Myth Buster: how well do you really know the Lada Niva?
Debunking the most common old wives’ tales
IT WAS THE FIRST 1 LADA NOT TO BE BASED ON A FIAT
Russia’s rugged off-roader was introduced in 1977, and is still in production today. While ActoVAZ – the company behind Lada – was well-known for its Fiat-derived vehicles, the Niva was the first Lada not to obviously be based on something from the Italian marque. However, dig a bit deeper, and aside from the mechanics being mainly Fiat 124/125-based, the body was inspired by the VAZ-1101 prototype, which itself was a reworking of the Fiat 127. Look at the profile and it is noticeable. That it’s not changed since the Seventies is also inaccurate; it was facelifted in the Eighties, the interior has been completely reworked, fuel injection arrived, and so have new engines. The 21st century has seen restyled variants such as the Bronto and Urban.
2 IT DISAPPEARED HERE IN 1997
Officially it did, along with its stablemate, the Riva saloon. But there have been several attempts to re-introduce the model to the UK market since 1997, and the basic Niva did become available in Britain again during May 2010, in three-door hatchback, van and pick-up form.
3 IT’S A RANGE ROVER DESIGN COPY
This claim has often been levelled at the Niva, but there’s little evidence for it. Its designers described it as a ‘Renault 5 put on a Land Rover chassis’, and while it was pitched against Land Rovers and Range Rovers during development trials, and has coil spring suspension, there’s not that much else in common. Incidentally, in 1995, the UK Lada Cossack was given a grille designed by Rover.