Lada Niva At 45

 Not a spotting post because an important date is upon us.

April 5, 2022 marks 45 years since the start of production of the VAZ-2121 Niva SUV, the first ever SUV in the world, which is now known as LADA NIVA Legend. 

Since then almost 2.5 million cars have been manufactured, of which 700,000 were exported to more than 100 countries.

And here are promo pictures of the Lada Niva from the yesteryear.

This is the current version, Lada Niva Legend, I believe.

Below are historic pics.

Note lamp wipers.

Lada Niva with curtains

Here is a well used-up but still solid Lada Niva with curtains in the window.

I say "Lada Niva" but the proper name for this long-running VAZ-2121 model is "Lada 4x4" as the "Niva" name migrated to Lada's Chevy Niva in the early 1990s which is the same car but with a different body.

This is a regular 3-door Lada 4x4, there is also a 5-door version and two (3-dr and 5-dr) Urban versions.

LADA 4x4

Смотрите! #LADA4x4 в Португалии. Второй кадр - уже в Испании. А как далеко от России встречали #LADA вы?:) pic.twitter.com/9QnO6HJCFC

— АВТОВАЗ (@avtovaz_news) October 14, 2015

AvotVAZ tweets LADA 4x4s spotted in Portugal and Spain, respectively.

LADA 4x4 was formerly known as the Lada Niva or just the Niva.