What's Wrong With This Picture?: A Whole Lada Love
Published: May 18th, 2009
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More by Edward Niedermeyer
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putin should be fighting a bear
I understand that its an easy transplant to replace the motor with a 70's era Fiat Twin Cam.
Vlad isn't running away fast enough
This is the Niva SUV. Actually, for the most part it was an original Russian design. When it came out first in the 70s, it came with the 1.6L Fiat designed petrol engine. In the 90s a new 1.7L engine became available. A five-door version is also available. The car is being constantly improved. If you want to compare it to Western designs, you should compare it to something like Wrangler, also a great off-road vehicle, still based on basic design going back decades in time. Despite of all the jokes on this board, many SUV buffs know that this is a tough vehicle. Unlike pretty much all "SUVs" you see on the roads in America, Niva was designed to be a capable, comfortable, and simple OFF-ROAD vehicle. In numerous off-road driving tests conducted by Russian journals, it has performed on par with Land Rovers, and certainly much better than more civilized SUVs like Honda Passport (forgot the Isuzu name of that thing). Russian roads are terrible and the winters are cold and snowy. This is a perfect car for Russian citizens, specially those who live in provinces or rural areas. BTW, Putin bought this one specifically for fishing.