Lada: Who needs evolution? =)

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

Comments

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile in Russia...

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

As everyone knows, it's a Fiat-licensed spinoff that is still seen a lot on the road in Russia today. Likewise in Romania, the "Dacia 1300" was a spinoff of Renault 12, this was contracted in 1966 and the production was started in 1969. They are still seen on the roads today. Dacia 1300 represented the middle-class aspiration of the working class, appearing synchronously with the dictator's nationalist disassociation from the Soviet invasion of Czekoslovakia. This sort of national-socialist disavowal of the Warsaw pact alliance was a step towards the national-paranoic state of the 70's and 80's. Many now say that the reason the dictator was never taken down by the military is because they were afraid of the possibility of a Soviet puppet dictator.

More interesting stuff in the book Dacia 1300, My Generation, by a Swedish writer in 2003, also made into a movie:

http://issuu.com/eroik/docs/dacia_1300
http://www.stefan-constantinescu.com/index.php?/works/dacia-1300-my-generation/

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Moskvich was/is also a spinoff of Renault. We tried producing a car called Aleko here, which was a spinoff of Moskvich which is a spinoff of Renault. It didn't last.

The new Dacia models are quite popular here these days. Tough and affordable. Almost as popular as Skoda.

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

Yeah, new Dacia is selling well here too (the large model), and Skodas as well (ofc they cost more). They Dacias are mostly manufactured in the Tangiers factory, the Romanian factory being close to shutting down due to higher costs of labour. When I was in Russia last month, my client there gave me rides in his fairly new Dacia SUV that he drives like a maniac on the city streets. I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the SUV and I didn't realize how crazy the Russian drivers can be!

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Oh, you mean the Dacia Duster! It's cool.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Lada does have a few different models. Note that I'm not calling that "evolution", but still. :-)

My mother's sweet ride

[ed-rex.livejournal.com]

I'll never forget that February morning in Sudbury, Ontario (Canada, damn it!), when the radio reported the temperature was -44C (yes, minus forty-four, no typo) and, as I got to my mother's Lada, I realized I had forgotten to plug in the beast's block-heater the night before.

Well, we lived in the country, so no bus was going to come along and I needed to get to work. I got into the car and pushed the key into the ignition. Turned it — or rather, tried to turn it.

Nothing. No movement at all. I tried heating the key with my lighter. Still nothing. Tried more and more force until the head of the key simply snapped off in my hand.

At which point I didn't need to worry about breaking the key any more. I pulled a coin from my pocket and found it fit quite nicely into the ignition slot. I twisted for all it was worth and to my surprise - the damned thing turned.

Even more to my surprise, the was a reaction from the engine. I pumped the gas and prayed a secular prayer.

Ooooowooom, said the little Soviet car. Ooooowooom, oooowooom, ooowooom, oowooom, owooom, wooom, wooom-wooom-wooom-wooom!

It cost me $250 to get the ignition drilled, but that junky little car was fun to drive and by Christ! did it do the job in the winter!