VAZ-2101 "Lada"

VAZ-21013 "Lada"

VAZ-2101, known in Western world as Lada-1200. What a nice car it was! A Russian copy (almost) of the Car of 1965 (?), it had 1200-cc OHC four-banger, not so bad for 1971 when it was introduced in Soviet market. A car I learned to drive in; quite forgiving if the battery's OK. No power options. Very little trim options. Oh well, if you've gotta stay in line for several years to get some wheelie, you don't care much about the fancy stuff. Remember we tried to keep them hubcaps shiny...
The top picture - our "old faithful" '77 2101, in the family from 1977 to 1995 (with ~115 thousand kilometers on the clock).
Don't remember a single clutch replacement (yeah, it was around '95, between 90 and 100 thou km), despite four people being taught to drive, including myself.
The car shown on the bottom is a nearly museum sample - a 1979 model 21013 belonging to Gorbunov family in N.N., very similar to a '77 we had. The remarkable feature of this particular car is that it has 10,120 km on the counter, as of 07/28/1999! The proud owner says he thinks he drives a lot when he scores 500 km a year!!!

Hey, now here's a speedin' bullet to watch. Too bad I never bothered to picture mine. My dad had one ('74), of almost the same hue of yellow that my big jeep sports. Mine ('91) was rather guacamole-sprayed. That was a screamer: 887 (that mine had) or 1200 cc air-cooled V-4, cranking out as much as 27 or 40 horsepower. There was another version (according to a book) with even more - 45 - ponies on tap, but it could only run on 93-octane gasoline (remember that in Soviet Union regular gas was 76-octane). The people's workhorse could (unofficially) carry about 100kG (~220lb) of garden tools. The book says it could make 118 km/h (~74 mph) with 1200 motor; mine did that with 887 cc "small block." Never mind, though - my speedometer gear was broken, so the speed wasn't exactly radar clocked. My wheelie had a nice feature - only clutch pedal!!! Both gas and brakes were manual - special rendition for disabled. I switched to floor brake pedal after the first trip; gas remained at the steering wheel in shape of two paddles. Wonder how are you supposed to steer AND give it a "go"?

Photo "on loan" from a website that doesn't seem to exist anymore.

I kept my Zaporozhets for less than one year - was fortunate enough to import a German Ford Granada. Man, was I happy to drive this one! It only lasted three years, never failed me except for its very last trip, when the oil pump shaft sheared and the pressure went South.
Nevertheless, she was still able to bring me home; the engine didn't throw a rod after 30 miles of highway driving. With ZERO oil pressure!!! (well, it happened when it was way below freezing outside, which kept remaining oil in gear lube state, but - anyway!).

Photo "on loan" from a website that doesn't seem to exist anymore.

Photo "on loan" from Ford Transit homepage

In '92 my brother-in-law asked me to buy him a cargo van. Gave me $900. There is not so many cargo vans for this big buck; however, given a little more, a nice lad in Edinburgh, Scotland, gave up his primary business means - an 11-years old Ford Transit van. The picture at the left gives quite right impression - you just weld on the windows and paint it rust brown, and here you go. Nice features - solid axles f&r, with very flexy leaf springs in all four corners. Not a technological marvel, it was very agreeable, and fast. Top speed was about 90 mph, sharply limited by 2-liter four struggling against the wind. Naturally, the one that I brought had right-hand steering; I felt no difficulty or inconvenience of driving it in left-hand-steered country. The owner promptly crashed her into a tree at some 50 mph after just two months of driving (chasing a bee!), restored and sold me back for the same nine hundred bucks. Still, a deal, I'd say. 

Some little guys are overlooked in this quest for excellence. After spending a week looking for a car for my wife (with options including a humongous rusted through '78 Pontiac Bonneville and character-less wagon like Dodge Aries), with a price cap set at six hundred bucks, I ran across an '85 1/2 Ford Escort station wagon. All of a sudden I remembered a praising article I once wrote about this particular car in some russian automotive rag (without ever driving a car!), and decided to take it on. A little critter that I've got sported dual-color paint, dark-blue below the line under the door handles and white (or was it gray? or metallic?) above it. The paint job was said to be an exercise of an apprentice in a body shop somewhere in Washington State. Rust was very minor for a rust-belt ten years old car; this wagon even sported a moonroof! After a few minor things done, like tie-rod ends and brake parts, this thing ran flawlessly for almost two years, never leaving me stranded on the road (read above for comparison). It took some TLC to up-keep her - bucket seats, wheels, and tires from a mid-80s Mustang, electric mirrors and some other stuff from a prematurely junked '86 Escort, CB (sure I needed it!). This car set some sort of a record for me - bought her in Feb.95 for $580, put about 30 kmi on the clock, and sold her in Dec.96 for $500 (and felt sorry I did it!).
Oh yes, forgot to mention - my wife never drove it 'cause it had a stick shift, so it was my daily ride.

Having a van or station wagon is an inherent attribute of american family life. Up to some point we could get by with Big Boat and Little Wagon (above), but in June '95 we've got first *batch* of visitors. Of course I could put five adults and two kids in either car we had (and throw all the camping gear on top), but it was getting kinda... inconvenient, that's the word. All of a sudden I started looking for a full-size van; and found that fellow instead. A :"top of the line" Ford Aerostar doesn't seem to sound like too impressive, but it is nonetheless quite a machine. This extended cab model had all the gizmos these midi-vans ever had - 4.0liter V6 (which I would gladly have on my nearly three-ton jeep!), 4-speed shushbox, all power options, dual A/C, rear ABS, and - Full-Time four-wheel drive! Not to mention the dual-tone paint, again blue below and white above. This floppy runner easily topped a 90-mph speedometer in a few trips to Toronto, Ontario. In just three months her clock put on ten thousand miles more. Sometime near the fifth month of my ownership, a transfer case chain started slipping. Like a dying starter - it misses a beat today, tomorrow it's dead. Had some fun removing a transfer case on the parking lot in Detroit under some October rain. That thing quickly ate up about $800, despite all my attempts to do most of the work. No doubt this van is a mechanics' nightmare. Only four spark plugs out of six are within an "easy" reach - from the front wheelwells. Two rear plugs can only be reached from underneath. Even to add transmission fluid takes a special funnel - or a dose of ingenuity.
But the real fun came when the snow fell. I drove that thing on fresh wet 5-inch snow on top of wet ice, and unlike the previous two cars it didn't go anywhere but forward with the gas pedal half-way to the floor, and the speed almost matched the speedo readings! That was quite a shock, believe me. From this time on I felt ever-increasing sympathy to full-time 4WD, even on the dry pavement. 
This van is still in service, more than sixty thousand miles since I bought it. At 123,000 miles, the engine feels just as strong as it did at 66,300, transmission shifts as good as it did, rear half of the transfer case was replaced free courtesy FoMoCo (and aluminum rear driveshaft replaced the OEM), the original set of Michelin XW4 tires lasted until 118 kmi (!!!), which I believe is only due to four-wheel drive. It still is our main vehicle in the ski trips to the mountains. My only and constant whine is it being ford-ish sloppy in turns - and here 4wd may be rather dangerous. I am sure it'll topple before it ever squeals a tire in a turn!

Or another station wagon? Well, somehow I decided that we (a) needed another car when we moved to San Diego, and (b) it might as well be a jeep, and (c) considering the nasty climate of San Diego, a rear-wheel drive jeep with minimum options will fit the bill. So, I've got the stripper jeep - wanna see her? NO OPTIONS FROM THE FACTORY. Neverheless, she's a pretty nice ride - cannot call this four-banger gutless, nice good-shifting five-speed stick shift, incredibly agile in traffic - guess a Honda Civic would be more hassle to park (for lack of visibility), and proved herself pretty able in the desert in competent hands of my brother - she's got stuck when my big jeep required low range on top of four-wheel drive! She's only got some minor things done to her, like BMW Alpine tape player, some re-upholstery, almost complete Dynamat treatment, aluminum wheels with 29" tires (replaced 27" Michelins XW4s - which I wish I didn't do), and to get something from extended warrany - ChryCo replaced the entire exhaust system for rumbles and rattles (with a few nasty words said to a dealer's service department). I might even slap on a front axle from a junked jeep and a transfer case - and then she'll be a proud member of a 4x4 family.