Lada Riva is a car of the Russian manufacturer AvtoVAZ. Its release was begun back in 1980 under the Soviet Union and continues to this day. In European countries, the car entered the market under the name Lada Nova. In Canada, it is better known as Lada 1500 or Lada Signet, and in Brazil as Lada Laika.
The history of Riva began much earlier than the eighties. Its prototype, the VAZ-2101, which can be called a restyled version of the Fiat 124 cars, was released back in 1970. The model line Lada Riva today includes several cars: a VAZ-2105 sedan, a VAZ-2104 hatchback and a VAZ-2107.
In Russia, the aforementioned VAZ models are considered different cars that belong to the same family, which is unofficially called the "classic".
On the technical side, the Lada Riva car is almost identical to the first-generation Fiat model. The legacy Lada received from the predecessor the same equipment of the engine, gearbox, shock absorbers and aluminum drum brakes of the rear-wheel drive.
However, the main technical restyling occurred in the 90s. It was then that in order to keep up with the political upheaval of the whole country, progressive-technical coups were made on the model of a domestic car, which was supplemented by an injection engine and a silencer catalyst.
The strict political regime and tightening of security led to the disappearance in 1997 of the Lada Riva from the Western European automobile markets. At the same time, the production of the model line in Russia continued to operate on the basis of AvtoVAZ.
In 2005, the production of the model was divided between several companies. One part of the production was transferred to the territory of the Izhevsk Automobile Plant, and the other part was distributed between the Bogdan Group, Lutsk Plant, ZAZ, as well as Suzuki's Factory.
A few years ago in the UK, the Lada Riva car became one of the most popular budget cars. Riva never claimed to be a market leader, but still it was, despite the presence of competitors such as the Ford Sierra, Vauxhall Cavalier and Austin Montego.
In the early 90s, Riva was still popular with the British, but over the next few years, with the advent of new budget models from manufacturers such as Skoda, Hyundai, Kia and Proton, its sales fell sharply.
The situation was aggravated by the need for large investments to adapt Lada Riva cars to more stringent environmental standards of the European Union. This led to a decision according to which Lada Riva cars were withdrawn from the car markets of Great Britain, Canada and several other European countries.
A few years later, the Finnish importer released modifications included in the Riva line, including the Riva Signet, Riva 1200, Riva 1300, Riva 1500 and Riva 1600 models in the “E” and “L” class trim levels, as well as the Lada 2107 Turbo hybrid model with a turbocharger.
Back in 2000, the Amal foreign trade company and AvtoVAZ partner company signed an agreement to create a joint venture that will assemble Lada models, a car designed for the North African market.
Since they did not have their own production, it was decided to launch the production of the VAZ-2107 at the Suzuki plant in Cairo. And in 2006, production at Suzuki expanded due to the release of the new VAZ-2110 model, which is still being produced at this enterprise.