Russia still buys as many Lada Nivas as Australians do RAV4s, despite being nearly half a century old

The venerable Lada Niva 4x4 has been in production in Russia since 1977, and remains one of the country's top-selling vehicles despite barely changing from its original design.

Now called the Lada Niva Legend, the compact, mainly three-door SUV has sold 23,231 units in its home market in the first half of 2024, a 36.6 per cent uplift on 2023 results (approx 16,990 cars).

For context, if the Lada Niva sold in that volume in the Australian market, it would be the fourth top-selling car so far this year, behind the Ford Ranger (33,531), Toyota HiLux (28,515), and Toyota RAV4 (25,405). With 23,231 sales, the Lada Niva would be Australia's tenth-top car brand overall, falling behind MG (24,593) but ahead of Tesla (23,116) for the first six-months of 2024.

New Lada Niva Legend models maintain the original three-door body style but an extended cab-chassis (based on the now discontinued five-door version) is also available. The Niva is powered by a 61kW/129Nm, 1.7-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with a five-speed manual transmission and low-range transfer case.

A new Niva is priced from 981,000 Russian Rubles ($AU16,500), with a more rugged Bronto variant priced from 1,404,000 Rubles ($AU24,000) that adds an uprated rear axle and suspension, plus larger wheels.

Since its launch in 1977, over three-million Nivas have been built at the Togliatti factory in Russia, with over 650,000 exported to other countries. The Lada Niva was sold new in Australia between 1984 and 1998.

The Russian car market has seen over 844,000 vehicles sold so far in 2024, with Lada as the top-selling brand with 217,631 cars, or about 25 per cent share.

Lada also currently produces the Granta, Vesta, Largus, and Niva Travel models, with the Granta and Largus borne from the brand's former collaboration with Renault.