Worst Cars Ever Number 1: Lada Samara

[STA 1440]

I just saw a Lada Samara two days ago, parked on the road in Seaford, it was it's unusual look that caught my attention!

(Pieces of crap!)

[beefybake]

The (polish)fso polonez was definately thee WORST CAR ever made.....FIAT(fix it again tam engine) was woeful to say the least...

[Member1100]

ROFL!! Im flattered that almost 2 years after its creation, this thread gets to see another day......this was one of my proudest moments.

[beefybake]

Well us jocks like a laugh and we know about crap cars i can tell you...we used to make the hillman imp, hunter and the avenger at the closed down linwood plant...no wonder they closed it... the talbot range of cars were another red faced creation.....alpine,solara ..thank god the peugeot group bought them over so we can blame the french!!!

[majord]

ROFL!! Im flattered that almost 2 years after its creation, this thread gets to see another day......this was one of my proudest moments.

make that another 2 yrs!

Just found the thread accidently. Awesome write-up! I didn't know about Brocks involvment, and I'm definatly a 'car person'. Guess I was too Young at the time! (8) , though already into all things on wheels well and truely

thanks, Not sure if you've done more on this 'series' but you should if not!

[Derwent]

I have a copy of the cassette that came with each new Samara, you put it in the cassette player and it gave you an audio guided tour of the car and its controls...

I had a fellow student at TAFE who had a Samara...it was riced up to hell, blue interior, graphics all over, a wing half a metre high on the back, vinyl cutouts ofer the headlights and tail lights to change the shape of them etc...he reckoned it would do 200+...he was the biggest tosser I have ever met!

The Samara might have been crap, but the Niva was a good little 4x4. In fact, years after the demise of the Samara the Niva was still going strong, the last ones being sold around 10 years ago.

[John]

I have a copy of the cassette that came with each new Samara, you put it in the cassette player and it gave you an audio guided tour of the car and its controls...

I had a fellow student at TAFE who had a Samara...it was riced up to hell, blue interior, graphics all over, a wing half a metre high on the back, vinyl cutouts ofer the headlights and tail lights to change the shape of them etc...he reckoned it would do 200+...he was the biggest tosser I have ever met!

The Samara might have been crap, but the Niva was a good little 4x4. In fact, years after the demise of the Samara the Niva was still going strong, the last ones being sold around 10 years ago.

Did the cassette double as a blank cassette?

The Niva was listed in a couple of 1999 editions of Which Car? that I have in my collection.

Someone around my way has a Lada Niva, which actually featured in the late 1990s series Learners. I recall the father was teaching his son how to drive and made a comment along the lines of "I love the ol' Niva, you could park it with the keys in it and return days later and it would still be there."

[3805]

In Russia, the Samara is known as the "Sputnik", and to this day it is a very popular car. Quality issues aside, the Sputnik is a very simple and reliable car. But it is itnteresting how far Lada has come in just a few years. When I was in Russia a couple of years ago, I was amazed at how modern the new Ladas looked. Quality has also improved dramatically, and I for one would love to see them make another go of it in the Australian market place. Da tovarich, I would buy one...

[Bedford-29]

The Niva last roll of the dice redesigned and with a Chevrolet badge.But this model was delayed and delayed so not many were built what do you think.Picture from Wikipedia.

[scott]

How about a series on some of the weird option packages/limited editions that car manufacturers have released over the years,either as an RPO or special limited offer.

Such packages such as the Sandman,Camira SJ,Gemini ZZ/Z,Nissan Bluebird Venturer,Nissan Pulsar Reebok/Sport/Solaire, Holden Gemini Sandpiper,Nissan Pintara TR/X,Toyota Camry Sprit/Intrigue,Datsun 200B SX/Aspen etc.

Some of these models were just an attempt to sell off a struggling model, or feeble attempts to pep up an ordinary package.

[scott]

There is a set of the Lada glovebox manuals up for grabs on ebay.

These came from the glovebox of a 1994 model Niva. I wonder how the translation is. No cassette tape.

Might buy it if it is still $0.99 at the end of the auction. Will go well with the manual set I got from ebay from an ex cop VE Commodore last week

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/LADA-NIVA-OWNERS ... 1c15e51ca5

[Andrew]

How about a series on some of the weird option packages/limited editions that car manufacturers have released over the years,either as an RPO or special limited offer.

Such packages such as the Sandman,Camira SJ,Gemini ZZ/Z,Nissan Bluebird Venturer,Nissan Pulsar Reebok/Sport/Solaire, Holden Gemini Sandpiper,Nissan Pintara TR/X,Toyota Camry Sprit/Intrigue,Datsun 200B SX/Aspen etc.

Some of these models were just an attempt to sell off a struggling model, or feeble attempts to pep up an ordinary package.

Don't forget the Barina Sportsgirl!

[John]

Don't forget the Barina Sportsgirl!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXzTG6Mjg7A

You mean this thing?

[Andrew]

Yes hahaha that's the one.....

[scott]

You could use a heatgun on those decals, and get a better stereo than that old Philips radio cassette that nearly all cars in Australia had in the early 90's, which had a habit of chewing up tapes.

[mubd]

I had a fellow student at TAFE who had a Samara...it was riced up to hell, blue interior, graphics all over, a wing half a metre high on the back, vinyl cutouts ofer the headlights and tail lights to change the shape of them etc...he reckoned it would do 200+...he was the biggest tosser I have ever met!

The engine probably would have blown up at 111km/h, and if the bloke did manage to get the car to do 200, the body would have been lifted right off of the chassis.

[johnfordz]

Personally, this Lada Samara is not like the worst cars ever may be it just need a makeover in order to look nicely. As you can see even though the legend driver Peter Brock involved to kind of car, so I guess it's not the worst car ever.

[Kitare]

As the original author of this thread, im glad this is still arousing interest. The new edition of the Friday F***wit from this week will include "The 10 Worst Music Videos Of All Time" as a running feature over the next few weeks.

[Frances]

Don't forget the Barina Sportsgirl!

I do remember it - it came out just after I got my licence. Doesn't look that bad actually. I think I'd rather have one of those than a Nissan Pulsar Reebok - who would want to get inside something named after a sports shoe?

[dreyfus]

Interesting article. I seem to remember a different story. A few points. Brock was contracted to ADR the cars on arrival, do standard quality checks, fit local radios etc. There was no "rebuilding" but later on the dashes were pulled to replace the foam insulation around the heaters. The wiring looms were also modified to put things like wipers through the ignition switch. What we didn't know Brock was on the point of bankruptcy with an unpaid tax liability and he did very little, walked away from his workshop and so a grain importer suddenly had a car import business and the Brock workshop. Quality of the cars wasn't too bad, no worse than Australian produced stuff of the 1970's but not much attention to detail. The whole import business had been rushed when the successful Niva import business was taken over. There was no proper testing of the furnishings and the dash tops cracked and all had to be re-skinned. Problem was rectified with the next consignment. The cars were actually quite strong and well engineered and lasted well. The Samaras would run up over 300,000 k's without attention to the motors. But the damage to image had been done and although the Cevaro was far better finished and delivered sales never recovered. The whole business was badly handled. There are still a few Samaras, Cevaros and Sables about. Tend to be collectors vehicles now. The Lada parts dealer has closed recently but parts are quite plentiful and cheap. And yes, I still drive them.

[Merc1107]

Funny this thread pops up with mention of the Lada Niva; a little red one putters by me quite often in my neck of the woods

[homer9000]

rubbish like that made one thankful for the japanese products of the era.THE COLT,LASER,COROLLA AND PULSAR all have origins in Japan but were made in Australia at the time the Samara arrived in 1988.no automatic,a gutless 1.3l motor when all the opposition for not much more were 1.6's and poor build quality.the ladas have all gone to the wreckers by now but you do see a few but not many of the cars i have mentioned including the ones that came afterwards still about.

[slug]

Used to do 100,000 to and from work a year so really didn't mater what car I bought it was worthless after 2 years
So I bought a lada 2 door red (faster) samara
Picked it up from the dealer on the way home washers pointing forward turned out the wiper arm was not connected to motor 2 days later it cut out turning into the drive the came and towed it away 95k had it for 2 weeks got it back went sorta ok for a while the cut out again
Owned it for 6 weeks 2 weeks in the shop 6000ks rang lada Australia told them the problems etc the offers to pull the car down and rebuild it or give a full refund. No brainier refund thank you
The same car turned up back at the same yard for sale as a demonstrator then about a month later turned up in a shopping center a First Prize in a charity raffle. I asked the girl selling the tickets if this was the prize car she said yes asked if she had the keys and told her it was my old car, strange look told her it's done 6000k and ther is a burn mark under the drivers mat in the carpet (when fitting the AC solder dropped on the carpet, fix supply mats "nice") she opened the door took one look put the tickets in the back with the table and made a phone call to the charity
Next day driving home from work there's the lada back on the front of the car yard Never herd what happened to them from the charity but I bet it wasn't plesant
Geuss I wes one of the lucky ones and hopefully the raffle prize winner didn't end up with a lada aswell
James

[scott]

I remember seeing a Lada in a shopping centre raffle- one way to get rid of them I think, one dealer in my area was also a Nissan dealer, and decided it was better to donate a Pulsar GX hatch as a prize than a Lada.

[CCCC]

I recall seeing ACA ?? program on one dissatisfied customer when they were new from the Dealer selling them at Gosford.
The gearshift keep coming off in his hand was one complaint
.