Auto Test Lada Niva

“Don’t say you weren’t warned!“

They tried to dissuade me. “Don’t even try! You’ll never get away with it!” And they gave me half serious but well-intentioned advice. “Take food with you. And blankets and a sleeping bag, just in case you break down!” Do you heart their skepticism? They have little faith in the Russian off-road veteran. But surely if you plan to drive through rough and hostile terrain, surely the Lada Niva is the obvious choice – at least if you are on a very tight budget. But my journey will involve 700 kilometres on the Autobahn from Munich to Ludwigslust in the state of Mecklenburg-Pomerania, and that’s a different story. But it’s a story I want to tell. It’s something I want to do. Or is it something that will be done to me? Could it hurt?

It looks more roomy than it is. There’s space for only 263 litres of load in the back with the rear seats in position. But as an optional extra there’s a tray for loading bloody game. Lada know their customers.

Seriously abused on familiar terrain

Actually I see the venture and a whole lot of fun. It’s something I have wanted to do for a long time, to use an automobile for exactly the opposite of what it is built for. My destination was what used to be the heart of the land occupied by the mighty Soviet army, in Mecklenburg-Pomerania. That’s where I planned to take the Lada Niva, an off-roader which has changed little since it was launched in 1976. And the Lada would take me to a family reunion, too, where there would be slaps on the shoulder and compliments. “Fantastic what you did! I’d never have put myself through that!” Yes, I wanted to be seen as a bold hero although at the beginning there appeared to be no insurmountable challenge.

With the back seats folded down there is room for 504 litres of cargo but one must not hope for a level floor surface.

Compare and contrast

It’s the end of November and I have just returned from the Essen Motor Show. For this trip from Munich and back I had at my disposal the latest BMW 520d, a discreet, comfortable and fast Autobahn cruiser with a good chance of being dubbed the ‘travelling salesman’s favourite’. Switching from this automobile to the Russian bear was like being beamed back in a time machine to the dawn of motor manufacturing history. This is how a pilot must feel when he is asked to leave the cockpit of a giant Airbus A380 to take the joystick of a single-engine crop-duster. So there I had been surrounded by made-in-Bavaria high-tech, comfortable in perfectly formed seats, a brilliant iDrive system at my command. And then?Something that is supposed to be a dashboard laden with fragile levers, the stink of hard plastic, buttons oddly positioned around the rest of the cockpit, minimally upholstered seats which at the very first glance cry out an announcement of ‘backache’. That the gear lever knob is mounted the wrong way around on the gear stick does not boost confidence.

Getting the Lada Niva in gear has more to do with luck than with skill. The extra lever is to control the central differential locking and the reduction gearing.

Getting in gear

“Never mind!” I say to myself as I climb in with the intention of starting this Boris Yeltsin of the motor world. A few tries, each a failure. It takes a phone call to find out why I have been defeated at this first hurdle. The German importer had built in an engine immobilizer which needed to be de-activated. Now the engine started the very first time. But the next problem was soon encountered. It took three attempts before I was able to engage first gear. Finding the right position in the gate is about as hard for the Niva as geography was for that Miss America candidate. But I can finally get the Lada moving, although after only a few metres the gear stick is trembling like a would-be Superstar under the merciless gaze of Simon Cowell. Oh well, early tomorrow the drive will finally commence, even if the first getting-to-know-you phase has been less than promising.

They exaggerate, these Russians. Danger zone beyond 5,500 RPM? Hardly! The engine just about manages three thousand. 200 kmh? Offically the Niva can get to 137!

120 kmh, close to the limit

Even after a bitterly cold night the Niva springs immediately to life. I accustom myself quickly to the sluggish transmission and the less than precise steering. And I must admit that crawling along the Autobahn at 120 kilometres and hour in a Lada Niva is far from a pleasure. At this tempo the car is already close to its limit of performance. And the motor complains loudly, groaning like a constipated vacuum cleaner. From the drive-train come suspicious noises which tell me loud and clear that several horsepower are being scattered to the winds as they labour against the differential, power distribution gearing and drive shaft. But we move forward. It all simply goes much more slowly. And with more noise. Less comfort, too. More stress.

When the Lada was lamed with a broken intermediate shaft the ADAC automobile club came to the rescue with a two-truck and a rental alternative. The Volkswagen Touran 1.4 TSI was perfect for the planned trip, fast, safe and very comfortable.

Nothing is as it seems

Seventy kilometres further on and I am on the A9 Autobahn near Ingolstadt and everything has changed. Now the automobile emits a satisfying rumble, steering and gear shifting are effortless and exact, the seats are a joy. I no longer have to turn the radio up to maximum volume in order to cover the racket from the engine, drive gear and wind noise. All the controls are suddenly in the right places. Nothing rattles or squeaks or groans any more. From kilometre to kilometre my feeling of security well-being increases. Overtaking becomes a pleasure and on open stretches the car hits 200 easily. “Wait a minute!” I hear you protest. But there is a simple explanation for this magically enhanced motoring experience: I am sitting in a Volkswagen Touran 1.4 litre TSI belonging to the ADAC automobile club.

If you try very hard indeed you can accelerate the Lada Niva from zero to a hundred in about nineteen seconds. Average fuel consumption is 9.5 litres according to the manufacturer, although in practice this rises into double digits.

The Niva in trouble

It’s not that I changed cars just to enjoy greater comfort – I was prepared to suffer for my story. But the Lada wasn’t prepared to play along. There was a sudden explosion and a subsequent stubborn refusal of the accelerator to pass on my wishes to the engine. The Niva was telling me he had had enough for today. It had to be towed and I had to continue in a rented alternative. Not the best turn of events for the story I wanted to write but great for my nerves, my back and my average speed. The good hour I lost through the breakdown is easily made up in the Touran.

The ‚power plant‘ of the Lada Niva: Twin-valve four-cylinder motor with 1.7 litres capacity. This gives 81 horsepower and 128 Newton metres of torque. The engine corresponds to the Euro-4 norm and this year the first with Euro-5 certification will reach Germany.

“It fell of a truck, officer!”

We learned later that the intermediate shaft of the power distribution gearing had broken. Oh well, it’s the kind of thing that can happen. And in any case, Lada made this car available to us at very short notice after one that they had tried earlier to deliver to motorvision.com, well – it actually fell off the truck. Our compliments to the delivery firm… But of course it is far from the first time that autos given to us to test have encountered problems. Slightly more problematic was the fact that our Lada experienced further problems. A leaky coolant pipe meant that our Russian bear got very hot under the collar, huffing and puffing until the water pump also failed due to the weakening of the fan-belt.

But in difficult terrain the Lada Niva is a workhorse. If grinding across mushy meadows or shooting the occasional wild animal in the forest is your kind of thing the Russian bear could be right for you.

Buy one if you must

With all of this excitement I find it hard to draw a typically authoritative Auto Test conclusion. I think I tend to forgive the Niva its shortcomings, it costs when all is said and done just 10,990 Euros. It is ancient, it is dirt cheap and in some ways its inadequacies add up perversely to a kind of charm. There are enthusiasts – let us not call them idiots – who see the Lada Niva as a cult auto. Buy one, as long as you don’t mind the fact that the safety features are limited to two seat belts. Buy one, if you don’t care much for driving comfort (let’s not even mention driving dynamics) or sporting character. But we find it inacceptable that a new vehicle can in two weeks experience not one but two serious malfunctions. But, dear reader, buy one. Unless perhaps you have more in mind than grinding across mushy meadows, clearing snow in winter from the pavements, shooting the occasional wild animal in the forest – unless you’re absolutely mad about the Niva you should probably consider putting down another two or three thousand to get yourself a proper car. Because the Russian bear, he staggers mightily and sometimes even falls.