Thread: What is the worst car you have worked on?

Originally Posted by laney

Lada Niva just look at a part and it broke even new parts broke before fitting timing chain would jump teeth or snap for no reason lifted the top of pistons just for laughs.

The poor little cars cop a pizzling though.
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My son had one for a while - only sold it because they had a new baby and hard to put a newborn in a capsule in a two door car. Generally relatively trouble free, I did practically no work on it because I did not need to. Performed well here, despite being abused - I remember him turning up here on one occasion with the headlights half full of water after testing the wading capability on the way in when it was pretty wet.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

My son had one for a while - only sold it because they had a new baby and hard to put a newborn in a capsule in a two door car. Generally relatively trouble free, I did practically no work on it because I did not need to. Performed well here, despite being abused - I remember him turning up here on one occasion with the headlights half full of water after testing the wading capability on the way in when it was pretty wet.

That must be a Lada thing, I must owe Jerry an apology.
They did have a tendency to drop the front diff, housing and all, if jumped, regularly.

Back just out of high school one of my mates Dads was the accountant for "Lada Australia". He said they used to import them, basically strip them down to the last nut and bolt and put them back together again with everything properly tightened and replacing anything broken. That fixed most of the major issues although bits still fell off from time to time.

I asked how that could possibly be profitable and he just said they negotiated their buy price from Lada such that it was.

One of my mates (different one) from school had one for years. He reckoned you just needed to keep a sharp eye and ear for the bits that fell off so you could loop around and pick them up. The wiper arms seemed to be particularly problematic.

<sigh> They just don't make them like they used to.

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Originally Posted by BradC

Back just out of high school one of my mates Dads was the accountant for "Lada Australia". He said they used to import them, basically strip them down to the last nut and bolt and put them back together again with everything properly tightened and replacing anything broken. That fixed most of the major issues although bits still fell off from time to time.

One of my mates was worked for Lada and did just that, he also worked on their rally team and still owns one of the cars.
He reckons the early ones were good because they were thoroughly gone over before sale. To increase profits later ones were not inspected anywhere near as much and quality suffered.

Originally Posted by V8Ian

That must be a Lada thing, I must owe Jerry an apology.
They did have a tendency to drop the front diff, housing and all, if jumped, regularly.

You'll keep

Nothing wrong with a Lada

My Dad traded his Holden Drover on a Niva. That was when Peter Brock's mob were doing PD. The tappets all came loose after about 100 k. I fixed those and the thing never missed a beat. The old goat hit a tree with the thing, would have written off my Disco. Because it was so new they fixed it. Strong little bugger. Worst part was the FIAT pedals. I was of course used to them, but Dad missed the brake pedal on the dirt road near home and ergo Lada meet tree. Dad liked it though, and talked Mum into trading her Subaru wagon on a Samara. She kept that for about ten days. Awful POS. The bloody door fell off, only held on by the check strap. Couldn't turn the wipers off unless you disconnected the batt.

What do call a Lada with twin exhausts?
A wheelbarrow.

When Dad died Mum sold the Niva for more than they paid new. Some bloke came to Yarra Glenn from Mt Gambier for it. Couldn't believe it, car was pristine and had ALL the stuff it came with. Probably still got it.

Didn't the Niva have a heated rear window, to keep your hands warm when pushing it home?