I Bought a Lada 2107. It's Definitely a Car

The happy Trabant was the start I didn't know I needed to my day. ☺️

From a Trabant to a Lada. You're going up in life

I knew a bus driver. He loved his Lada Riva. He said it was the closest a car came to the feeling of driving a bus. I'm still not quite sure what to make of that statement.

Loved the video! Your problem is that you are not using the Lada correctly. That back seat should be stuffed to the headliner with watermelons, or potatoes, or chickens, or a cow. Basically whatever needs to go to market. Also, the engine should be at redline, or maybe a little over whenever you are on the highway. If you need to pass a car, make sure you do it in the lane of the oncoming traffic (preferably in the presence of oncoming traffic). You should never put a Lada on a lift. Simply roll it onto one side, and prop it with a 2x4 to work on the underside of the car. At least, this is how I saw Ladas used when I lived in a former SSR.

Good work, man. I had a Lada 2106 for a few years. Cost me a fortune to rebuild the suspension every few thousand kilometers, was gas thirsty as an airplane, but took me where I wanted to go. I, personally, noticed that every Lada had its own character - pedals, shifting, engine - never the same.

Greetings from Hungary! This 2107 with the big chrome grille was called “paraszt-merci” in Hungary which roughly translates to “peasant-Benz”. Btw, unlike any other communist countries (edit: as it turns out from my fellow former eastern block viewer’s comments, not unlike, but: like other commie countries), you could have a western car in Hungary if you had the money to buy and to pay the taxes - only problem was Hungarian currency was not (officially, easily) convertible to western currencies, so most people with western cars actually earned the money in the west (export company employees, sportsmen, entrepreneurs, truck drivers) bought the car and moved back to Hungary, or bought those cars second-hand from the previous ones. Mercedes W115 was popular, as well as Fiats, VW Beetle, some French cars. Like 90% of the cars were commie cars tho. And… you should definitely get a rear-engine communist era Skoda once. Better than Trabant, worse than Lada… and a very interesting one. Very popular in the countryside. Aluminum OHV four-cyl four stroke with only three crankshaft bearing, a legendary (and pretty crappy) engine which was in production from 1933 to 2003, unique layout, unique sound, unique problems, terrifying handling, but very much fun. You’d enjoy. And we’d enjoy the videos about it :P

I vote for a Wankel swap. Make use of all those digits on the tach.

The fact that both you and the seller didn't notice how many gears this car has is adorable.

I literally yelled "GOOD GOD" when you said the price. You deserve the 5 speed transmission.

We (family of four) moved from Hungary to Britain (and back, a couple of years later) in one of these :) It was an experience

You've socially arrived... you went from a lowly Trabant all the way up to a Lada. You've finally achieved rockstar status. Love your videos and your wonderful sense of humor.

Ladas were pretty popular here in Finland. They were robust, reliable, easy to service and cheap. Also, they worked well under cold winter conditions. They obviously did not have any decadent western comfort features like electric seat heaters et cetera.

These(2106, 2107) are really often used as a fun winter-drift cars here in Russia. I am regularly seeing them wrapped around a pole or in a ditch, what a view to witness😊

Amazing video! I am from Russia myself, and my dad used to own this one (in white though). It was a while ago, and it surely wasn't "the nicest car" one could get in the 90's, but it was extremely common. It is cheap, easy to maintain, especially if you know at least something about cars. But even if you don't, the prices for fixing this kind of car if something breaks is not a big deal. It works fine when the temperature is -30 C or lower. And it can definitely do what a car has to do at first place - bring you places. Yes, that sums it all, but nobody expects more really. It's a cheap basic car. No comfort, no fancy interior, no nothing. Sometimes I see people trying to make these look fancy, spend a lot of money on sound system/nice seats etc, but I never really understood that. Nothing can make this car fancy enough for the money you would have to put into it. But a lot of teenagers buy these as their first car and some are having lots of fun, drifting too X_X Funny thing, in some places it is very useful even nowadays. I know a couple of people who get this sort of car (or something like Niva) in addition to the other cars their families own, so that they would have a car that can be used for nasty things. Like carrying heavy/dirty shit around, using it in places like villages where there are no normal roads and you would need nothing more but "something that can carry you and your stuff around". Not everyone can buy something expensive and shiny for this sort of thing. Plus, since it is cheap, Lada can be the only option for those who cannot afford more. After watching this video I kinda want to have a ride in one of these. Just for the sake of good memories. Not about the car, but about the time spent in it with nice people.

I grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada in the 1980s and 1990s. My parents owned two of these. One was poop brown, one was a pee yellow. The yellow one, our dealer actually sold a dealer installed option automatic transmission by buying Chevette 3-speed automatics from the Chevrolet Oldsmobile Cadillac dealer across the street. My mom couldn't drive a stick, so that's what my father bought her. My father was so cheap he figured why buy a new car when he could get two for the price of one. The rustproofing was horrendous. After a few years I can remember looking down at the carpet and seeing the road flash before me. At least they came standard with a tool kit in the trunk. I will say these were popular in Eastern and Atlantic Canada because they had decent ground clearance in the snow and handled potholed roads well. Rustproofing aside, these powertrains were tough as hell. They were cheap, and they sold very well, along with the Hyundai Pony. But, when Hyundai joined the Canadian market with the Pony and Stellar, it I think was the death knell for Lada in Canada. They stopped selling new cars in Canada in 1997.

The Econ gauge is likely just a vacuum gauge. It goes from yellow to green to red because your engine is most efficient at whatever the “green” zone is. You might have a vacuum leak at that gauge that is causing the engine to run weird at times. That’s worth investigating.

Greetings from Finland. In the 80's Lada was the most sold car here for many years. I had 2 of this model. 1,3 and 1,6. Cheap, reliable, easy to service, very warm in winter.

Greetings from Yakutia! Somewhere in 1998, when I was 10 years old, my father bought a red Lada 2107. It seemed to me the perfect car. How I loved to sit in the front seat and listen to music. My father has been dead for almost a year now. I almost shed a tear when you showed the dashboard. Memories flooded back. Thank you.

There is one idiom about Lada - it is never 100% fixed, but it is never 100% broken either. Even if something breaks on the go, you can screw it on here, turn it there on the same go, and drive to your destination. That is why Lada was loved and loved to this day. In addition, for many folks, this is the first car, as it is cheap, usually around $ 300 and it is cheap to maintain and service. Your Lada is in very good condition by the way. Its Awesome

When you drive a Lada, you drive it for the feeling! The smell of the enteriour of an old Lada is unique! And I tell you, as I experienced: the older Ladas, the round headlights versions were a little bit more fun to drive. They were a little more stabil on the road, the gear was better shifting one, and you could upgrade it with a fifth gear. The only thing that was dangerous or funny of this car, that the back of it was so light, that in wintertime you had to have two sacks of sand or cement in the luggage room to be able to start runnig with it on snow, and not to spin around all the time. We loved that car back in time here in Hungary!