25th Jul 2023, 07:40

In my experience Lada produced cars which were mechanically solid and physically built like the tanks from whose recycled steel they were often made. Weaknesses came from lack of care and maintenence and/or some abusive driving, which will do for virtually any car given time.

One winter in central Europe the engine on my second Lada froze solid, but with a little work restarted in the spring with no ill effects - in fact it ran cooler than before, as the rust inside engine block's cooling system had been largely stripped off by the freezing process... when I changed the coolant before the restart attempt it came out as a very dark brown sludge.

The only mechanical trouble I had on any Lada was the clutch slave cylinder failing, and given the miles and miles I've driven in Ladas that seems to point to the mechanics being a strength, not a weakness, of the cars.