Looking back at Lada’s heyday

We take a drive down motoring’s memory lane.

Britain has arguably lost more car marques, including many great ones, than any other country.

Not that many other nations haven’t lost a swathe of car makers, with the losses highest in France, the US, Germany and also Italy.

Cars also came to the UK in past decades from Eastern Europe and Russia. Only two of them still sell here today, namely Skoda from the Czech Republic – totally owned by VW – and Dacia from Romania, totally operated by Renault. However, many Japanese and other cars in our showrooms today are made or assembled in Eastern Europe.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, two car makes from Russia came to the UK. These were the Lada Riva (essentially, the obsolete 1960s Fiat 124 built by AvtoGAZ with Russian components) and the Moskvitch, which sold modestly despite disdain from the motoring press. However, both were cheap and a lot of sheet steel for your money.

Of the Ladas, the Riva was the first to arrive, available as fourdoor saloon and estate. They were rugged, unsexy and rather gutsy but easy to repair and maintain. Over the years, some 350,000 were sold in the UK.

Later, Lada launched a squat, spartan four-wheel drive model called the Niva, obviously engineered for the deep snows of Russian winters and bumpy, rutted tracks of the steppes. It was available as a two-door hatchback, van and pick-up, gained a following in farming circles and, to my amazement, I still see one or two of them running around today.

Finally, in the early 1990s, Lada marketed a medium-sized hatchback called the Samara which, though a big step forward from the Riva, was outdated compared to European and Japanese rival models. Sales limped along but Lada pulled out of the UK in the 1990s.

Interestingly, Lada still exists today, although they sell mainly in Russia and the former Soviet Union states.

The four-wheel drive Lada Niva, some of which can be seen driving around today.