Whole Lada Love: A Tribute

By: Corianne Brosnahan, October 25, 2013

Have you heard the one about the guy who goes into an auto shop and says to the salesman, “Can I have a hub cap for my Lada?”

The salesman thinks to himself for a moment, and then replies, “OK, it seems like a fair swap.”

The butt of many a joke, Soviet bloc cars like the East German Trabi and the Russian Lada have reputations for being—well, pretty darn crappy. First introduced in 1970, boxy, utilitarian Ladas were designed to withstand the subzero temperatures of Russian winters, during which a car malfunction in the middle of nowhere pretty much meant freezing to death. Instead of dependability, however, Ladas became known for breaking down. This turned their drivers into amateur mechanics, whose creative solutions to getting their cars going again are the stuff of legends. A highly successful export due to competitive pricing and simple mechanics, over 20 million models were sold worldwide, making Ladas an important source of revenue for the hard up USSR of the late 80s and 90s.

Though we saw an awful lot of Ladas prowling the streets of Uzbekistan, the cars are on their way to becoming a thing of the past; in 2012, Lada manufacturer AvtoVAZ decided to stop production after a huge decrease in sales the previous year.

This then, is a tribute to the Lada, which may not be the most dependable car on the road, but can always be used to store your animal carcass in a pinch.