Lada Riva

The Lada Riva is a compact family car manufactured by Soviet and Russian automaker AvtoVAZ from 1979 to 2012.

Marketed domestically as the VAZ-2105 family and in export markets as the Nova, it was produced as a four-door sedan and five-door station wagon.

Assembly began in Tolyatti in late 1979 as a modernized evolution of the earlier Fiat 124 platform, introducing square rectangular headlamps, plastic bumpers, and a belt-driven camshaft. Saloon buyers chose between four-cylinder gasoline engines ranging from 1.2 to 1.6 liters, connected to four-speed or five-speed manual gearboxes. The estate wagon version entered assembly in 1984 to offer practical cargo transport for commercial and family uses. A higher-specification sedan variant with a raised chrome radiator grille and contoured front seats appeared in 1982.

British deliveries started in 1983 through importer Motor Distributors, where retail volume surpassed 30,000 units in 1988 due to low showroom purchase costs and mechanical simplicity. In New Zealand, the national Dairy Board distributed the vehicles in exchange for agricultural butter exports during bilateral trade agreements. Specialized rotary-engine sedans delivering 110 kW (150 hp) were assembled in small numbers for the Soviet traffic police and security services. Finnish importers even created a limited turbocharged edition producing 82 kW (110 hp) for local motorsport competitors.

Rally preparation groups in Tallinn homologated competition versions under international racing regulations for national championship rallying across Eastern Europe. Production in Russia moved from Tolyatti to the IzhAvto factory in Izhevsk during August 2011 to clear assembly space for newer front-wheel-drive models. Together with preceding classic variants, total platform volume exceeded 18 million units by the time Russian manufacturing ended on September 17, 2012. Assembly at a partner plant in Cairo continued until 2014 to supply local taxi operators.