Daily Driver Niva?

Niva as a daily driver?

As someone whose daily driver - and frequently only car - is a Niva, I'd have some reservations about an older carburator based Niva as a daily driver for some people.

Yes, Niva's are vastly more reliable than Lada's reputation is generally believed to be. Indeed, my 20 year old Niva (touch wood) has never failed to get me home - even with a serious gearbox failure, or a broken dizzy.

Nivas are even becoming very slightly cool. The last time myself and another Niva owning buddy were ferrying students about at the polytechnic where I work, they remarked what cool retro cars the Nivas were (none knew of Lada, & barely any even of the USSR!). Even Clarkson and May concede “it is quite a rugged personable little thing … the sort of car, you could give it a name”.

But some old Nivas can be a bit of a headache; especially if you don't have the time or ability for Do-It-Yourself. The best quote I've seen to sum up an older Niva is "Nivas are always half broken, but never break down"; this sums my Niva up very well.

Older Nivas are not an ideal car for someone with little or no mechanical knowledge or inclination to learn, but is excellent for someone with a bit of knowledge or ability who wants to learn more. You need to carefully determine your priorities in a daily car - a Niva may well be the perfect car. But it also may not.

While Nivas are vastly more reliable than their reputation, they are an old design. This makes them reasonably easy to maintain yourself, but it also means they will never be as reliable as a modern-ish Japanese etc car. This no reflection on Lada - no carburator and points style ignition car ever will be reliable as a modern electronic-ignition and fuel-injected car for turn-the-key-and-forget-the-rest daily driving.

Note, this advice mostly does not apply to the newer and fuel-injected Nivas - I know very little about these, and I expect they are prefectly reliable and generally need nothing more than simple regular DIY servicing, making a good daily.

Getting a good Niva in the first place, and doing preventative maintenance is essential to running a Niva. If you don't have the time or inclination to do the maintenance, you're probably best to forget a older Niva as a daily car. But if you want a 'real' car where you can learn to tune and maintain it - a Niva is probably ideal; and you get a capable and cheap 4x4 to as a bonus.

Ideally choose a Niva that is in good condition and has been maintained properly with servicing and adjustments as per the manual and with genuine parts. Many Nivas have been badly maintained and with cheap parts giving Nivas an undeserved poor name.

Tyres can also be problem - mine chews out tyres at an alarming rate if the steering alignment isn't 100%. Affordable 16" tyres to fit the Niva are difficult to find where I live, and swapping to easily available 15" 'Zuk rims are known to cause problems (though in many places a used set of the dealer fitted Niva 15" rims are easily available and 15 niva sized tyres are much easier to find).

Parts can also be a bit of a hassle if you don't live somewhere with a Lada dealer. Where I live genuine parts are available, but must be ordered from out of town. Nice dealer, generally good prices and sends stuff out quickly - but still it's at least day or two delay compared to being able to get parts off-the-shelf locally; eg if you only have weekends for maintence this can mean a week's delay in repairs if a faulty part is diagnosed on a Saturday afternoon compared to buying of the shelf and doing the job on Sunday. Secondhand bits are also a bit scarce, and accessories very rare where I live.

Of course if you live somewhere where Nivas are common, or that has a nearby parts dealer, you have no supply worries and usualy at reasonable prices for new parts. Parts are generally very reasonably priced compared to rival 4x4s.

The WOF/MOT test can be a hassle as well if they have overly strict standards where you live. My 20 year old Niva always needs some work to pass (but we have stupidly strict tests in NZ).

Some people find the lack of power steering a problem for daily driving in a Niva. Other than parking I do not find this an issue (but I have plenty of upper body strength). I don't like having to do a lot of parking manouvers that involve lots of low speed lock-to-lock steering and generally avoid such (mostly due to the creeks and groans from the suspension and tyres :) ).

The main reason I avoid a carburator Niva for a daily driver is - economy. Unless you have an injected one (or are lucky), most Nivas seem to be on the thirsty side. Mine's often well on the thirsty side. Many Niva owners report 10litres / 100km, but like many other Niva owners mine has never really achieved that, and is currently drinking 20l / 100km (which is excessive even by Niva standards). Of course you could get a decent tune up and aim for 10l / 100 if economy is an issue.

While great fun, the permanent 4WD ability (and running costs) of all SUVs is nice to know its there, but at the end of the day simply not really necessary for daily driving. Of course on the one or two snow days we have per year, everyone in the office who lives on a hill is certainly my friend. :)

Don't get me wrong, I love driving my Niva and I love tinkering with cars, but for convenience and economy I generally use a Honda CR-X as my daily - and save mileage on the Niva for fun in the weekends.

Of course I often still use the Niva as a daily as the mood suits: ie when I'm feeling too old and stiff to crawl into the CR-X or if I've broken it in motorsport :)

Still want a Niva?

Good choice - Check out my Niva Newbies Guide

And 4x4Mart's Buyers Guide

This page lives at the www.ladaniva.co.uk/baxter domain, if you’re reading it from anywhere else you may not be reading the most up-to-date copy.