Renault buys AutoVAZ

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For most people that would be less than interesting, but I remember my father's old Zhiguli - probably one of the symbols of the Communist era for my generation - so I decided to write a line or two about it for old times' sake.

Well, so much for the old Lada - French car manufacturer Renault has entered a "strategic partnership" which would, from what I understand, practically mean ownership in many ways. 50% is a fairly major share of a company, and I suppose it'd be enough to make any decision when your partner isn't dead-set against it. I guess I'm a little nostalgic, I suppose - my childhood would never have been the same without all the Ladas in it, so I have a bit of an emotional attachment to the old tin cans.

On the other hand, this means there will probably be a marked improvement in the technology, design and support of the brand. While others may disagree, I consider most Ladas fairly decent cars for the period they were designed, but the few models and poor support made the brand lag behind any western brand in both look and technology.

 

Ah the Lada... My friend still owns one, the car is quite legendary around here and not exactly for its quality. From what I've heard from the friend of mine who owns one they are incredibly easy to repair and customize because of their highly mechanical nature and lacking all of the fancy electornics that make repairing modern cars so expensive and practically impossible for anyone but the highly qualified. I also heard that another one of these old legendary east block car manufacturers namely the Serbian Yugo is about to be bought by one of the bigger car brands. Definently an end to an era in the history of motor vehichles.

EDIT: I allways wanted to see the guys at pimp my ride fix a lada, that would be highly interesting but I doubt there are many ladas in the US.

 

Actually, it was only this week that I was surprised to learn that Lada still sold cars in the Netherlands. I suppose it fits in the picture of Renault wanting to expand into the eastern europian market more, which they already started with their Dacia Logan.

As for pimping a Lada, it was done in a Top Gear episode already. The infamous Lotus Lada.

 

I don't know about the Yugo - though I have heard they are tough little buggers - but for me the Lada was the stereotypical Soviet-style car: low-ish quality and easy to repair. Unlike the Moskvitch, it was fairly tough, too. Of course, it helps that spare parts for Ladas were never hard to find here - when my father sold his old 2101, it went with 2 cardboard boxes of spare parts. The only Western cars I've heard compared to it in this respect are the Opel Rekord/Kadett and, to some degree, early Golfs.

As for the Top Gear episode, I'm surprised that the car this guy has is one of the older models. I mean... 2105, I think, this thing has been in production at least 20 years, probably 25, before production stopped some 10 years ago. I'd have expected at least a Samara/Samara Sputnik. Actually, I thought only Nivas were sold in the UK - shows what I know.