In the early 90s, the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant faced an increasing decrease in demand for its products. The Ministry of Defense, for many years the main consumer of UAZ SUVs, sharply reduced orders. Civilian consumers were not satisfied with the general level of comfort in the car, especially the tarp top caused a lot of complaints. Therefore, one of the urgent measures was the creation of a model of a car with a metal top.
From a mixture of old and new
The first hard top was installed on a regular UAZ 3151. In parallel, the designers of the plant began work on projects for new SUVs. Machines were developed using nodes from existing models. This allowed to accelerate the production of the machine and reduce development costs. In 1997, the UAZ 3160 appeared , which was the chassis of the old model with a completely new body. The car was noticeably more expensive than its predecessor and was not popular. Model 3160 in the photo.
However, the plant continued to introduce new units into production, gradually increasing the reliability and comfort of the machine. In 1999, the plant introduced a new model - UAZ 3162 "Simbir" with a wheelbase extended by 360 mm. By 2002, he completely pushed the unsuccessful model 3160 off the assembly line.
Comfortable UAZ
Thanks to the increased base, the new SUV had a large payload and a spacious interior. In addition, the long base had a positive effect on the ride and overall stability of the UAZ 3162 on roads with different surfaces.
The car received a completely new interior design. Designers paid much attention to increasing visibility from the driver's seat. One of the areas of work was the expansion of the glass cleaning zone - on the new model, the brushes reach almost to the front pillars of the body roof. For the convenience of landing, drivers of various builds were equipped with a steering wheel with adjustable steering angle. The steering wheel itself has become smaller in diameter, thanks to the power steering, which is part of the basic equipment. General view of the interior of the car UAZ 3162 in the photo below.
The front seats are equipped with height and stiffness adjustment for the backrest. One of the features of the cabin was the possibility of folding the seats to get berths. The rear row of seats has a folding mechanism and is designed to fit three adult passengers. Landing in the rear seats UAZ 3162 is greatly facilitated by the expansion of door openings. The width of the opening at different points increased by 180-220 mm. The longer back is clearly visible in the photograph.
With the seats folded back, a large cargo compartment was obtained. Optionally, in the trunk, two folding seats can be installed, on which four more people are placed with relative comfort. The total capacity of the car is 9 people.
Engine and transmission
The chassis of the new car has not undergone significant changes compared to the 3160. Changed the design of the rear springs, which required a large carrying capacity. For this purpose, one sheet was added to them. The front axle was equipped with a spring dependent suspension with anti-roll bar. An additional support was used in the design of the extended propeller shaft. This solution allowed us to reduce vibration when driving a car.
To ensure the basic technical characteristics, the UAZ 3162 was equipped with more powerful gasoline four-cylinder engines ZMZ or UMP. Zavolzhsky 2.7-liter engine model 4092.10 develops power up to 136 liters. with., the Ulyanovsk motor 4213.10 with a larger volume of 2.9 has less power - only 102 forces. Both motors could optionally be equipped with a pre-heater. The engine power is enough for confident off-road and highway driving.
Both motors came with a five-speed gearbox. To expand the traction range, the machine was equipped with a two-speed transfer case with the ability to disable the front axle drive. To control the transfer case, one small lever was used. Previously, UAZ used two separate levers for this.
Further development
In 2000, the UAZ plant came under the control of Severstal, which not only repaid all the company's debts, but also invested more than $ 100 million in the reconstruction of the production. Based on the luxury version of the UAZ 3162, the Patriot model was created, presented to the general public in the summer of 2005. Currently, the car is being produced in a slightly modernized form.
The last “Symbiras” were assembled in 2005 and already had many units in the design from the new Patriot model.