and it cost 1 euro extra. But, I have grown to like it a lot, and it's very, very useful. In Ukraine, they used to stand there in the beginning of the war with RPGs,[4]and they would go tank hunting with an RPG, a guy standing there with an RPG in the Nivas. I'm pretty sure they did not survive for a very long time.
Mechanically, it's a very reliable car. But, just like on the UAZ, you have all these details that are complete crap quality, like the door handles and such. It's a little bit difficult to engage the central differential. Sometimes I may need like 3 minutes, but other times you can do it like that. It does require... it's a high maintenance car, just like the UAZ, and you will need spare parts for it at some point. This is a civilian car, so the metal is not the same quality like on the UAZ. This will rust. What I don't like about it is the anti-theft device. I'm pretty sure it's going to stop working at some point, and when it does, I don't have a car. Also, the little devices you use to turn it off are going to break. I've had the car for 6 years, and one of them has broken already, so I had to buy a new set. And to buy a new set, you have to reprogram the whole anti-theft device. I don't like it.
It's off-road capabilities are amazing, and you will not find any stock car on the market being able to do the same as this car in most situations. It's not the best off-road car as such, because there are some things that other cars will do better, but for most things, this is the best. It has spring suspension. I don't have a diff-locks for any of my off-road cars, because for Nivas and for the UAZ, you really don't need it. The Russians, they don't make good roads. Instead, they make good off-road cars. Like with the UAZ, it's really easy to work on this car. The parts are cheap, and you probably do need to work on it every now and then. France, not the EU.
It weighs about 1450 kg. It has 79 hp. And yes, my Russian car has a dash cam. The heating is good, and it's a warm car. It's much more comfortable than the UAZ, not only in relation to the interior, but also to noise. It's fairly still. You have some noise from gearbox, and that's annoying when you go far, but compared to the UAZ, it's nothing.
Just like the UAZ, this car is made to last, so if it doesn't, it's only because of Soviet incompetence and today Russian incompetence, because it is designed to last, and if you maintain it, it will. I see a lot of Lada Nivas here in France, and many of them are the old models. This was a very popular car all over Western Europe in the 1980s, and those cars are still running and doing fine. Would I recommend you buying it? Well, if you have the need for no more than four seats, definitely. And you probably should have some basic mechanic skills for this car as well, but if you don't, you can use an official Lada workshop garage, and they will fix it, and it's not going to cost you a lot. When I had this on service, because in the beginning when I had it, I didn't do it myself, but when I had this car for service, it cost me something like 45 euros, which in Norway at least is ridiculous.
I can add in relation to speed that I had this car in 155 on the Autobahn in Germany, and that would be the speedometer that claimed that, but the GPS said 149, and that's the fastest I have ever gone. Officially, the top speed is 137. Relatively comfortable cruising speed is 90, and if you live in a mountainous region, you will discover that it's not a very powerful engine. You're going slow when you're going uphill, so to speak, but who cares if you can drive a cool car.
Which car is the winner, though, between the UAZ and the Lada Niva? I have to say the UAZ. I prefer the UAZ because it has seven seats, because it's even more crude and simple, and probably a little bit more robust as well. And that's what I look for in a car. I don't care about comfort, I don't care about speed.
Well, I can forget about this thing until spring I guess. This is not starting when it's cold, not at all.[1]Thankfully I have another vehicle available. Which one? Let's find out.
The good thing though is that we can use the Volkswagen as a freezer for the dog meat.[2]The Niva, will it start? This car comes with the interior that you would expect from a car from the 1970s.[3]Cheap plastic interior, but it works. It's very simple and easily used. Here again, reduction gear to engage the central diff lock. This is a permanent 4x4, so unless you want to have a one-wheel drive, you engage the diff lock. And of course, this car has five gears. This is not the oldest model, so it has an onboard computer made in Hungary.
I have put some proper Italian tires on this one. It's of course a four-seater, you can barely see here because I have so much children, not included when you buy it. The things that you can expect to break on this one is like door handles. To open the trunk you pull a lever, but it broke two days ago, so I can no longer open the trunk, I have to fix it. And this is the second time this happened in the six years I've had the car, so I'm not too happy about that. I'm driving with a trailer right now.
Engine compartment. I've not been forced to do a lot of repairs on this one, but I have been forced to add some anti-rust, anti-corrosion paints, in order to treat rust, "Car cancer". A few small spots. Like here. I had to change the battery, and I also had to change a tube for the cooling system. And also I'll fix the liquid for the window wipers. Windscreen wipers.
The paint job is like with the UAZ done by me, in the same manner. And this time it's more similar actually to the original P-Dot camo. It's very good for autumn and winter. I've had a few tiny accidents, an Englishman backed off into my fender here, and I also ran over a ditch(?). That's the thermostat turning on, because the engine is hot. I've got some paper stuffed in between there, because of squeaking noises that my wife wanted to eliminate. And on the other side, oh you can't see. On the other side here, it's the same, only the handle is broken. So again, not very high quality.
This car has only one fuel tank, it's a civilian car. And it's a 40 litre tank, so the range of this car is about 400 kilometres, a bit more if you go on highways. It's a pretty cool, neat little car, but it only has 4 seats, which is not enough for my family, so we had to buy another car. I do like those Italian road tyres. And these are pretty much the largest tyres we can put on a stock Niva. Oh, I have a... what's it called, sunroof? And this, I didn't really want it to begin with, but it came with a car, and it cost 1 euro extra. But, I have grown to like it a lot, and it's very, very useful. In Ukraine, they used to stand there in the beginning of the war with RPGs,[4]and they would go tank hunting with an RPG, a guy standing there with an RPG in the Nivas. I'm pretty sure they did not survive for a very long time.
Mechanically, it's a very reliable car. But, just like on the UAZ, you have all these details that are complete crap quality, like the door handles and such. It's a little bit difficult to engage the central differential. Sometimes I may need like 3 minutes, but other times you can do it like that. It does require... it's a high maintenance car, just like the UAZ, and you will need spare parts for it at some point. This is a civilian car, so the metal is not the same quality like on the UAZ. This will rust. What I don't like about it is the anti-theft device. I'm pretty sure it's going to stop working at some point, and when it does, I don't have a car. Also, the little devices you use to turn it off are going to break. I've had the car for 6 years, and one of them has broken already, so I had to buy a new set. And to buy a new set, you have to reprogram the whole anti-theft device. I don't like it.
It's off-road capabilities are amazing, and you will not find any stock car on the market being able to do the same as this car in most situations. It's not the best off-road car as such, because there are some things that other cars will do better, but for most things, this is the best. It has spring suspension. I don't have a diff-locks for any of my off-road cars, because for Nivas and for the UAZ, you really don't need it. The Russians, they don't make good roads. Instead, they make good off-road cars. Like with the UAZ, it's really easy to work on this car. The parts are cheap, and you probably do need to work on it every now and then. France, not the EU.
It weighs about 1450 kg. It has 79 hp. And yes, my Russian car has a dash cam. The heating is good, and it's a warm car. It's much more comfortable than the UAZ, not only in relation to the interior, but also to noise. It's fairly still. You have some noise from gearbox, and that's annoying when you go far, but compared to the UAZ, it's nothing.
Just like the UAZ, this car is made to last, so if it doesn't, it's only because of Soviet incompetence and today Russian incompetence, because it is designed to last, and if you maintain it, it will. I see a lot of Lada Nivas here in France, and many of them are the old models. This was a very popular car all over Western Europe in the 1980s, and those cars are still running and doing fine. Would I recommend you buying it? Well, if you have the need for no more than four seats, definitely. And you probably should have some basic mechanic skills for this car as well, but if you don't, you can use an official Lada workshop garage, and they will fix it, and it's not going to cost you a lot. When I had this on service, because in the beginning when I had it, I didn't do it myself, but when I had this car for service, it cost me something like 45 euros, which in Norway at least is ridiculous.
I can add in relation to speed that I had this car in 155 on the Autobahn in Germany, and that would be the speedometer that claimed that, but the GPS said 149, and that's the fastest I have ever gone. Officially, the top speed is 137. Relatively comfortable cruising speed is 90, and if you live in a mountainous region, you will discover that it's not a very powerful engine. You're going slow when you're going uphill, so to speak, but who cares if you can drive a cool car.
Which car is the winner, though, between the UAZ and the Lada Niva? I have to say the UAZ. I prefer the UAZ because it has seven seats, because it's even more crude and simple, and probably a little bit more robust as well. And that's what I look for in a car. I don't care about comfort, I don't care about speed.
- Even though it's only -13 degrees Celsius. (Those Germans... sigh)
- Well, not "dog meat", but "meat for the dog".
- Mine is from 2010.
- Yeah, Varg, this is like the best example ever of why a sun roof can be useful.