Did you know?

[Thotos]

Did you know that there were rotary engined Ladas?   I didn't until I found the website at http://cp_www.tripod.com/rotary/pg07.htm. According to the website they made about 100 rotary engined cars per year.

[stathe174]

I knew that Theo. The thing I didn't know about was that they made it from the 70's, I was aware of a version of the Aquarious (as it was known here) which hadf a Vankel motor in it! (late '90's early '00's)

[Thotos]

Lada stopped selling cars in the UK in 1996 I believe, but even before that there were very few Ladas sold in the UK in the early 90s. In fact I'm surprised they were still sold in Greece in the late 90s and even into the 21st century     European-wide emissions legislation in 1992  led to the mandatory introduction of catalytic converters. Lada fitted catalytic converters to their cars but retained the carburettor which meant that the catalytic converters were damaged very quickly by the inevitable over-fuelling from the carburettors. It was therefore very difficult and very expensive to get the cars through MOT emission tests once the cars were 3 years old which led to Lada pulling out of most European markets.

[stathe174]

Here we still have LADA Hellas S.A. But I think they only sell Niva's (4x4) not sure about any other models...

[Rob 131]

Lada's were popular in the UK in the 80's as they were the cheap new car option  (why not buy a used Mirafiori, Beta, Cortina in fact anything) and as I can recall from the adverts the Lada Riva had certain fitments that were only available on more luxury specced mid size saloons . I personally hated them and they were subject to many jokes.

Many were exported back to Russia in the early 90's and prices of used models actually increased for a while.
I was in a Lada Taxi in Bulgaria a few years back. It was terrible  .