LADA RIVA..... AND NIVA
Discussion
No don't laugh....... I havnt gone mad yet ....They were built to with stand a Russian Winter, used to do well I'n Rallying etc I'n their class , bought cheap motoring to the masses and provided employment for lots if Brits I'n their Dealer Network. Yes they are basic, crude , noisy harsh... Just like most 50s and 60s cars were !!
I'n the late 80s 90s they were so common, but where the heck have they all gone ? Reason I ask is that a very low miles , totally original , still has it's Local Orig Dealer No plates , early 90s RIVA sits forlornly I'n my local scrappie and I hope to save it .
I'n the late 80s 90s they were so common, but where the heck have they all gone ? Reason I ask is that a very low miles , totally original , still has it's Local Orig Dealer No plates , early 90s RIVA sits forlornly I'n my local scrappie and I hope to save it .
Think you will find that most of them made their way back to Russia - when they were worth virtually nothing over here they were still quite valuable to the Russian populus as the price of a new one was beyond the reach of most.
They also had crap steering boxes - I know of one Riva that went through 3 in 24 months.
They also had crap steering boxes - I know of one Riva that went through 3 in 24 months.
Lets be honest the saloon Riva was utter rubbish even compared to the poorer british vehicles on the go then.
The Niva however whilst extremely basic was a damn good 4x4 in muddy boggy ground. I have recounted before the autocross where only the Niva was capable of pulling errant vehicles out of the mire.
There is still an importer bringing them into this country but they are expensive relatively and there are now better 4x4 vehicles
The Niva however whilst extremely basic was a damn good 4x4 in muddy boggy ground. I have recounted before the autocross where only the Niva was capable of pulling errant vehicles out of the mire.
There is still an importer bringing them into this country but they are expensive relatively and there are now better 4x4 vehicles
So there you are, its minus 40 the snows coming in sideways, its 200 miles to the nearest town, no phones and no AA
Whats it going to be ?
Modern ford/vw that aint gonna budge without a prompt from a laptop
Or
a Lada with a full factory toolkit and a repair manual, thats needs a spark and some fuel and not a software generated prompt!
Basic- yes
Unrefined-yes
Crude-maybe
Never claimed to be anything it wasnt
Whats it going to be ?
Modern ford/vw that aint gonna budge without a prompt from a laptop
Or
a Lada with a full factory toolkit and a repair manual, thats needs a spark and some fuel and not a software generated prompt!
Basic- yes
Unrefined-yes
Crude-maybe
Never claimed to be anything it wasnt
restoman said:
Think you will find that most of them made their way back to Russia - when they were worth virtually nothing over here they were still quite valuable to the Russian populus as the price of a new one was beyond the reach of most.
They also had crap steering boxes - I know of one Riva that went through 3 in 24 months.
What he said; the Russians were shipping them home on the back of trawlers at one point. Buy it, whip the engine out and replace it with a Fiat twink with gargly sidedraught carbs; go for a drive and then screw up your eyes and pretend it's the Fiat 124 it really is underneath the wheelybin plastic interior.They also had crap steering boxes - I know of one Riva that went through 3 in 24 months.
My brother and me shared a Riva as our first car. Kermit green, well it was to begin with but it got brush painted in hammerite black one afternoon 
Great car. Really could go anywhere, had the most superb suspension travel and the log book contained instructions for how to start the car at temperatures below -50
. Part of the routine, IIRC, was to manually turn the engine over using the hand crank a few times to get things moving!
And indeed, most of them headed back to their motherland. I used to watch the Russian trawlers dock in Aberdeen habour. Then over the space of about a week they'd get loaded up with about 30 Rivas, all tied down around the deck, before they departed.
Ours ended up in a scrappy when the clutch went.
Great car. Really could go anywhere, had the most superb suspension travel and the log book contained instructions for how to start the car at temperatures below -50
. Part of the routine, IIRC, was to manually turn the engine over using the hand crank a few times to get things moving! And indeed, most of them headed back to their motherland. I used to watch the Russian trawlers dock in Aberdeen habour. Then over the space of about a week they'd get loaded up with about 30 Rivas, all tied down around the deck, before they departed.
Ours ended up in a scrappy when the clutch went.
I was looking at these the other day, on the Autovaz website...
http://www.lada-auto.ru/cgi-bin/models.pl?model_id...
They're still available new, and cost about £4000.
http://www.lada-auto.ru/cgi-bin/models.pl?model_id...
They're still available new, and cost about £4000.
Balmoral Green said:
I was looking at these the other day, on the Autovaz website...
http://www.lada-auto.ru/cgi-bin/models.pl?model_id...
They're still available new, and cost about £4000.
Yep, they are still available new. I have lived and worked in the former Soviet Union for the past five and half years. In Moscow most of the cars are modern Western brands, but out in the sticks where I am they all still proudly drive their Lada Rivas, Nivas, Volgas, Moskovitches and ODAs. I was looking at brand new Riva today actually, they look quite smart in their metallic paint and grey steel wheels...http://www.lada-auto.ru/cgi-bin/models.pl?model_id...
They're still available new, and cost about £4000.
I kind of like the idea of a basic simple cheap 4 door people mover. Does the job and nothing more.
In the 1980s at the height of their popularity here they made sense to a lot of people. Retired or low income folks used to running a decade old viva or a rotting Marina could get into a new car for very little money. May have been basic but nice little touches like headlight wipers and the famous good heater made them sell.
A hard working not well off about to retire chap could have the latest reg on August 1 and feel a million dollars.
I guess some Indian built Nissan fills the role today, but is there a decent honest cheap full size 4/5 door out there on the market now?
When I was at Uni in Hull in the early 90s most of the cabs were Rivas. All painted white, most with beaded seat covers colour coded wheeltrims and half a ton of add on s
t from Halfords. Kind of summed Hull up when you left Paragon Station and were confronted by a massive fleet od them, queuing for business.
In the 1980s at the height of their popularity here they made sense to a lot of people. Retired or low income folks used to running a decade old viva or a rotting Marina could get into a new car for very little money. May have been basic but nice little touches like headlight wipers and the famous good heater made them sell.
A hard working not well off about to retire chap could have the latest reg on August 1 and feel a million dollars.
I guess some Indian built Nissan fills the role today, but is there a decent honest cheap full size 4/5 door out there on the market now?
When I was at Uni in Hull in the early 90s most of the cabs were Rivas. All painted white, most with beaded seat covers colour coded wheeltrims and half a ton of add on s
t from Halfords. Kind of summed Hull up when you left Paragon Station and were confronted by a massive fleet od them, queuing for business.Hasd many happy memories of a Riva 1500E estate that was particularly quick (someone had added twin strombergs to it)that I owned. Famously was stopped by local plod at at estimated 105mph who fell about laughing when they caught up with me and didn't prosecute. Clutch slave cylinder went bang one night on my wife and we towed to the the local scrappy and got £60 for it. Four years later smoking along the dual carriageway in my new BMW 330D Touring when I was flashed to get out of the way by yes you've got it - a certain beige Lada 1500E estate. IIL 5524 where are you now???
A great post ! I was a student in Hull in the late 80's and remember the taxis. Later in life as a Police Officer , I remember borrowing a Lada estate for an obs job . It was truly awful , as petrol fumes poured through the dash , meaning the windos had to be open . I got an assistance call from a colleague and drove it about three miles on it's door handles across a gentile North Yorkshire town . It died with dignity at the end of this exertion , but I won't forget the experience !
My dad had a Niva (was that the 4x4?) in the late 80s. Ridiculously chunky car, very landrover ish and very very capable offroad.
One of my mates at college had to put up with his dad's lada riva (the old fiat 3 box thing) that justified all the jokes. Unreliable, badly built, wheezy, slow, rolled so much that you would swear that the solo wing mirror would scrape the tarmac.
One of my mates at college had to put up with his dad's lada riva (the old fiat 3 box thing) that justified all the jokes. Unreliable, badly built, wheezy, slow, rolled so much that you would swear that the solo wing mirror would scrape the tarmac.
I sold them back in the day, well, for about two weeks in 1985. I proposed to Mrs BG in 'Boris' my beige Riva 1300L Demo car, B194KAL IIRC, on the top floor of a multi storey car park (who says romance is dead?). I was surprised how well it performed, 0-60 was no worse than the more mainstream stuff, although the steering was heavy due to worm rather than R&P. CAR magazine described the Soviet plastics technology as "Like creosoted cardboard" and they were spot on, especially for the interior door panels 
Gassing Station | Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff