As you were, as you remained: why LADA Niva Travel has no competitors

I can’t get used to the new reality. It’s as if the old grandfather’s thoughts were stuck in the past, nostalgic for the days when girls were younger and, most importantly, cars were cheaper. Well, it’s true that new car price tags are shocking, especially if your soul longs for something with all-wheel drive. And the only truly budget option with a 4×4 wheel setup that we could find on the market is the domestic Niva Travel. Yes, although the car is far from new, in the current economic paradigm it literally shines with new colors…

Let’s start with the most important thing: the price. In their advertisements, dealers “threaten” to give away the “Niva” for 1.2 million rubles, which, of course, is a utopia, which can only be approached by handing in your old car under the “trade-in” program and taking out a loan with all kinds of pitfalls. If you come to the salon with real money, you should focus on a price of about 1,350,000 “wooden”. Do you think it’s expensive? But let’s compare with analogues.

For example, a Renault Duster 2022 with all-wheel drive and a “handle”, imported under the parallel import scheme, costs today about 2.4 “Lama”. For the Chinese Toyota Wildlander (twin brother of the RAV4) – remove and install at least 3.5 “mults”. Suzuki Jimny New – without a penny it costs 4 million rubles. In general, Niva Travel has no competitors in terms of price. What about the quality and facilities?

What you paid for is what you got

You know, since we decided to look at this car through the prism of the price, it is quite stupid to make a face, rant about poorly thought out ergonomics, simplicity of finishing materials and other attributes that do not improve the speed at all influence way. Yes, I personally had questions about the illogical arrangement of the buttons on the dashboard, every now and then I missed the gear lever with my hand, occasionally the armrest blocking the handbrake hit furiously, the sound insulation was objectively a C-class …

But in a few days I not only got used to all this management, but even got used to it and stopped noticing such nuances at all. In a sense, what you paid for is what you got. And if you want more convenience, you have to have a much larger amount in your pocket.

But is Niva Travel very different from its forebear, Chevy? No. Our neighbor in the house has been driving a Shnivy for years and after placing two cars side by side, we came to the conclusion that apart from the exterior, they have no other differences! And judge for yourself whether it is good or not…

Urban glutton

The car fits perfectly into the urban landscape. Thanks to the design in the characteristic LADA

Good visibility and compact dimensions allow you to confidently maneuver in traffic jams, and if the car would react a little faster to pressing the gas pedal, the owner’s happiness would know no bounds. By the way, if you believe the correspondence on the “nivovodov” forums, the firmware of the “brain” adds power to the “travel”, while, however, fuel consumption increases by one and a half liters.

By the way, about consumption. Despite the fact that the naturally aspirated 1.7-liter engine with 80 hp is not at all impressive in terms of agility, it “eats” as much as 13 liters of fuel in the urban cycle. And on the highway, if you rush with the wind – 110-120 km/h – your appetite increases to 15 liters per hundred. At a speed of 80-90 km/h, consumption is more modest – at the level of 10 liters.

On the other hand, almost any car with permanent all-wheel drive consumes gasoline like crazy, so it is impossible to blame Niva Travel for a consumption that exceeds the boundaries of good and evil.

Do not make noise!

On the highway, the car confidently holds the road, and even if it falls into a hole at high speed, you will not have to overtake it, because the Travel does not deviate an inch from the given trajectory. There are complaints, I repeat, about the sluggishness of the engine, which does not allow confident overtaking, but let’s not forget that what we have among us is not a sports sedan, but a real SUV.

Annoying nuances include the weak plant “Shumka”. On the highway you hear everything in the cabin: the sound of the wheels, the howl of the transfer case or gearbox, and even what they are talking about in the cars that overtake you. Fortunately, you can improve the sound insulation with every service you customize Niva for relatively little money.

Won’t lose face

And the original element of the car is off-road. And you literally feel that within reach, as soon as you drive off the asphalt. Obviously, the steeper the jeep, the further behind the tractor you have to go, but while driving with Niva Travel, you look without fear at all kinds of fords. You engage the “lower” gear and push through virtually any obstacle that will definitely be too tough for Chinese-style all-wheel drive crossovers.

…In short, the Niva Travel seemed to me to be a completely universal car, suitable for city trips as well as for excursions into nature. Yes, the car is certainly not ideal, especially if you are spoiled by foreign cars, but with its objectively low price compared to its competitors, you can overlook many of its shortcomings.

Photo from the portal “AvtoVzglyad”.
Photo from the portal “AvtoVzglyad”.