Rear screen washer has never worked.
Fuel hoses around carburettor had perished, but easy to replace.
Carburettor worked loose, causing a variety of unusual problems (just tightened it up with a new gasket).
Can be troublesome to start 10-30 minutes after a run.
Good low-end torque and good acceleration.
Cruises well at 70mph @ 40-50mpg. Will reach over 95mph at a push, but you don't really want to be driving like that..
Mine looks brilliant with the stock 'Flyte' body kit on, otherwise they look a bit... ridiculous.
Tough engines (really tough!), strong Russian shocks, high ground clearance and tough steering/running gear make the car very durable.
Headlights and foglights so bright it feels like driving in the daytime when it's dark.
The Samara handles well, follows where you point it despite the high ground clearance.
Parts incredibly cheap. Ludicrously cheap. Excellent and thorough help available from other Lada owners online.
I had a 1991 1.3 Samara special edition called a Sedona. It had a ridiculous body kit more suited to a Mitsubishi EVO.
It was the last Lada I owned after an original 1200 model and 2 Rivas. Not a nice car. Build quality was worse than the Riva, the seat cushions were awful, crap alloy wheels that were porous so the tyres needed pumping up twice a week. The engine was noisy but reliable, gearbox notchy (the 1200 best gearchange I have ever experienced. Best thing about it was like all Ladas, utterly reliable. Bought it cheap, had it 6 months and sold it. I sometimes get misty eyed about the old orange 1200 I had, but never about the Samara.
Due to embarrassment, I took the badges off it and once bluetacked the Lada badge on my boss's new Jaguar, he saw the funny side one he saw that the badge wasn't glued on.
The "crap" alloy wheels are not Lada`s fault. They would have been a local product, along with all the other add ons. The Samara (in standard factory guise), is an honest, reliable car. And it doesn`t over-heat like the boss`s Jaguar. Perhaps, he should have left the Lada badge on the Jag. That way, at least his car would have been viewed as reliable.
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