People often ask me why I bought a Soviet Lada Niva as my personal car in Ukraine.
Asides for the fact that I think they look rather cool and have 4x4 as standard (excellent for the winter roads of Ukraine), they are also extreamly easy and cheap to repair.
The problem with my Niva ended up being a broken front right wheel bearing and the main wheel bolt was completely stripped of thread. The bolt problem probably caused the bearing to break.
A lot of mechanics in Ukraine will not touch Nivas, or older soviet cars, and I am unsure of the real reason why. I don't think it is out of stoic patriotism. But after calling a couple of garages in town I found one who said he would work on it without issues.
The car was taken to him and he took off the wheel to look at the problem, he then walked into his workshop, rummaged through an old wooden box he had in the corner, and pulled out an old bolt, and an old torn up cardboard box. He had the two parts I needed just laying around his workshop, probably for the last 10 years. The cost of repairs was 500uah ($12) as he did not charge me for the parts. He also noticed that my transmission case had a leak of oil from the seals, new seals were 300uah + 600uah for installation.
In total the repairs to my Niva were 1400uah ($31)
The Skoda Octavia will still be quite a lot more expensive to repair. And so far from the $445 that has been donated we are a little under half way there.
Thank you to all who have donated so far.
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