2 days ago
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Original story by Bill Tuckey first published in Drive on 16 January, 1997
Boris Yeltsin might be butcher's hook in the comics, but the Lada Niva has just done a Lazarus and returned as a healthy Aussie Weetbix kid. The title of Lada Australia Pty Ltd is now held by a Perth company experienced in the motor industry and, in a few weeks' time, it will unveil at the Brisbane Motor Show a whole new range of Niva four-wheel drive wagons.
Would you believe a Lada with leather and walnut interior? A Lada utility that's about the best thing around? A Lada off-road racer?
Now let's get this straight immediately: the previous Niva two-door 4WD wagon had the serious respect of anybody who drove it off-road. It might have been built by political prisoners from Russian army disposals tanks from Afghanistan, but it was tough.
The new wagon looks the same, but it has the throttle-body fuel-injected 1.7-litre 75-kilowatt engine as standard, so the carburettor has gone, and it now comes in four different models. The selling slogan of the new marketers is nothing if not arresting: "Nothing Comes Harder Than A Lada".
The Lada is built by Russia's biggest car maker, Avtovaz , which lately has been under threat of bankruptcy for non-payment of taxes, to the tune of about $650 million. The already-privatised company built close to a staggering 570,000 vehicles in the vast Togliatti plant last year, but apparently it's become a pawn in the fight between its owners, mostly former Soviet factory managers, and a Yeltsin-friendly group of seven bankers and businessmen.
That aside, Lada Australia marketing manager Mr Roger Phillips is brimming with confidence. His company (with a lot of people from the Alan Bond Hyundai operation that lasted until 1990) is backed by a merchant banker on the basis of a four-year plan, and he says, quite frankly, that the two previous importers "dropped the ball badly".
Lada Australia bought the last 30 Cevaros as bankrupt stock and sold them as used cars to clear the debts. "The plus is that the Lada name is known, but for the wrong reasons," he says.
So what Lada Australia is doing is appointing new dealers - Melbourne's first is Cesario Motors in Heidelberg Road, Alphington - and rebuilding the Nivas with Australian components as well as developing extra models. It has set up a big parts warehouse in Perth to take advantage of the three-hour time difference so it can provide a 24-hour instant service.
"The main problems have been poor quality plastics and the foam used in the seating, plus the need to line up the 4WD drive train," says Mr Phillips. They re-upholster all seats - at least the frames are strong, he says - change all the switchery, spread out the foot pedals and enlarge the area under the driver's feet, re-fit the spare wheel under the bonnet, add a new mesh grille . . .
The immediate result is that the base Niva is now about 15 per cent local content. More importantly, Togliatti is now sourcing things like electronics from Bosch and fuel injection from General Motors instead of agricultural cottage industry shops.
The standard Niva was re-released in Western Australia in December at $15,995, well below the competing Japanese and coming Korean 4WD wagons and backed by a three-year/100,000 kilometre warranty and 24-hour roadside assistance. It's a constant 4WD with central transfer box and cab-controlled differential lock and all-coil suspension.
The company followed this with the new Bushman version, priced at $19,995, which delivers 38-centimetre alloy wheels, off-road tyres, aluminium bull-bar, side and rear steps, driving lights and sports steering wheel. Airconditioning and roof racks are extra-cost options.
Lada Australia is also testing the market with the Swagman, for which it claims 70 per cent local content. It's looking at $32,000 for a street-legal desert racer with 80 kW engine that will rev to 8000, re-tuned suspension with progressive-rate coils, gas dampers, and heavier roll bar, 43-centimetre alloy rims with 235/45 Goodyear GA Eagle tyres, front air dam, big side sills, tilt sunroof and big square rear pipes.
It also has a full leather interior, polished wood dash, CD player, air-conditioning, carpeting, sports seats and the Swagman lettering down the side. And this is a Lada?
The model that will probably make most profit for the new Lada dealers is the $21,500 (tax-exempt $17,900) cab-chassis. Due in March, it's a three-quarter-tonner designed and built in New Zealand, where they cut the vehicle in half and add a separate chassis with rear leaf springs.
Roger Phillips retains a lot of admiration for the basic engineering of the Niva. "We have a saying that NASA spent millions of dollars developing a pen that would write in space, where the Russian astronauts used a pencil..." Bill Tuckey
What happened to Lada in Australia?
Despite a new Perth-based distributor, Lada failed to ignite the sales charts in 1997 and by 1998 had shut up shop and high-tailed it back to Russia, ending a 14-year relationship with Australia.
Lada entered the Australian market in 1984 with the venerable Niva 4WD, a basic but capable off-roader that hinged its success on affordability. But, thanks to its monocoque construction (as opposed to body-on-frame), the Australian government classified the Niva as a passenger vehicle which saw the two-door 4WD subjected to import quotas and higher tariffs, effectively scuppering what would have been its unique selling point.
That unibody construction might have hindered its Aussie invasion plans, but it did see the Lada Niva enter the record books as the world's first mass-produced off-roader built on a fully-integrated body and frame platform.
With a price when new in 1984 of around $10,000, the Niva was suddenly competing with the Suzuki Sierra and Daihatsu Scat which were better equipped and better built for similar money and from well-known brands.
Lada doubled down with the Samara hatchback in 1988 and even enlisted the help of Australian racing legend and Holden stalwart Peter Brock.
With some minor suspension tweaks, a racy body kit and some fancy alloy wheels, the Lada Samara Deluxe by Brock promised “sparkling performance” and a “truly special driving experience”. Potential buyers weren’t convinced, however and the Samara failed. It wasn’t a convincing effort and has passed into Australian motoring folklore as one of the Brock’s more ignoble skunkworks efforts.
By the mid-1990s, Lada was a spent force in Australia, with sales slowing to a trickle. The 1997 revival promised much, including a new and improved Niva and its modernised fuel-injected powertrain which pumped out modest figures of 58kW and 127Nm.
But its true appeal came to the fore off-road, where the Niva, thanks to its rugged underpinnings including permanent all-wheel drive, a lockable centre diff, and independent coil-spring suspension all round, proved adept and capable of handling Australia’s harsh bush terrain, earning it a solid reputation and garnering it a cult following.
Still, despite trying to add some Aussie flair to the Niva with models such as the Lada Bushman and the Lada Swagman concept, the Niva failed to make inroads into the Australian market, a market that was increasingly served by capable and stylishly funky 4WDs from a host of Japanese rivals, and by 1998, the boxy little Russian was no more.
It remains in production in Russia, though, where it lumbers on largely unchanged. Sure, the edges have been softened and the once-spartan interior given a modern makeover, but the fundamentals of the Niva are still firmly in place. With over three million built since its launch in 1977, the Niva remains one of Russia’s best-selling vehicles. RM
Rob Margeit is an award-winning Australian motoring journalist and editor who has been writing about cars and motorsport for over 25 years. A former editor of Australian Auto Action, Rob’s work has also appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Wheels, Motor Magazine, Street Machine and Top Gear Australia. Rob’s current rides include a 1996 Mercedes-Benz E-Class and a 2000 Honda HR-V Sport.
