Cars Made In The Eastern Bloc

SAINT PETERSBURG, RUSSIA- SEPTEMBER, 29 (RUSSIA OUT) A stuntman with LADA Estate car jumps into the Baltic Sea during the exercises of Russian Emercom Ministry units shown at the International congress Road Safety for the Safety of Life in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on September, 29, 2016. (Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images) /

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MOSCOW, RUSSIA – OCTOBER 14: Man waiting for Car assistance in his Lada at Place of the Revolution near the Kreml Palace on October 14, 2009 in Moscow, Russia. Moscow is the biggest european city with more than 15 million inhabitants. (Photo by EyesWideOpen/Getty Images) /

Lada Riva

The Lada Riva started life as a licensed and modified Fiat 124 from the Soviet manufacturer VAZ in 1970. The VAZ-2101 and subsequent models were exported under the Lada brand, making it the rare Eastern Bloc item sent to the West. Under the hood of the VAZ-2101 was a 1.2-liter four-cylinder engine that was paired with a four-speed manual or three-speed automatic transmission.

Consumers had the body style options of a sedan or a five-door station wagon. Various models were in production until 2015 and it is the third best selling car after the VW Beetle and Ford Model T. By the end of its run an estimated 18 million Lada Riva’s were sold.

Not bad for a car that Jeremy Clarkson referred to as, “simply the worst car in the world”.

Plus Charlize Theron drove a 1986 Lada 1600 in “Atomic Blonde”. That has to count for something, but I’m not sure what.

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