September 7 marks 40 years since the VAZ-2101 was given the name "Zhiguli".
According to the generally accepted version, the name of the Togliatti car appeared as a result of an all-Union competition announced in the press. In total, there were about 30 thousand letters and telegrams. The State Commission selected eight pieces, and the designer by the name of Cherny suggested one more - "Zhiguli". It was approved by the government.
However, there is another version, owned by the designer Gennady Lyakhov. In mid-February 1967, the general director of the Volga Automobile Plant and (part-time) Deputy Minister of the Automobile Industry of the USSR Viktor Polyakov set the task for Boris Pospelov, deputy first chief designer of VAZ, to come up with a name for the car that would be produced at the new plant. Two days later, about eight names were put up for voting. To them, at the suggestion of the designer Chernoy, "Zhiguli" was added. As a result of voting in two rounds, the name "Zhiguli" was chosen, which was approved by Polyakov.
But as soon as the Soviet "Zhiguli" began to be produced for export, a problem immediately arose with the word "Zhiguli", familiar to the Russian ear. Foreigners not only could not pronounce it correctly, but it also had obscene consonances in several languages at once!
It was decided to come up with a new name for the export cars of the Volga Automobile Plant. In 1973, a new name "Lada" appeared - beautiful and simple. Now "Lada" is the main brand of AvtoVAZ, which he promotes, naming his developments with new names, but always remaining true to Lada.
Over the past years, AVTOVAZ has created more than 100 models and modifications of cars. A lot of names have also changed: Samara, Bora-21, Niva, Sputnik, OKA, Elf, Gnome, Rapan, Golfcar, Karat, Peter‑Turbo (roadster), Lada‑Aero, Antel, LADA Revolution, Silhouette. Connoisseurs also remember modernized versions with proper names - Yellow Shark, Red Bee (Red Bee), Bullet (Bullet) - exclusive cars based on the VAZ‑21106.
The creators of tuning kits also contributed to the creation of a variety of names: Carlota, Nova, Nika, Grossmeister, Lada Bis, Lada Lady, Rally Sport, Apal, Euro, Katran, Courage, Lada TMS, Stealth, Titan, Tom Cat, Tornado, Stayer , Aerokit, Elegance, Everest, Taiga, Oka Lady, AKS, Phantom, Neon, Favorite, Shark, Leon, Niagara, Real, Tracer, Galant, Grand.
In the new millennium, the company has pleased motorists with several new models, which, according to the manufacturer, already comply with European standards. So, in 2004, the first car of the Lada Kalina family rolled off the assembly line (models VAZ‑1117, VAZ-1118, VAZ-1119). And in 2007, the country saw the first Priora (factory designation VAZ-2170), which began the family of Russian class C cars according to the European classification.
In September 1970, the Volga Automobile Plant began serial production of the VAZ-2101 - thirty years later, the “penny” will be called the best domestic car of the 20th century according to the results of an all-Russian survey conducted by the magazine “Behind the wheel”. Connoisseurs of the Soviet oldtimer told Sibnet.ru why these cars only become more expensive every year, how much their restoration costs, and whether it is possible to make money selling the legendary car.
Birth of a legend
The Italians were responsible for the birth of the "penny" - a general agreement between the Italian company Fiat and the Soviet government on scientific and technical cooperation in the development of passenger cars was concluded in 1966.
According to legend, the initiator of the construction of a giant automobile plant was the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Alexei Kosygin, who was soon supported by the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev.
The choice fell on Fiat for several reasons at once - firstly, the left movement in Italy was one of the strongest in Europe; secondly, the Italian concern offered the most favorable conditions. In addition, the USSR took into account the fact that the Fiat-124 was recognized by European experts as the car of the year.
The agreement determined the models that Italian specialists had to adapt to Russian conditions - Soviet citizens were offered two cars in the "norm" configuration with a VAZ-2101 sedan and a VAZ-2102 station wagon. In addition, the luxury car VAZ-2103 was supposed to be put on the conveyor later.
At the request of Soviet engineers, changes were made to the design of the Fiat-124. So, the car received a more progressive overhead camshaft in the cylinder head. The ground clearance has been increased, the suspension has been redesigned and strengthened. Based on the results of the tests, it was decided to abandon the rear disc brakes - they were replaced by drum brakes.The first VAZ-2101 rolled off the assembly line on April 19, 1970, the sale of new items started in September, and on October 28, the first echelon with cars was sent to Moscow for sale, which received the name "Lada" after the name of the mountains near Tolyatti. Already in 1973, a record 380,000 VAZ-2101s were assembled at the plant.
Return youth
The collection of the Novosibirsk businessman Sergei was visited by 12 Soviet oldtimers - among them there is a sparkling VAZ-21013 of 1985, restored to factory condition. This modification was distinguished by more comfortable front seats, as well as the presence of reflectors on the lamps and direction indicators.
“The previous owner looked after the car very well, so I got it in very good condition with a range of 23 thousand kilometers. However, I still had to do a full body painting and put on stock Soviet tires, ”says Sergey in the middle of his huge garage, which reigns in perfect order.
Here, the entrepreneur restores the old Zhiguli with his own hands. According to him, it's not cheap. “When I first started, I bought a 1983 VAZ-2106 in Tomsk. I bought for 60 thousand, plus shipping, it turned out about 80 thousand. At the same time, the full painting of the car cost 65 thousand, ”he calculates.
Sergey explains the high cost of painting by strict requirements - on average, a car is painted for half a year, authentic car enamel is selected for work. “If you paint with modern paint, the car will no longer have a collectible look. On average, it takes about 200 thousand rubles to restore a car, ”the businessman continues.
For example, the cost of original Soviet rubber in perfect condition can reach up to 10 thousand rubles per tire. Even the original chrome wipers for the Zhiguli are sold for at least 1,500 rubles. Sergey clarifies that the original bumpers are the most scarce - they ask for up to 15 thousand rubles, depending on the condition.
“Collecting old Soviet cars for me is primarily nostalgia, you remember your youth. For example, on weekends I go to the city in the “six”, and I am overwhelmed with emotions,” admits a businessman who drives an Infiniti in everyday life.
However, he notes that with the proper approach, the restoration of Soviet cars can become a business. “The biggest financial success was with the Niva in 1979, which Muscovites bought from me. Now there are clients from Estonia who take five cars at once,” says the interlocutor.
For those who intend to join the ranks of fans of Soviet oldtimers, the businessman advises to pay attention to the classic Niva - these cars are very popular in the West, so there is always a chance to profitably sell the restored car to foreign collectors.
Hello classic.
The collector Eduard became the owner of the VAZ-2101 by pure chance - a friend said that he was selling a car that had been mothballed for 40 years. The 1976 car was in perfect condition with a range of 15 thousand kilometers.
“I didn’t even do a restoration, I just washed, cleaned and polished. Rides like new, boasted the owner. “Now I put it up for sale for 300 thousand rubles, people laugh, but I don’t care, because everything in the car is native, in perfect condition.”
Eduard opens the hood and proudly shows the features of the first generation of "kopecks". For example, instead of a water tank, there is a so-called "warmer" - a soft bag into which windshield washer fluid was poured.
In the trunk is a bag of tools that came with the original car, which is a rarity today. In the first batches, the set included a trigger handle, with which the car could be started relatively easily in winter.
According to Eduard, he currently has three Soviet oldtimers, and their maintenance costs a man quite inexpensively. “The only prerequisite is that the car must be in a dry garage. Otherwise, ownership is easy,” he says.
For safety in winter, the collector pours a full engine of oil, coats all parts with grease and silicone. After that, the car is placed in a dry garage. “You don’t ride this car every day, it’s a pity. Therefore, the consumption is small. Now I was driving around the city, so people turned their necks. For me, this car is for the soul, ”the man admits.
According to Eduard, it was the first generation of the classic Zhiguli that was the most reliable. “The body iron is thick, all the seams and joints are brass, and besides, at the beginning, Italian parts were put on the models,” he says. Later, the quality deteriorated, the modernized Zhiguli began to suffer much more from corrosion.
The owner of the VAZ-21011 of 1978, Igor, is sure that the first Zhiguli have already become classics and will become more and more interesting for collectors every year. At the same time, while these machines can still be bought relatively inexpensively, in addition, copies are often sold in excellent technical condition.
“Mostly they take a car for the soul, someone has nostalgia, it turns out a car for the weekend - they sat down, drove, the mood improved,” says the car owner. At the same time, some collectors are sure that the purchase of the first Zhiguli is a good investment, since in the future their value will increase.
“Now you can still buy a VAZ-21011 on the market for 40-60 thousand rubles, but if the car is restored to factory condition, then the cost soars to 250-300 thousand. In the future, such a machine will cost half a million,” he says.
The orange "penny" has an unusual history - it has been serving the same family for 38 years. First, the car passed from grandfather to son, and then to grandson. In recent years, the car was no longer in use, but still managed to dash off a decent 72 thousand kilometers.
Despite the serious work experience, the Zhiguli is in excellent condition, the only thing missing is stock tires. “Restoration was practically not carried out - only the rear wing was repainted due to a scratch,” continues Igor.
According to him, the main value for the collector is the original parts, the more of them left, the more expensive the car. Some even put home-made replicas of Soviet batteries on the Zhiguli, which have not been produced for several decades.
As Igor notes, compared to other popular Soviet oldtimers, it is relatively easy to find original spare parts for Zhiguli. However, recently they have begun to rise in price - for example, the original mirror for a "penny" costs about five thousand rubles on the Internet.
Why are some VAZ cars called "Zhiguli" and others - "Lada"? My grandfather says that "Lada" are "luxury" modifications of VAZs. Who came up with these names and what is encrypted in the logo?
When in 1966 the construction of a new plant for the production of small passenger cars began in the Soviet Union, it turned out that it was almost as difficult to come up with a name for it as it was to build workshops.
If you give the company a name by analogy with other allied auto giants (GAZ, KrAZ, MAZ), the abbreviation will turn out to be dissonant. This question, which was not the most important at that time, remained open, and in official documents the enterprise under construction was called the “Plant for the production of cars in the city of Togliatti”. The current name of the auto giant was involuntarily suggested by the employees of the Fiat company, with the technical assistance of which the Soviet construction was going on. To shorten the above phrase, the Italians began to write in their specifications "Plant on the Volga". Togliatti veterans recall that after that, from the beginning of 1967, the name "Volga Automobile Plant" - VAZ - took root.
And the whole country came up with the name of the car. An all-Union competition was announced, the results of which were summed up on November 1, 1968. Among the ten thousand proposed names, there were some that were not entirely appropriate: “Carnation”, “Argamak”, etc. One hundred options made it to the “final”. And the godfather of the mass Soviet small car, they say, was the then secretary of the regional party committee, who approved the name Zhiguli for the VAZ-2101 and other models of the "classics" - after the name of the mountainous area near Tolyatti.
"Geographical" names were often given to products of the Soviet automobile industry, but soon an overlay "surfaced" with the "Zhiguli". When they began to prepare export deliveries of the VAZ-2101, it turned out that in some European languages there is a very similar sounding word "gigolo", which was called a young man leading an antisocial lifestyle. Then, in the department of foreign economic relations of VAZ, they came up with a foreign name for the Zhiguli - Lada (Lada). This primordially Russian word means "beloved", it is simply written and sounds good in all languages. This name became a foreign pseudonym "Zhiguli", and with the renewal of the model range, it began to be used in the domestic market. Starting from last year, all VAZ cars are called "Lada".
Together with the VAZ-2101, the trademark of Togliatti cars was also born: a boat under sail, made in the form of the letter B - the capital letter of the name of the plant. Since then, the emblem on the Lad radiators has changed several times, but the stylized boat on the Volga smooth surface has always been preserved.
Igor Shirokun
Photo by Sergey Kuzmich and AvtoVAZ
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The Italians, friendly to the Soviet Union, were entrusted with building a new modern automobile plant in Togliatti. The agreement signed by the USSR Ministry of the Automotive Industry with the Fiat concern in August 1966 meant not only the construction of a full-cycle enterprise, but also its equipment, as well as staff training. The new production was named "VAZ" - the Volga Automobile Plant.
The emblem for the VAZ models had to come up with Soviet designers. The idea to place a rook on the badge, as well as the sketch of the future logo itself, belongs to Alexander Dekalenkov, an employee of the capital's management of the plant. The Italians were instructed to make emblems for cars. By the way, there was an incident connected with this. The first three dozen logos were issued by Fiat with an error - instead of the letter "I" in the word "Togliatti", the Italians wrote "R". The curiosity did without scandals - the defective logos were urgently replaced.
From the first days of work, the Volga auto giant had no problems. The demand for cars was such that sales were limited only by production volumes. After about a year of operation, the plant produced 100,000 kopecks, and after another two and a half years, the millionth VAZ rolled off the assembly line.
The prototype of the VAZ-2101 was the FIAT-124. Outwardly, the VAZ-2101 differed from FIAT only in more massive bumper fangs, recessed door handles and, of course, emblems. But in terms of filling, the Soviet car was in many ways different.
FIAT-124 was not a technical revelation even in the mid-1960s. The classic layout, dependent rear wheel suspension, four-speed gearbox - no better than most competitors. The engine with a lower camshaft was also in line with the trends familiar to a mass car of those years. But the VAZ-2101 engine, although it retained the working volume of the Fiat engine, received a different center-to-center distance and an upper camshaft in the block head - the Soviet delegation insisted on this innovation, visiting Italian factories and noting that FIAT is actively developing engines with upper shafts.
VAZ 2101
This innovation will then greatly backfire on the reputation of VAZ cars, when the camshafts begin to fail en masse - the problem will be solved far from one year later. In the meantime, the design of the tender 124th is being actively processed for the harsh Soviet life. The operating conditions of the car were assumed to be tough, so the diameter of the clutch disc lining was increased from 182 to 220 mm, the gearbox was redesigned, the rear suspension was changed, “removing” the shock absorbers from the springs to facilitate their subsequent replacement.
They abandoned disc brakes at the rear, because on the roads of the Soviet hinterland they were very dirty and wore out quickly. By the way, later FIAT on the descendants of the 124th returned to the rear drum brakes. Reinforced ball bearings, springs, in many places - the body. A hole for the crank appeared in the front bumper (it was again abandoned starting with the VAZ-2105), and under both bumpers there were towing eyes.
VAZ-2105
In the 1970s, the VAZ-2101 and its successors were quite competitive even in the Western European market. Indeed, in principle, buyers received the well-known FIAT at a noticeably lower price - dumping was the basis for the success of Soviet cars from the very first years of export abroad. In the socialist countries, Zhiguli were generally in short supply - for example, in the GDR, in order to receive the coveted car, one had to stand in line for more than ten years.
VAZ-2103
A lot of the novelties of automotive technology in the USSR for the first time massively appeared precisely on the Zhiguli. Prior to the VAZ-2101, disc brakes were installed only on passenger ZILs. In 1972, a vacuum brake booster, a tachometer, and an electric clock were installed on the VAZ-2103. In 1975, the headrests of the front seats appeared on the Six. In 1980, on the VAZ-2105 - the first Zhiguli with completely new (except for the roof) body panels - an engine with a timing belt drive, block headlights combined with marker lights and direction indicators. Two years later, the VAZ-2107 appeared with anatomical seats equipped with built-in headrests.
VAZ-2107
In addition to the base engine with a volume of 1.2 liters, versions 1.3 were later released; 1.5 and 1.6 liters, differing in diameter and piston stroke. In the 1980s, a five-speed gearbox appeared on the Zhiguli. VAZ was the first in the USSR, albeit in small series, to produce modifications with single injection (VAZ-21073) and diesel (VAZ-21045).
But by the end of the second decade of Lada production, against the background of classmates, they already looked like aliens from a long time ago. The interior is cramped, the engine power is low, the brakes are weak. Carburetor engines did not meet the tightening environmental standards. All this was exacerbated by a decrease in the quality of components and assembly.
VAZ-21073
The last Lada-2107 (the name Zhiguli quietly fell out of use), the production of which in Togliatti was discontinued in the summer of 2011, retained the main features of distant ancestors. The main difference: injection engine with a capacity of 73 liters. With. at 5300 rpm (the carburetor version developed 77 hp at 5600 rpm), corresponding to Euro-3 standards. In all other respects, it was no longer the model whose owners were less fortunate citizens in the early 1980s looked enviously sighing. During post-perestroika modernizations and optimizations, it was gradually simplified in detail and not only. In recent years, the differences between the fifth and seventh models have been reduced mainly to external design.
"Kopeyka" began to be delivered abroad in 1973. At the same time, the "export" brand "Lada" appeared. As it turned out, the name "Zhiguli", which was worn by all VAZ cars, is consonant with the French word "Gigolo". Therefore, it was necessary to rename the export Zhiguli to Lada. Subsequently, cars for the domestic market began to be marked with Ladami, subsequently completely banning the name "Lada".
With the advent of the nineties and the collapse of the USSR, the plant faced an unprecedented concept - "competition". Against the backdrop of criminal wars for control over the VAZ, which claimed hundreds of human lives, a stream of used foreign cars poured into the country. Decades of existence without competition hindered the development of the auto giant, and VAZ cars were hopelessly behind foreign ones. The Russians lost interest in the Zhiguli, and the plant had to reduce the production of cars. The state tried to solve the problem by raising customs duties on the import of used foreign cars, but this did not help.
After years of searching for a way out of the crisis, he was found in cooperation with Renault-Nissan. In 2008, the alliance became the owner of a 25% stake in AvtoVAZ. In the same year, AvtoVAZ got a new chief designer - Steve Mattin. Previously, he held similar positions at Mercedes and Volvo.
Previously, when access to Russia for imported cars was almost completely closed, most drivers thought that the products of the domestic auto industry were very good and quite at the level of Western cars. The Zhiguli, copied from the Fiat of the mid-60s, were perceived as an excellent car until the mid-80s, and even the Moskvich 2140, the ugly fruit of successive upgrades to the chassis of the pre-war Opel, the documentation for which was taken out of the occupied Germany, supplemented by incest with separate parts of Ford and Renault, seemed a worthy car.However, the flow of new and used foreign cars that flooded into Russia in the early 90s immediately put everything in its place, showing that even the relatively cheap “folk” FORD models developed in the late 60s and early 70s are head and shoulders above what they drive conveyors of Russian factories - and better and constructively, and in terms of workmanship, and in terms of convenience for the driver. I remember well the shock caused by the study by familiar drivers, accustomed to the domestic 24th "Volga" and "Moskvich" 2140, Ford Granada and Ford Taunus cars - how they were surprised by the huge gears of the gearbox and rear axle, made with a huge margin of safety, how amazing the quality of the metal seemed everywhere, from the transmission to the body, and how unusually comfortable they felt in the cockpit. And after the Japanese “big three” (Toyota, Nissan and Honda) in the late 80s set new standards for the reliability and frequency of car maintenance, which are still too tough not only for American, but even by and large European manufacturers - the gap in the technical level of cars between the Russian automobile industry stuck at the technological level of the 60s and foreign (especially eastern) automotive industry has become blatant.
This is so obvious that now no one is arguing with this, except for the completely stubborn “soilers” who have never driven anything but a GAZ-53 truck. It is clear that the level of comfort, safety, handling and reliability of almost any Western car is many times higher than that of any domestic one. It is clear that when, on the one hand, there are “millionaire” engines (1,000,000 km before overhaul) and “eternal” galvanized bodies, and on the other hand, somehow assembled engines of an outdated design and bodies made of cheap low-quality rolled products, painted even without a primer - the difference appears immediately, and over time it grows more and more. While the owner of an imported car is driving, the owner of a domestic car is jingling wrenches under the car or fawning over the mechanics and shaking in crowded buses waiting for the next repair to be completed.
However, one myth associated with domestic cars still remains. This myth is a myth about the CHEAPEST of domestic cars, which consists of two things:
Low price new or used car
Low repair costs
If we analyze this idea point by point, it turns out the following: in fact, only a home-made amateur or a relatively rich person who wants to quickly learn how to drive can buy a used (more than 2 years) domestic car - in the first case, a person will not enjoy driving (which will be little), but from digging in pieces of iron (which will be many), and in the second case, a person gets the opportunity to make all possible mistakes (“catch” open hatches, cling to arches at the entrance to the yard, bend the suspension on tram tracks, etc.) for the lowest price, and then just throw the car away or sell it for $150-200 for parts. This is indeed an economically reasonable way - if you do not value your own life, which can very successfully stop due to a ball valve that has fallen off at speed or brakes that have not worked in time. By the way, one of my acquaintances is a good illustration of this thesis - he began to drive a "Moskvich" -2141 and rather quickly got into an accident with a head-on collision, somehow survived, the car could not be restored - he bought a new one (again "Moskvich" -2141 , the benefit of spare parts in the form of a flattened car, a whole mountain formed), and again got into an accident (now, during emergency braking, the welding of the brake pedal fell off - and he was taken out to the intersection right under the stream of cars). He bought a third “Moskvich” - and for four years now there has been no hearing or spirit from him - apparently, he was unlucky for the third time (see Fig. 1) ...
Fig. 1 This is how the VAZ 2110 looks like after a collision at a speed of 49 km/h with a collapsible barrier with an overlap of 40%. I must say that his SAAB9000 of the same age after a collision with the same barrier at a speed of 120 km / h looks much better, and its passengers remain intact.
I won’t rant here about the state of passive and active safety of domestic cars - everyone knows very well that they are frozen somewhere at the level of the global automotive industry of the early 70s. But this is also superimposed on "rationalization" in production (for example, it is precisely because of it that the front brakes of VAZs are prone to annual "souring"), seasoned with the terrible quality of components and assembly. Many have seen VAZs on the road with the front wheels turned out due to the destruction of ball joints - and yet this happens at full speed, and the driver can only pray that the uncontrollable car does not endure under the wheels of an oncoming KAMAZ ...
The life of the owner of a NEW domestic car will not be cloudless - it will continuously “crumble”, as if it were a long-term used one, due to poor assembly and low-quality components, but here the owner has at least some chance with careful handling and continuous investment of effort and funds (immediate complete anti-corrosion after purchase, total overhaul of all dubious components, expensive high-quality imported spare parts) to bring the car to acceptable conditions so that it drives more than it was under repair, and so that the driver does not expect tricks from her every minute. What all this will cost is a separate question, but, as a rule, as a result, the total cost of the “brought to mind” VAZ “Ten” will exceed the cost of the new DAEWOO NEXIA Uzbek assembly - which, although it is an Opel Cadet of the 80s of development and in comparison with modern “Japanese”, it sucks in all respects, but still initially much better than any “licked ten”.
The idea of buying a NEW domestic car deserves special attention, driving it for the factory warranty period (or a little more until the next serious problems appear), repairing it under warranty, and then selling the car to some suckers, adding money and again buying a new domestic car. The idea is attractive, but has a number of pitfalls:
The domestic car now has such a workmanship that, without a preliminary bulkhead, it falls apart into pieces after 5-15 thousand km of run - that is, six months of intensive operation. In fact, the current Volga and UAZ do not drive at all without an immediate bulkhead, Moskvich Svyatogor leaves the factory immediately incomplete and with a body on which rust crawls out exactly after a year of operation (try to sell it like that later), IZH Oda is a galvanized bucket with a sea of constructive defects - in short, immediate investments cannot be avoided.
The hope for a "free" warranty repair is extremely illusory. In fact, in case of any serious breakdown, you will be offered to wait a month and a half for the arrival of spare parts (if you want to ride, get out of the subway, drive to your health), not forgetting to demand maintenance at a branded service station with prices inflated at times. Due to your overpayment for routine maintenance, "free" repairs are financed, plus crappy spare parts, plus eternal bagpipes and swearing with the masters, who make no sense to repair you well - if only the warranty lasted until the end, and at least the grass does not grow there.
And most importantly, now almost everyone has already figured out what such a scheme is fraught with for the buyer, and therefore, in the first two years, a new domestic car loses its price at a breathtaking rate, even if it does not drive, but stands in the garage. Nobody believes in speedometers and service books - what country do you live in, comrade?
Therefore, it turns out that having bought a new "top ten" according to this scheme, in two years you lose somewhere around $ 3K on the fall in its price and maintenance costs. For $ 1500 a year - for such money you can not only keep some Opel Kadett in a sparkling condition, but also an eight-year-old Japanese woman of a higher class (for example, Toyota Karina E) can not only be repaired, but also licked to a shine.
The second component remains - LOW REPAIR COSTS. Here the logic of the owner of a domestic car is simple: yes, I repair much more often than the owner of a foreign car, but spare parts for my car are much cheaper. Whether this is so, and whether the cheapness of spare parts compensates for more frequent repairs - I wanted to see.
Finally, there is another reason that makes domestic cars like the VAZ Classics and Chisels attractive to not too wealthy drivers. This reason is the extortion of the traffic police. It's no secret that the owner of a sparkling foreign car is stopped "to check the first aid kit" much more often than the one who rides in a rusty six. Again, road trips are organized for those who drive a fresh shiny foreign car (or the most prestigious domestic car), and almost never affect the owners of modest used vehicles.
A special article is the problem of car theft and vandalism. As Alexander Smirnov, head of the criminal police of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg, said at a press conference, in 2001 about 5,000 hijackings were registered in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. More than 3 thousand stolen cars (60% of all thefts) are domestic "eights", "nines" and "tens", which are then dismantled for spare parts. 1493 German cars (30%) of Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW brands were also stolen. Moreover, among foreign cars, in addition to German ones, only the Toyota Land Cruiser jeep got into the "risk group". As for vandalism, not a single car is insured against it, however, thieves prefer to break off mirrors and break windows, climbing into the salon, on domestic cars and well-groomed foreign cars. In other words, the owner of a domestic "chisel" is most at risk of joining the army of robbed motorists, while the owner of a used Ford or Opel risks practically nothing, especially if the model of his car is not the most common, and the year of manufacture is not too fresh. It got to the point that over the past few years, not a single car of such a prestigious and iconic brand as Subaru has been stolen in St. teenagers cannot “ride” them because of good standard anti-theft devices, while every day a dozen domestic VAZs are stolen in the city, the vast majority of which are immediately dismantled for spare parts and sold at car markets. If out of the stolen foreign cars every 8th one is still found, then the statistics for VAZs are deplorable - they manage to find a few, and even then, as a rule, they are already half-dismantled or "naked" bodies.
As a result, the idea of the FFF project began to look like this:
Find an inexpensive used foreign car that would be no less accessible for repair on its own than the domestic “chisel” 2108, the spare parts for which would not be expensive, which would not consume a lot of gasoline and would not stand out too much on the road from the flow of domestic cars, and not would be attractive to car thieves and vandals.
Why repairing a foreign car is more profitable than a Soviet car
Despite the paradoxical nature of this statement, repairing a foreign car is indeed often more profitable. The fact is that when you replace a failed node on a foreign car with a new branded one or from reliable spare parts manufacturers, you can be sure that in the near future (or rather, during the entire service life of the node) it will no longer bother you. Replacing the assembly on a Soviet car with the same domestic one, you are not sure of anything - the quality of spare parts is now such that their installation is a pure lottery. I'm not talking about various fakes, defective spare parts and outright swindle, when handicraft “refurbished” spare parts are sold under the guise of new ones. As a result, when a newly installed ball joint unexpectedly flies out or a “completely new” shock absorber starts to leak, you end up not only on the cost of a new (and again “lottery”) spare part, but also on the work of replacing it, and often also for diagnostics (a typical case is a malfunction of the carburetor, power and ignition systems, gas distribution, cylinder-piston group, when it is not so easy to understand what exactly has failed).
This does not mean that everything domestic is necessarily bad. It is quite possible, for example, to buy fuel and oil filters made in St. Petersburg, or use domestic fasteners, hoses and clamps in cooling systems, washers and fuel lines. But God forbid you to block domestic CV joints from “chisel” or ball joints from “classics” to a foreign car - such momentary “savings” will not lead to anything good.
Separately, it should be noted the situation with spare parts for Soviet cars produced by serious Western firms. Their quality is not inferior to the quality of spare parts for foreign cars, and the prices are somewhat lower due to the fact that they are imported in large quantities and sold more vigorously, as well as due to competition with cheap domestic spare parts. In this case, it makes sense to remake some systems of your foreign car to use such "Russian" spare parts - for example, put a "Zhiguli" WEBER-32DCR instead of a standard carburetor or use milled pads for "Niva" manufactured by some European companies instead of regular brake pads.
In general, the idea is this: if you have “golden hands” and at the same time do not feel sorry for your own time (like it costs nothing) - buy a “chisel”, it will really be cheap and at the same time in six months or a year you can with a wrench in your hands thoroughly study the structure of the car, as well as become a deep connoisseur of local aftermarket markets. There is only one problem: you will have to travel quite rarely and not far. If you don’t have a lot of free time, and you can calculate every hour spent in dollars - domestic cars are not for you, they simply will not be profitable. About how exhausting the constant expectation of “well, something hasn’t fallen off for the third week already - is it really today?”, I’m not talking about ...
Ergo: repairing a foreign car is more profitable, because less often.
Why a used foreign car is better than a new Soviet car
Firstly, do not believe those who will assure you that “and nothing has broken in my Zhigula for the third year” - these guys are cunning. Actually, all cases of the so-called “indestructibility” of domestic cars can be divided into two groups:
These are “Zhigulis” of the 70s, maximum of the early 80s, and mostly “classics” (models 2101-2106). In those years, the Italian equipment at AvtoVAZ had not yet had time to completely wear out, and no one particularly saved on the quality of metal and coatings - therefore, in the total mass, there were individual successful cars that were well assembled from more or less high-quality parts. I myself have such a “penny” in 1971 in the garage, it is still on the move - well, there are practically no domestic parts there, even the bolts are branded “Fiat”.
This is again a Zhiguli (as a rule, Sputnik or Samara 2108), which were planned to be exported (or re-exported) in the late 80s - early 90s. Their bodies were stamped from a different iron, painted better, assembly was more carefully controlled, and many components were imported. This also includes the early “Muscovites” - “Aleko” and “Svyatogora” of export execution, as a rule, with VAZ or Renault engines. Among these machines, reliable copies also periodically came across.
These two cases, with a successful combination of circumstances and investing money and effort into the car immediately after purchase (full anti-corrosion, total broach, adjustment, reassembly of poorly assembled components, replacement of an obvious marriage), really made it possible to get a car that could, with careful operation and maintenance, leave 5-7 seasons without major breakdowns (any “little thing”, such as torn cables, breaking switches and warping doors, the owners of domestic “cars” have long been considered breakdowns). However, approximately from the second half of the 90s, the “shop closed” - the domestic auto industry became completely uncompetitive in the world market, hopes for export earnings were gone, equipment fell apart, good metal became unavailable during the day, and the last criterion remained for the domestic market - low price for a "new" car. And the factories began to save on everything - from assembly and painting (they painted the bodies without even washing off the oil left on the iron from the press dies, and immediately with the final paint, without primer, etc. - and even often not in an immersion bath, but to save expensive paint with spray guns from the outside), and ending with components and materials (a typical example is regular “Zubil” seats, the filler of which with some probability crumbles into dust after about 3 years of operation). All this, superimposed on the stupid design of cars (which is worth, for example, the front suspension of the Moskvich-2141, in which the rubber bands basically do not go longer than 20-25 thousand km, no matter what you put them on, or the electrical connector in the “chisel”, lying under the mat in a non-drying puddle and rotting away in half a season), gives a deadly effect - all my friends, the owners of new domestic cars, repair them all the time, during everyday trips around the city, a month does not pass so that something serious does not fly out - from shock absorber struts to a water pump and from electronic components to body welding.
To prove this thesis, I will quote from the Autoreview describing how the one-year-old Oka was sent on its last journey for a crash test: At first, the Oka stubbornly did not want to start. Then, already on the road, "bite" the front brake pads. Halfway through, the ignition began to mope, then for some reason the carburetor became clogged. And at the entrance to the Dmitrovsky training ground, the Oka desperately rattled the rear wheel bearing. She resisted like a cow being led to a slaughterhouse, and seemed to understand that now neither her one-year-old age, nor only 26,000 kilometers of run would be of any use to anyone.
Do you get it? The car, which is a year old, having traveled some miserable 26,000 km, practically fell to pieces during one short trip around Moscow. Does anyone really need something like this? But they buy, damn it! Twilight of the mind, and only ...
The degradation of the domestic auto industry can be traced even by the VAZ album of body parts - the tolerances for the dimensions of the window and door openings of the "Classics" are +/- 2 mm (by the standards of the Japanese - insanely many), on the VAZ2108-2109 already +/- 5 mm, and an apotheosis in total is the Niva, on which the tolerance is set to +/- 6 mm. Think about it - the factory stamps are crooked and worn out so much that deviations in dimensions of more than a centimeter are declared acceptable! How will the glass hold in such openings? How can you hope that water will not seep into the cabin?
In addition, the problems of domestic cars are not limited to frequent breakdowns and repairs - the fact is that even when the Soviet car drives, it drives in such a way that at times you think “it would be better if it was laid up”. Actually, these problems can be grouped into two large groups:
Low level of comfort, poor ergonomics, heavy control - in general, everything that leads to rapid driver fatigue.
Low level of security - both passive and active. This includes all the reasons for the high injury rate in accidents and the reasons for the increased likelihood of an accident (poor handling, maneuverability, low dynamics, weak brakes, unreliable chassis).
Apparently, no one will argue with the first point now - after all, even on the extremely cheap lightweight Fiesta, an air brake booster and rack and pinion steering (by the way, quite easy even at low speeds) are installed, and comfortable seats with lateral support and a high ceiling complement the comfort cabin to the minimum acceptable level. I’m not talking about the fact that the interior of domestic “cars” seems to have been designed by some masochists - well, why put a fuse box in the “chisel” so that it constantly clings to the driver’s boot? Why was it necessary to make these sharp corners sticking out from everywhere? And why are these terrible, hard-to-turn switches strewn across the panels in such a way that you have to reach for them, distracting from the road? Why in the Fiesta nothing sticks out under the driver’s feet, and all the controls are grouped so that you don’t have to reach for them - and even the starting enricher (“choke”) is placed on the steering column, and the windshield wiper control is on the steering column switch? And this is the Fiesta of the very first generation - that is, the designers of Ford from the very beginning design cars for the driver, and 20 years of production of the same junk does not help the domestic auto industry - even during this period, ergonomic flaws do not really get better, because that no one at the factories really needs it, "and so they buy."
In the same piggy bank, you can add rough suspensions that transmit vibrations of the wheels to the body, noisy engines, axles and boxes, non-rigid bodies (especially for five-door “chisels”) with poor sound insulation, somehow hung with rattling and creaking plastic - all this does not just cause a feeling of discomfort, but also indirectly affects driving safety - after all, everyone understands that a driver who is tired, irritated by squeaks and clanks reacts more slowly to traffic conditions, often makes wrong decisions, etc.
Much can be said about the second point. No one has ever seriously designed the weak bodies of domestic “cars” with the expectation of absorbing impact energy and safe deformation. Therefore, in the event of an accident, the interior warps in the most arbitrary way, various sharp corners of the power elements of the body crawl out into it, the doors jam tightly, and the unfortunate driver and passengers strive to break their skulls, hitting their heads on the body pillars. On some models, the neglect of passive safety goes so far that these cars turn into real coffins on wheels - a typical example is the Oka, which has rightfully earned the popular nickname “Box of Death”. Among the mass of flaws in its design, a hard U-shaped hood stands out, which does not crumple in a head-on collision, but enters through the front glass into the body, literally chopping off the heads of the driver and front passenger. Side impacts, even rather weak ones, easily break through the thin doors of the Oka, causing serious injury to the driver or passenger. The passive safety of the “Chisel” is also not too high, and even a rear impact can be deadly in it - the backs of the front seats easily break in half, the spines of the driver and front passenger break along with them, and then paralysis for life or death follows - like cards lie down.
Safer (in the "passive" sense) "Moskvich" -2141, "Svyatogor" and "Volga" - simply because of their large size and weight, but they have serious problems with active safety. In general, all “sovkomobiles” are poorly controlled (cars of the classical layout are unstable on slippery roads, and front-wheel drive ones, as a rule, are prone to an unexpected breakdown in the skid of the front wheels) and have poor dynamics due to low-power engines with poor acceleration curves (this increases the time of maneuvers and increases the likelihood of accidents). Only “Svyatogor” with a two-liter Renault engine and a heaped up “Eight” with an injection engine 1.7 and sports suspensions more or less drop out of the series - but their prices are no longer very compatible with the concept of “cheap car”.
At the same time, even such a cheap EuroFord, developed in the mid-70s (“Fiesta” and “Escort” of the first generation), is much safer and better driven than “modern” domestic cars. I put the word “modern” in quotation marks, because there is actually nothing modern in the currently produced soviet vehicles - these are designs based on units and technologies of the mid-60s level. And nothing changes - for example, the external design of the new Niva was designed for 9 years, during which time three chief designers have changed - and they started doing it when the chassis was already ready. That is, the car that VAZ passes off as ultra-modern and is only going to be put on the assembly line with the assistance of General Motors, has a chassis that is at least ten years old (of course, based on units that are at least twenty years old) and a design that is already eight years behind the world level. Thus, if by the time of mass production of this device you compare it with a used foreign car 8 years ago, you will find that this foreign car is structurally more modern than the “novelty” of the domestic auto industry.
Ergo: a used foreign car is better than a new Soviet car because it is newer in design, more convenient, more comfortable and safer.