I've heard Ladas came with a crank, is that true? Anybody Know for sure?

I just read the whole link, and watched the three videos;
Thanks for sharing this!

I was a whopping four years old when this went down, so I only learned of it many years later, and quite enjoyed the read & videos :)

CdnGMfan wrote:

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MC wrote:

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DonSSDD wrote:

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MC, were you still there when the yard was full of new rusty Ladas?

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 Yeah, I moved a lot of Ladas around as well.  I recall that they didn't have typical new car smell - they all smelled like wet blankets... 

I wondered why so many people bought them, as i didn't find them to be a pleasure to drive.

I recall when they were introduced to our market, they said how tough they were and how they would rust as badly as most cars - that was obviously not true!

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 The Ladas had a thicker gauge metal than the car it was based on, the Fiat 124. If you are saying Ladas rusted as badly as other cars (I don't remember them being that bad), that is a major improvement over the Fiat since they dissolved in road salt.

 

I remember in 1980 looking at Ladas at a Burlington dealership (current site of Leggatt Kia now) that sold Volvos & Ladas. You are right, they didn't smell like typical new cars.

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 It's been a while now since I've even seen them, but yes, my memory is that they rusted quite badly.  I don't recall ever seeing any of the Fiat version that the original tooling was for on our local roads - I guess it was before my time.

unruhjonny wrote:

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I just read the whole link, and watched the three videos;
Thanks for sharing this!

I was a whopping four years old when this went down, so I only learned of it many years later, and quite enjoyed the read & videos :)

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 Glad to share.  They were such oddball cars for our market - the type of thing that we will likely never see again, with a foreign deal gone bad, etc.  The only thing that would have made it better would be if they had been Pontiacs!  

MC wrote:

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Cheviac wrote:

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I've heard Ladas came with a crank, is that true? Anybody Know for sure?

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 I have a memory about that as well, but can't confirm.  Maybe it was the Niva (4 wheel drive vehicle)?

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 Somewhere I actually have a nice 1980 Lada Niva brochure, though it's current whereabouts are unknown right now. I seem to recall a nice shot of the included tool kit that would clear up the question. They probably did come with a hand crank.

 

Skodas. Actually they are nice cars ever since they went under VW's ownership, but we never saw those models in North America. Canada got the older ones from 1980s & earlier that were rear-engined.

As far as issues I think the Romanian company Auto Dacia that was sold here very briefly took the cake as far as issues. A friend at an autobody shop told me that all new Dacia's had to be dealt with for paint issues (they repainted all of them)

The Hyundai Pony. It still had points ignition in the 1980s. Sold in Canada (not the U.S.) from 1984 - 88.

 

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 The Ladas had a thicker gauge metal than the car it was based on, the Fiat 124. If you are saying Ladas rusted as badly as other cars (I don't remember them being that bad), that is a major improvement over the Fiat since they dissolved in road salt.

I remember in 1980 looking at Ladas at a Burlington dealership (current site of Leggatt Kia now) that sold Volvos & Ladas. You are right, they didn't smell like typical new cars.

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 Nothing rusted as badly as the Fiat 128.. Some friends ran a wrecking yard in the mid 70s and one day there were eight 128s lined up out front. They were trade ins from the Fiat dealer and the oldest was five years. They were all for sale and I asked how much? He said that I had better go look at them. I had never seen a four year old car with no floorboards! All that was left was the rockers and the tunnel in the middle where the gear shift was. All the cars had rusty floors, some worse than others and one was rotten across the firewall under the windshield. This model became the Yugo in the United States.

 

Paul

a high school friend's dad was a long time GM car sales man;
he tended to find neat cars - often not from the dealership he worked at either.
The last one I saw was a white (with burgandy interior if I recall correctly) Malibu coupe with a 305/4spd.
It was no rocket, but he showed off his skills and impressed me once by pulling over on the side of Deerfoot and when traffic cleared he launched that car as best as he could, it actually got impressive rubber.
I have a couple pictures of the car stashed away somewhere, sadly (but for good reason) he pretty much forbid his son from driving that Malibu.

68 427 wrote:

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NOT AN IRAQI TAXI, BUT KIND OF NEAT NONE THE LESS.

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 Do you still have it Mike?

CdnGMfan wrote:

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MC wrote:

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Cheviac wrote:

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I've heard Ladas came with a crank, is that true? Anybody Know for sure?

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 I have a memory about that as well, but can't confirm.  Maybe it was the Niva (4 wheel drive vehicle)?

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 Somewhere I actually have a nice 1980 Lada Niva brochure, though it's current whereabouts are unknown right now. I seem to recall a nice shot of the included tool kit that would clear up the question. They probably did come with a hand crank.

 

Skodas. Actually they are nice cars ever since they went under VW's ownership, but we never saw those models in North America. Canada got the older ones from 1980s & earlier that were rear-engined.

As far as issues I think the Romanian company Auto Dacia that was sold here very briefly took the cake as far as issues. A friend at an autobody shop told me that all new Dacia's had to be dealt with for paint issues (they repainted all of them)

The Hyundai Pony. It still had points ignition in the 1980s. Sold in Canada (not the U.S.) from 1984 - 88.

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 Lada Niva crank start:

The Skodas I remember were the rear engined ones - I seem to recall that they left the Canadian market sometime in the 1980s.