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Whole Lada car for your moneySubmitted by cory_powell on 18 January, 2005 - 21:37.
 You gotta love the availibility of Soviet cars. ( categories: )
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PollThe current world financial crisis will: Cause me to move to Nicaragua sooner. 52% Prevent me from moving to Nicaragua. 7% Encourage me to move to (or stay in) the U.S. 2% Make me look for another destination. 0% No change. 39% Total votes: 46 A ThoughtWhen estimating costs remember that labor is free. |
LADA's final remark
Sorry guys, just to wanted to learn more about Nicaragua and lifestile. Didn't want to disturb anybody. Soy ruso. First time we bought this model in 1982 it was called LADA ("Jiguli" 2105) it had 65hp and later they started to install 75hp engines from other model LADA 2103 (actually first time released in 1973 and never changed after that). Pretty much they were all modified Fiats. Now once Soviet Union collapsed all properties were shared between goverment, bandits, and communists. Moreover if they couldn't save soviet union it was even harder task for these people to save properties from foreighn "investors". Yes LADA is partnering with GM and produces some ugly models for about $10K US, at the same time former Soviet Union is overfilled with non-domestic cars for about the same price. Actually LADA never considered before as the best domestic brand.
US and USSR
I don't think anyone is disturbed. Just interested. But, I would probably not buy one now because GM is on my shitlist (since they destroyed transportations in 27 major US cities). The model that interested me was the Niva. An all-time 4WD vehicle with a lot of ground clearance is a good thing here.
GM's in Trouble
FYL, you'll be happy to hear (if you haven't already) that GM is in serious financial troubles and is supposed to limit the number of models it produces.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050501/gm_bonds.html?.v=2
Niva question
Niva is actually pre-GM car manufactured since early 80s when nobody even let western businesses into the country. Models are Niva - 5 doors and 3 doors and Lada 2120 - is also in that category but different. There are injectors and carburator engines 1.7 l. They are slow on highways but not bad off-road. Check this ones http://www.uaz.ru they used to be more reliable and better off road when I lived there.
LADAs availability
I was told that korean and japaneese cars replaced Soviet. How are you guys fixing them without parts?
What you were told and reality
First, the Lada is not a Soviet car. That is, they are still produced in multiple countries including Ecuador and Russia. Just like in the US, Jamanese and Korean cars are more popular than anything else. Actually, I would say well over 50% of the cars around here are Toyotas the big exception being all the Kia Pride taxis.
And, well, for fixing without parts. I think that was a skill acquired when the US decided to not allow Nicaraguans to buy parts for their US-made products.
What I really meant was this
Everyone seems to be taking my caption pretty seriously. All I meant by it was that this car was sold by a Soviet company. Saying Lada is not Soviet is partially true. Maybe this car was made somewhere else. But then really no car company has a country of origen. For example Toyotas are built less than an hour from my house so they are an american company. There are volkswagens built in Mexico so that makes them a Mexican company etc. This car was built by a Soviet company ... now a Russian company. I just thought that it was kind of neat to see a vehicle that was designed in a place hated by the US driving alongside vehicles designed in the US. Was this Lada made before or after the USSR fell I don't know 100% for sure. I just made the comment as that ... a comment. If you want to get really confused the Lada is actually a US company. Somehow they teamed up with Chevrolet on the new Niva. I can't read Russian but I found a video clip. There is a link below.
www.chevrolet-niva.info
LADA's availability
I read that Nicaragua is part of CAFTA, that should allow import of parts from US. If not US then there are easy workarounds with other countries. It is just when Nicaragua doesn't want US products then it is harder to get in. Regarding LADA's I never knew they make them in Ecuador very interesting. I know in Russia they are protecting LADAs and other domestic brands with high customs fees. Unfortunately this didn't improve quality of the cars. Was looking for import-export partners before, but was hard to communicate and gave up for some time.
Historically ...
I am speaking about the 1980s when the part of the US war against Nicaragua was a trade embargo. The result was a lot of people ended up with Soviet-built tractors (and Ladas) because they could not get parts for their John Deere tractor and such.
As far as I know, CAFTA doesn't exist yet and, hopefully, never will. It seems the people of at least Costa Rica and Nicaragua learned a lot from how Mexico got the shaft with NAFTA. I didn't read NAFTA (and most of what has happened to Mexico has to do with other regulations that are applied on top of NAFTA) but reading CAFTA makes you wonder what the F refers to as it sure isn't free.
Still available
Ladas are still made (thus not exactly Soviet these days) and sold in at least Europe. The Lada Niva is an all-time 4WD sedan with very high ground clearance. The retail price in Germany is 9,990 EUR. See http://www.lada.de to find your local German dealer. :-)
Today, Lada is the largest car producer in Eastern Europe/Russia with a capacity of 750,000 cars/year. They are also built under license in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Egypt and Ecuador.
82 horsepower?
82 horsepower at 5k RPM is kind of... sluggish. But I admit, the price is quite handsome.