Front upper and lower ball joints showed wear and needed replacing.
Outer rubber boots on front wheels split and replaced.
Taillight bulbs checked as some were not working.
Steering was a little bit loose and was easily corrected by adjusting the relevant nut as indicated in the manual.
Soundproofing the transmission tunnel, inside, eliminates noise.
The Niva is, without doubt, the most honest and reliable four wheel drive vehicle in the small to medium class.
It will literally go anywhere, where others will bog down and fail.
Reliability is an outstanding feature of this Russian car. The strength and ruggedness it displays, is truly remarkable. The thickness of the metal body panels is almost twice that of any other car. The suspension is robust and designed for longevity.
The Niva is certainly a strong and reliable off-roader and is ideally suited to Australian conditions. In Australia, the most popular car is the Holden, which is produced by General Motors. In Russia, General Motors combined with the giant Avto-Vaz Company, in a joint venture, to produce the new 'Chevy Niva'- which I believe has been a great success. I wonder whether G.M. has considered importing the new Niva to Australia under the G.M. banner and marketing it through its vast network of dealers? The Chevy Niva, I believe, would be a winner for G.M. here in Australia, as it would provide them with an excellent product to take on established rivals such as Suzuki Vitara, Toyota RAV-4, Kia Sportage etc. The Chevy Niva has a very modern design, and with the G.M. inspired 2 Litre fuel injected motor, the true four-wheel drive system, and the proven reliability of the vehicle, it will certainly shake up the market here in Australia! I, and many others, would love to see the new Niva out here in the not to distant future!
The thickness of the body panels, mentioned by the reviewer, reminded me of a true incident, which occurred in the mid 1990`s in the Republic of Georgia. An assassination attempt was conducted by unidentified rebels against the Georgian leader, Eduard Shevardnadze- as he was leaving the parliament building. The perpetrators had packed a green- coloured Lada Niva with explosives, and detonated them by remote control- just as Shevardnadze appeared. Television news at the time, showed Mr. Shevardnadze sitting in his singlet in a hospital chair, and looking dazed. His face and hands were cut and streaked with blood. What had happened, was that the Niva did NOT blow apart- instead, only the window glass shattered, and Shevardnadze was slightly injured by flying glass. The miscalculation by the perpetrators, was to use a Niva as a car bomb- any other car would have probably disintegrated (as the rebels would have intended), and the Georgian leader would have been killed. I have a photo from a news clipping, from that time, showing the Niva just after the event. The car is badly burnt, with all the windows blown out, but the entire body shell is still intact. So next time someone asks you whether the Niva is tough, tell them about this factual incident. No wonder many people think of the Niva as an army tank!
The toughest vechile I have ever owned. Constant 4wd plus diff lock means it was unstoppable by any terrain--purchased 2nd hand when 4yrs old I drove it for another 4 years over appalling unmade tracks, ice, snow and through flood water plus day to day running about. My daughter was so impressed she bought one as well.
Yes I agree we would all love Holden to bring back the Lada niva, but they won't! We all thought that when Isuzu stopped making cars and went back to trucks that the Niva would come here to replace the Jackeroo and the Frontier!
The 1.7 injected has GM injection on it and you can run a Holden Commodore VK alternator instead of the throw away genuine which costs a fortune!
Also the fuel pump is a Holden Commodore pump!
Just a few tips to save some money!
Lets keep our fingers crossed that Lada Niva will return to Australia!
After all Fiat cars returned this year! Maybe the fiat importer might bring them in!
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