Trader Dreamer: Lada Riva

The Lada Riva, or AvtoVAZ 2107 finished production three weeks ago, and for a car which is so well known, not just among car people, but also the wider public, it didn’t get much press for it. It even has the accolade of being the third best selling car platform ever built.

Photo from Patrick_Glesca

In fact, as many of you will know, the Riva started life as a Fiat 124 in 1966, becoming the European Car of the Year in 1967. Just three years later the car made it’s way to Russia, constructed by VAZ (now known as AvtoVAZ), a joint venture between Fiat and the Soviet government. Called the VAZ 2101, the car was modified or the Russian market, receiving a new 1.2 overhead camshaft engine, which was designed by Fiat but never used in their cars. Other modifications included aluminium rear brake drums, raised suspension and thicker steel.  Externally the car looked very similar to it’s Fiat relative. There was even an equivalent to the more upmarket Fiat 124 special, the VAZ 2103, featuring a 75bhp 1.5.

While the Fiat 124 was superseded in 1974, the 21013, a variant of the 2101, soldiered on ‘till 1988. However in 1980 Lada had effectively replaced the car with the 2105. I'm sure you're memorising all these numbers? The 2105 was a rather light refresh of the original 2101/2103, indeed the changes were extremely minimal externally over the 2103. It was this car that became known to us westerners as the Riva, along with it’s upmarket version, the 2107 (a chrome grille and 1.5 engine made it positively decadent) and the estate 2104.

In 1983 the Riva appeared in the UK, featuring a refreshed 1.3 engine (a belt driven development of the original 1.2), cloth seats, and not much else. Following it in 1984 saw the first Riva with the 75bhp 1.5 and rear seat belts, which was nice. Also in 1984 came the 1200L, which supposedly came kitted out with all the options, whatever they were, and the 1.2 engine that made it’s debut in the 2101 back in 1970. 1986 saw the introduction of the 2107 based 1600SLX, with a 85bhp 1.6 engine, chrome grille and plastic wheel trims.

In terms of reception, initial reviews praised the amount of metal for your pound, while deriding the genera quality of the vehicles, after all these designs were 17 years old by the time the first Riva touched down on British shores. The appeal of the budget new car clearly found a market, Lada sales in the UK peaked in 1988 at 30,000 (including the Niva, Riva and Samara). As time passed the level of criticism only grew, Lada became the butt of many jokes in UK, but still managed to sell to those who wanted a bargain basement route into a new car.

The Riva soldiered on in the UK until 1997, when the cost of fitting the fuel injection, required to meet emissions standards, was too much for Lada to justify. Even then it carried on in Russia, almost entirely unchanged from it’s 1980 launch, facelifts were proposed at least twice but the car still remained the same. Thanks to the Russian scrappage scheme the Riva managed a mighty 17k sales in 2010, but it wasn't to last, sales quickly dried up through 2011, a sign of the developing Russian car market. The base 2105 left the range in 2010, leaving the 2107, which carried on until April 2012. Supposedly the 2104 estate lives on even today, though on the AvtoVAZ website you will only find 2107 interestingly, nothing like a good old veil of Russian Secrecy. In any case, it seems the Riva we all know has been replaced by the more modern, Renault co-developed, Lada Granta.

You can't mess with the 2107's styling, apparently.

Here’s some I found

Thankfully you don’t need to penetrate that veil of secrecy to own one of these cars. At present there are two available to buy, both costing just £795. Given that they would have cost in the region of £3000 new, that’s not bad depreciation!

The first is this tatty blue 1300 select. Information is scarce, but we can see you have the luxury of rear seat belts, a radio cassette and at least one headrest. It features the more modern 1.3 engine, although that means you’ll have a belt which you’ll probably not know the age of, judging by the sparse listing. Assuming it works correctly you’ll have 72 raging horses delivered to the rear wheels. It does appear to be in significantly worse condition than the other Riva available, so perhaps use this to haggle some money off. At least it has an MOT

The downside of this better condition 1200L is you’ll have to cope with just 67bhp from it’s older 1.2 engine. At least it’s had 42 years of service in the harshest of Russian conditions to bolster it’s reliability promise. The cams are driven by chain too, so you shouldn’t have to worry about that as much. It also comes with both MOT and Tax, and deprecation shouldn’t be a worry! Unfortunately this car has just been sold as i've been writing, however there's a bonus, this 1300, that could be a 1600 (read the listing), has just been advertised. It comes set up for rallying with a cage and buckets, apparently needs some work, but could be fun with a some work.

Specifications

Lada Riva 1200/1300

0-60 18 / 16  seconds
0-100 N/A / N/A seconds
Top Speed 89 /120 mph
Power 64 / 78 bhp
Torque 64 / 69 lb/ft
Weight 995 / 995 kg
Insurance Group N/A / 5
MPG N/A / N/A

Warranty Direct Reliability Index N/A
HowMany Left 109 (all models)


Can I get it in brown?


Yes. Good luck finding one for sale in the UK however!