Is a Lada Riva worth anything?
Discussion
I have acquired a garage to keep my VX220 in over the winter, the only problem is its full of Lada!
It's a G reg Riva saloon, done 7900 miles and doesn't appear to have turned a wheel since the tax ran out in 1998.
Should I
A - get it roadworthy and sell it
B - sell it spares and repairs as it is
C - call the scrap man
It has a surprisingly little amount of rust, and to be honest is in good nick!
Will it explode if I get a new battery and just start it up? I assume its a Russian tractor engine powering it so surely it will be indestructible!
It's a G reg Riva saloon, done 7900 miles and doesn't appear to have turned a wheel since the tax ran out in 1998.
Should I
A - get it roadworthy and sell it
B - sell it spares and repairs as it is
C - call the scrap man
It has a surprisingly little amount of rust, and to be honest is in good nick!
Will it explode if I get a new battery and just start it up? I assume its a Russian tractor engine powering it so surely it will be indestructible!
It's probably worth something in parts as there is a strong community of Lada owners, especially up north and East Anglia for some reason.
I think the scene/community has died down somewhat as most of the owners have died and also they cannot be MOT'd anymore due to emissions regulations or something along those lines, that may only apply to newer ones
I think the scene/community has died down somewhat as most of the owners have died and also they cannot be MOT'd anymore due to emissions regulations or something along those lines, that may only apply to newer ones
Defcon5 said:
To who though? Do people actually drive these things?
My hotlinking didn't work so;http://www.metacafe.com/watch/583262/amazing_trans...
205alive said:
Whoa there, ang abaaaht... isn't the Riva identical in a lot of respects to the now very rare and somewhat valuable Fiat 128? Maybe this warrants further investigation - the shell at least could be worth a decent pile of lira, could it not?
No, not really! 
My first ever car was a Riva. It was based on the Fiat 128, lots of the manufacturing plant was sold to Lada when Fiat binned the 128 but I would assume there's probably little practically common between the two.
Most Lada Rivas ended up heading back to Russia in the mid nineties. I used to work in Aberdeen near the harbour and the russian trawlers that docked would spend two weeks buying up every Riva they could find and loading them on the deck to transport back to Russia.
For the one you have, get it running and flog it on Ebay - you could get a few quid for it! It probably only needs new fuel and a battery, they are about as basic an engine as you can get and built for Russian peasants to be able to fix with the contents of a barn.
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