A messy and very dusty Lada 2105 sedan, seen in Beijing in 2007. The area where I took the pictures was, in 2007, still a sort of wasteland, all the way east of the 4th Ring Road. Much later, in 2014, I came to live in the area, then developed with loads of super new compounds.
Interestingly, the area where I saw the Lada still exists. It has a flock of car dealers now, a car-inspection center, and, sadly, a car wrecking place where the local government wrecks cars that are no longer around on the road. I have many more pictures of the site in later times when I lived nearby, but for now, we’ll stick with the 2007 set. On the right of the Lada stands a Changhe minivan, on the right of that two Beijing-Jeep Cherokees. On the left stands a very early Tianjin-Daihatsu.
That’s likely a Changhe too, with a raised roof and super cool decals on the door.
The Lada 2105, also known as the Lada Riva, also known as the Lada Nova, was a compact sedan based on the Fiat 124. It was manufactured for a long 30 years, from 1980 until 2010. Quite a few were imported into China in the 1980s in barter deals between communist Russia and communist China. Most served as taxis in Beijing and other big Chinese cities. In the 1990s, when China’s own car industry started to come alive, the old Lada lost its appeal. Today, very few are still alive.
Specifications
The base engine for the Lada 2105 was a 1.3-liter four-cylinder petrol engine with 64 hp and 94 Nm, mated to a 4-speed manual box. Other engines were available as well, but sadly I don’t exactly know what is under the bonnet here!
Minivans
Note the Tianjin Daihatsu script on the purple minivan. That’s a really old one. It was basically a Daihatsu Hijet produced under license in China. Later on, it was rebranded as the Huali Dafa, which became China’s iconic taxi van in the 1990s. I will post about that one later on. On the right stands a white Hefei Songhuajiang minivan, which was based on a license-produced Suzuki Carry minivan.
Sadly, considering the state of the vehicles and the location they were in, I expect they are no longer in this world.