Lada Comeback!!
Discussion
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8672464.stm
Lada, the car that spawned a thousand playground jokes, could be returning to UK showrooms. But will British motorists take the Russian marque to their hearts?
You have to pity any driver of a Lada who was unfortunate enough to find himself the target of that macho conversation opener: "So, what are you driving these days?"
Confessing to buying a car which had spawned its own brand of wisecracks cannot have been an easy experience.
But after a 13-year hiatus, the Lada could be returning to these shores.
The Russian car giant that builds the Lada, AvtoVAZ, has struck a partnership with French carmaker Renault. Both companies are keen to reintroduce a new and improved version of the Lada to the UK as a "credit crunch cruiser" - a super-cheap car (it would cost £5,000) suited to our new era of austerity.
Steve Norman, vice president of Renault UK, reckons a new Lada could be on sale in Britain in around two years' time. "The UK was one of the few markets where the Lada was a success", he said. "I'm confident the time is right to bring it back."
But can a motoring brand that was known for churning out clunkily designed models with flaky reliability really reach out to the British buyer?
The Lada was first built in the Soviet Union in 1970. It was modelled on the 1966 Fiat 124 saloon, and though it looked boxy and tended to be painted in drab colours - grey-green was a favourite - it proved popular.
Nearly 20 million Ladas were built in the first 30 years they were exported around the world, as far afield as Australia, Canada and Cuba. Sixty per cent of the Russian-built Ladas were sold outside of Russia, and its success was such that at one point in the 1980s the Lada industry became one of main raisers of foreign hard currency for the financially-challenged Soviet Union.
In Britain the Lada was a moderate success: 350,000 were sold here between 1977 and 1997. The cars passed through a giant rectification centre in a small town in Yorkshire where the basic, boxy Russian models would be upgraded for British tastes and legal standards. Grilles and wheels were replaced with better-looking versions and stereos and sunroofs were added.
There fan clubs devoted to the Lada, including the Lada Enthusiasts' Club and the Unloved Soviet & Socialist Register, a British-based cheerleading group for all Soviet-era cars.
At the high point of Ladamania in the 1970s, this Lada refashioning factory was getting through 300 vehicles a week.
But in 1997 the marque vanished from showroom as post-communist Russia's car industry ran into trouble. A tightening of carbon emissions standards in the UK means the old, cheaply made Soviet-era cars just didn't match up to the new green requirements.
And those playground jokes - What do you call a Lada at the top of a hill? A miracle. What do you call a Lada with a sunroof? A skip - can't have helped.
So can the 21st Century incarnation overcome lingering anti-Lada sentiment and successfully return to the UK market? Or will they need to invest in some serious rebranding?
The cultural and design critic Stephen Bayley says the humour assaults on the Lada were unjustified.
"It was a very good car. It was reliable and it was virtually indestructible. I knew a French count who drove nothing else except his Lada."
Bayley believes the relative popularity of the Lada in the UK was down to two things - first, the car's robustness and longevity; and second, the fact that owning one of these fairly drab, rudimentary vehicles from the East allowed one to wriggle free from the consumerist pressure to buy a big flash car in order to show off.
"Car ownership is all about cultural modelling and making a display, it is all about buying a vehicle that apparently says something important about your identity. The great thing about the Lada is that you could free yourself from all of that.
"Once you got over the psychic humiliation of owning one of these Commie cars, you could escape the pressures and torment of having to say something about your status, your speed and your sex life through your choice of car. Owning a Lada was really a way of saying: 'My car is for driving, that's all'."
But to the average motoring journalist, the lustre of making an anti-capitalist statement comes someway below driving experience.
Were they any good? Motoring journalist Honest John offers a glib dismissal. "The only good thing about them was that they came with a big toolkit," he quips. He strongly doubts Lada, which manufactures in Russia, could undercut rivals which are shifting production to Asia, where labour is cheaper.
"The UK is already a heavily discounted market and a lot of the budget cars sold in Europe can't be sold here because sterling has weakened. Add to that the fact that the average Russian car worker is going to expect wages that are double those in Thailand, and I can't see how it would work."
Paul Horrell, of the BBC's Top Gear magazine is also dismissive of the marqe: "It was square, boxy. It was slow. It rusted easily."
But he is willing to entertain the idea of a comeback, believing Renault's influence will make it a "very different car".
And Horrell points to how another laughing stock of a car, Skoda, managed to rescue its reputation - firstly by employing better engineering, and secondly by launching a "quite knowing advertising campaign" that played to great effect on its history as a joke vehicle.
Economics expert Daniel Ben-Ami is the author of a new book in defence of prosperity titled Ferraris For All. Would he settle for "Ladas For All" for the time being, as recession-related austerity kicks in?
"The Lada showed how poor the Soviet Union was at producing consumer goods," he says. "They may have been able to launch Sputnik into space but they couldn't manufacture a decent car to drive back on Earth.
"No doubt a new Lada will be much better than the original, but there are already plenty of cheap cars available in the UK. The fact that the Lada is being lauded by some as an appropriate car for 'Austerity Britain' is sad. I'm sure most people aspire to something better - even if they often can't afford it."
Lada, the car that spawned a thousand playground jokes, could be returning to UK showrooms. But will British motorists take the Russian marque to their hearts?
You have to pity any driver of a Lada who was unfortunate enough to find himself the target of that macho conversation opener: "So, what are you driving these days?"
Confessing to buying a car which had spawned its own brand of wisecracks cannot have been an easy experience.
But after a 13-year hiatus, the Lada could be returning to these shores.
The Russian car giant that builds the Lada, AvtoVAZ, has struck a partnership with French carmaker Renault. Both companies are keen to reintroduce a new and improved version of the Lada to the UK as a "credit crunch cruiser" - a super-cheap car (it would cost £5,000) suited to our new era of austerity.
Steve Norman, vice president of Renault UK, reckons a new Lada could be on sale in Britain in around two years' time. "The UK was one of the few markets where the Lada was a success", he said. "I'm confident the time is right to bring it back."
But can a motoring brand that was known for churning out clunkily designed models with flaky reliability really reach out to the British buyer?
The Lada was first built in the Soviet Union in 1970. It was modelled on the 1966 Fiat 124 saloon, and though it looked boxy and tended to be painted in drab colours - grey-green was a favourite - it proved popular.
Nearly 20 million Ladas were built in the first 30 years they were exported around the world, as far afield as Australia, Canada and Cuba. Sixty per cent of the Russian-built Ladas were sold outside of Russia, and its success was such that at one point in the 1980s the Lada industry became one of main raisers of foreign hard currency for the financially-challenged Soviet Union.
In Britain the Lada was a moderate success: 350,000 were sold here between 1977 and 1997. The cars passed through a giant rectification centre in a small town in Yorkshire where the basic, boxy Russian models would be upgraded for British tastes and legal standards. Grilles and wheels were replaced with better-looking versions and stereos and sunroofs were added.
There fan clubs devoted to the Lada, including the Lada Enthusiasts' Club and the Unloved Soviet & Socialist Register, a British-based cheerleading group for all Soviet-era cars.
At the high point of Ladamania in the 1970s, this Lada refashioning factory was getting through 300 vehicles a week.
But in 1997 the marque vanished from showroom as post-communist Russia's car industry ran into trouble. A tightening of carbon emissions standards in the UK means the old, cheaply made Soviet-era cars just didn't match up to the new green requirements.
And those playground jokes - What do you call a Lada at the top of a hill? A miracle. What do you call a Lada with a sunroof? A skip - can't have helped.
So can the 21st Century incarnation overcome lingering anti-Lada sentiment and successfully return to the UK market? Or will they need to invest in some serious rebranding?
The cultural and design critic Stephen Bayley says the humour assaults on the Lada were unjustified.
"It was a very good car. It was reliable and it was virtually indestructible. I knew a French count who drove nothing else except his Lada."
Bayley believes the relative popularity of the Lada in the UK was down to two things - first, the car's robustness and longevity; and second, the fact that owning one of these fairly drab, rudimentary vehicles from the East allowed one to wriggle free from the consumerist pressure to buy a big flash car in order to show off.
"Car ownership is all about cultural modelling and making a display, it is all about buying a vehicle that apparently says something important about your identity. The great thing about the Lada is that you could free yourself from all of that.
"Once you got over the psychic humiliation of owning one of these Commie cars, you could escape the pressures and torment of having to say something about your status, your speed and your sex life through your choice of car. Owning a Lada was really a way of saying: 'My car is for driving, that's all'."
But to the average motoring journalist, the lustre of making an anti-capitalist statement comes someway below driving experience.
Were they any good? Motoring journalist Honest John offers a glib dismissal. "The only good thing about them was that they came with a big toolkit," he quips. He strongly doubts Lada, which manufactures in Russia, could undercut rivals which are shifting production to Asia, where labour is cheaper.
"The UK is already a heavily discounted market and a lot of the budget cars sold in Europe can't be sold here because sterling has weakened. Add to that the fact that the average Russian car worker is going to expect wages that are double those in Thailand, and I can't see how it would work."
Paul Horrell, of the BBC's Top Gear magazine is also dismissive of the marqe: "It was square, boxy. It was slow. It rusted easily."
But he is willing to entertain the idea of a comeback, believing Renault's influence will make it a "very different car".
And Horrell points to how another laughing stock of a car, Skoda, managed to rescue its reputation - firstly by employing better engineering, and secondly by launching a "quite knowing advertising campaign" that played to great effect on its history as a joke vehicle.
Economics expert Daniel Ben-Ami is the author of a new book in defence of prosperity titled Ferraris For All. Would he settle for "Ladas For All" for the time being, as recession-related austerity kicks in?
"The Lada showed how poor the Soviet Union was at producing consumer goods," he says. "They may have been able to launch Sputnik into space but they couldn't manufacture a decent car to drive back on Earth.
"No doubt a new Lada will be much better than the original, but there are already plenty of cheap cars available in the UK. The fact that the Lada is being lauded by some as an appropriate car for 'Austerity Britain' is sad. I'm sure most people aspire to something better - even if they often can't afford it."
Surprised this hasn't had more responses.
I have no experience with these whatsoever and I'm sure they're atrocious to drive but they are somehow really rather appealing. I actually like the three box shape and its mechanical simplicity. Did they ever rally them? I quite fancy a Niva too!
I have no experience with these whatsoever and I'm sure they're atrocious to drive but they are somehow really rather appealing. I actually like the three box shape and its mechanical simplicity. Did they ever rally them? I quite fancy a Niva too!
hamishg said:
Surprised this hasn't had more responses.
I have no experience with these whatsoever and I'm sure they're atrocious to drive but they are somehow really rather appealing. I actually like the three box shape and its mechanical simplicity. Did they ever rally them? I quite fancy a Niva too!
Only the Niva is left from that era. Lada's current range looks like thisI have no experience with these whatsoever and I'm sure they're atrocious to drive but they are somehow really rather appealing. I actually like the three box shape and its mechanical simplicity. Did they ever rally them? I quite fancy a Niva too!
http://www.lada.fr/
Schoolfriend had a Niva (that was the boxy saloon, right?) in the mid 90s, he was a bit of a lefty. He used to give me and a couple of other lads lifts to cross country races and rugby matches.
Rattly old thing that smelt strongly of fumes (we went around with the windows open even in winter) and would occasionally just fall apart (rear windscreen popped out doing 60 on the main road near Dorchester), but it was mechanically reliable and when one day everything else got stuck in a muddy field, was the only car to get out.
Rattly old thing that smelt strongly of fumes (we went around with the windows open even in winter) and would occasionally just fall apart (rear windscreen popped out doing 60 on the main road near Dorchester), but it was mechanically reliable and when one day everything else got stuck in a muddy field, was the only car to get out.
ZesPak said:
I can't see why you would WANT to revive a name like Lada.
Just pick any other name for export (there are plenty of manufacturers doing that).
Simples. Everyone knows the name Lada, and a fair few have had expriences. They will probably have a look just based on price and idle curiousity.Just pick any other name for export (there are plenty of manufacturers doing that).
Highway Star said:
Schoolfriend had a Niva (that was the boxy saloon, right?) in the mid 90s, he was a bit of a lefty. He used to give me and a couple of other lads lifts to cross country races and rugby matches.
Rattly old thing that smelt strongly of fumes (we went around with the windows open even in winter) and would occasionally just fall apart (rear windscreen popped out doing 60 on the main road near Dorchester), but it was mechanically reliable and when one day everything else got stuck in a muddy field, was the only car to get out.
That was the Riva. the Niva was/is a small 4x4 hatchback that looks and drives like a small tank.Rattly old thing that smelt strongly of fumes (we went around with the windows open even in winter) and would occasionally just fall apart (rear windscreen popped out doing 60 on the main road near Dorchester), but it was mechanically reliable and when one day everything else got stuck in a muddy field, was the only car to get out.
adycav said:
Both companies are keen to reintroduce a new and improved version of the Lada to the UK as a "credit crunch cruiser" - a super-cheap car (it would cost £5,000) suited to our new era of austerity.
Steve Norman, vice president of Renault UK, reckons a new Lada could be on sale in Britain in around two years' time.
They're not optimistic about the economic recovery then?Steve Norman, vice president of Renault UK, reckons a new Lada could be on sale in Britain in around two years' time.
Bluebarge said:
Highway Star said:
Schoolfriend had a Niva (that was the boxy saloon, right?) in the mid 90s, he was a bit of a lefty. He used to give me and a couple of other lads lifts to cross country races and rugby matches.
Rattly old thing that smelt strongly of fumes (we went around with the windows open even in winter) and would occasionally just fall apart (rear windscreen popped out doing 60 on the main road near Dorchester), but it was mechanically reliable and when one day everything else got stuck in a muddy field, was the only car to get out.
That was the Riva. the Niva was/is a small 4x4 hatchback that looks and drives like a small tank.Rattly old thing that smelt strongly of fumes (we went around with the windows open even in winter) and would occasionally just fall apart (rear windscreen popped out doing 60 on the main road near Dorchester), but it was mechanically reliable and when one day everything else got stuck in a muddy field, was the only car to get out.
Bluebarge said:
Highway Star said:
Schoolfriend had a Niva (that was the boxy saloon, right?) in the mid 90s, he was a bit of a lefty. He used to give me and a couple of other lads lifts to cross country races and rugby matches.
Rattly old thing that smelt strongly of fumes (we went around with the windows open even in winter) and would occasionally just fall apart (rear windscreen popped out doing 60 on the main road near Dorchester), but it was mechanically reliable and when one day everything else got stuck in a muddy field, was the only car to get out.
That was the Riva. the Niva was/is a small 4x4 hatchback that looks and drives like a small tank.Rattly old thing that smelt strongly of fumes (we went around with the windows open even in winter) and would occasionally just fall apart (rear windscreen popped out doing 60 on the main road near Dorchester), but it was mechanically reliable and when one day everything else got stuck in a muddy field, was the only car to get out.
I can certify that:
A)You can fly 6 - 8 feet in them, "land" and carry on as if nothing has happened.
B)Reverse into a ditch so that the front wheels are 2 or 3 feet in the air. Be towed out. And not dent the boot like you expected.
C)You can knock down walls with them when you're parents are out. Then spend the rest of the day making the wall good. No damage will happen to the car.
If only you could guarantee it would run it was a great cheap utilitarian car.
Somehow I don't see renaults input making the new ones more reliable or more rugged...
hamishg said:
Surprised this hasn't had more responses.
I have no experience with these whatsoever and I'm sure they're atrocious to drive but they are somehow really rather appealing. I actually like the three box shape and its mechanical simplicity. Did they ever rally them? I quite fancy a Niva too!
Yes they did rally the Lada and the UK had the lada chalenge as far as I can remember, got to be a link some where ?I have no experience with these whatsoever and I'm sure they're atrocious to drive but they are somehow really rather appealing. I actually like the three box shape and its mechanical simplicity. Did they ever rally them? I quite fancy a Niva too!
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