Posts from ‘Russia’
1980 Lada Niva
Most Americans have a fairly myopic view of the off-road-vehicle world. Ask any of us what the most popular 4×4 on the planet is and you’ll get the answer “Jeep” nine times out of ten. Not that Jeep is a bad answer–the Wrangler remains one of the most capable rock pounders you can purchase–but despite the Jeep brand’s power, there are markets where it isn’t all that well established.
1980 Polonez
If you discount our brief encounter with the Yugo brand, Americans have had very little exposure to vehicles produced in what was once known as the Eastern Bloc. Western Europe, however, and even Canada, have had far greater access to such brands as Lada.
5 Best-Selling Vehicles (in Russia)
Sadly, the UAZ 469 “Hunter” is not among Russia’s five best-selling vehicles. In truth, this cold-war-era relic didn’t make the top 20. We’re using the classically tough-looking Hunter as our feature image because Russians vehicles just look so darn normal these days.
Serbians knew it as the Zastava Koral, we, for a brief moment in time, knew it as the Yugo GV. To no one’s surprise, a peoples’ car designed around then 20-year old Fiat technology built behind the Iron Curtain didn’t sell especially well in the United States. Mostly we pointed and laughed. For you youngsters out there, the Yugo was a really bad car import from what was then known as Yugoslavia for the 1984-1991 model years. They didn’t sell well.
