Not exactly “weird” but very cool - Lada Niva spotted in Switzerland

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KingHauler@reddit

As an America, a Lada Niva is my dream car.

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I live in Russia, the country of the Lada manufacturer. A large number of old people drive these cars in our country. The Niva doesn't have any extra features, but it's appreciated for its simplicity. I think the new models look great.

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cheedarpete05@reddit

Niva aside, this place looks like the Eiger Nordwand track in Gran Turismo 😅

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MoronicusRex@reddit (OP)

Close, it was in Grindlewald

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andymurd@reddit

That's straighter than when it left the factory. Very nice restoration.

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bacondesign@reddit

Probably not a restoration of an older Niva but a newer model. They are still being produced.

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andymurd@reddit

TIL. Well the quality has improved loads since the 80s.

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scroopydog@reddit

When I lived in Ecuador in 2005 they were somewhat common to see on the road and there were at least a few dealerships in Quito. I went to the car show that year and they had one tilted almost over on its side so you could see the undercarriage and I got pics of it, kinda cool. They did have a notable 4x4 system supposedly.

I’ll dig up the pics if you’re interested?

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lasskinn@reddit

The 4x4 and hi-lo are kinda the point. Its a more civilized version of the military uaz version thats more like a jeep. and it really is if you've been in one of those like goddamn sure you'd rather take a ride to the firing range in one of those than walk but going to camp you would rather sit in the back of a zil.

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speedyundeadhittite@reddit

I rode a friends in mid-90s. Cute car, but at least that one was really horrible to drive.

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TheTribalEye@reddit

They are great to drive

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Ooh_bees@reddit

That they very much are not.

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Plane-Education4750@reddit

That wasn't a difficult achievement

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MeltingDog@reddit

Yeah the plastic arches give it away

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speedyundeadhittite@reddit

No longer could be sold within the EU + UK although Switzerland might be different. The engine is way too dirty.

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ScottaHemi@reddit

real question is what year is it?

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mikhail_2003@reddit

Somewhere between mid-90's and mid-2010's

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Illustrious_Storm242@reddit

It does look like the 90s facelift

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mikhail_2003@reddit

Just re-checked, that's actually a 2009 facelift that lasted until 2019

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mikhail_2003@reddit

Yeah, introduced in 1994 and produced until 2014

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MoronicusRex@reddit (OP)

AI said 70s but I was in a train so I couldn’t get a close look at it

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rob94708@reddit

Circa 1987, I drove one of these 200 miles a night in a pointless circle in Southern California for several months.

They were planning to import them (!!!) and hired the company I worked for to find what they would need to pass emissions requirements. The company modified them and drove them for tens of thousands of miles: three shifts a day, seven days a week, people like me drove them from Huntington Beach to Norwalk and back four times, half on surface streets and half on freeways.

They weren’t US street legal for various reasons like the placement of the headlights, so we had a special certificate to show cops we were allowed to drive them.

I did it on the graveyard shift. Thousands of miles in a Lada Niva, wondering where my life had gone wrong.

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Teutonic-Tonic@reddit

Oh boy. These always bring a lada puns.

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MoronicusRex@reddit (OP)

I’ve Niva heard them

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MoronicusRex@reddit (OP)

Not sure why my pic (taken by me) was removed…

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