LOCSA 2018 National Gathering

[Elanza]

The Lada Owners Club of South Africa (LOCSA) held its annual national gathering at Gariep on the weekend of 22-24 September 2018. Herewith some pics of the weekend as well as our excursion to Donkerpoort 4x4.

We invite all other members to post their pics here.

[Johan Slabbert]

That's an impressive turnout for a vehicle last sold here over 20 years ago.

I've always liked these, some say it's like a mini Range Rover off road.

[SAND]

I like the old Ladas. You never see them come up for sale

[Monkey]

I like the old Ladas. You never see them come up for sale

They actually come up rather frequently, due to age and realtive cheap prices, its hard to find one that does not have shortcut repairs done to it. LOCSA is a great source for parts and technical info, rather busy on the whatsapp groups but sadly small in numbers. At this stage we are trying to get in contact with as many Lada owners as possible as they are unaware of the club and struggle on alone.

[carls]

Daar was darem een Jeep ook!

[Skylark]

Awesome to see, those Ladas have a nice 4x4 look to them, a real small 4x4 not a Suv.

How is spares availability and prices?

And can a Lada be a reliable daily driver?

Have know a few past Lada owners and they swore never to buy another Lada, main thing was them being unreliable and spending most of the time at the mechanics and then spares difficult to get hold of.

Are these versions of Lada still widely used in Russia and East Europe?

[overambitious]

I had one for a few years, and it was my daily driver. I did have a few problems with it but nothing major.

What I realised is that because they are cheap to buy, a lot of people that buy them don't have the budget to do proper maintenance. They drive it till it breaks, then sell it on, so finding a decent one isn't easy, and even then you often have to undo the last 3 owners cable tie and duct tape repairs.

Common service items are available over the counter, like filters, brake pads, clutches and ball joints. But if you need something specialised like cv's, or gearbox bearings you have to import. Anything you could possibly want is available from overseas, and the prices are pretty cheap. The problem is that not everyone can afford to wait 6 weeks if it's their everyday car.

The other hassle is that after CMH dropped the brand in the early 2000's, there is no dealership you can take it to for a service. Most mechanics have never seen or heard of a Lada, and because of this don't want to work on them. So even though they are simple cars to work on, you have to be prepared to do the maintenance on it yourself.

[Sawdust]

In my 1 year of ownership, I got to know 2 types of mechanics working on Lada's.
1st type: Sure! How difficult can it be..??
2nd: Sorry, we don't work on those anymore..
Number 2 became more abundant.

[Monkey]

We have 2 running ladas as dailies, one swambo's and one mine. Its an old design and old cars, so maintenance is crucial.

Most parts are available on import, LOCSA imports a bulk parcel everymonth where the members club together, other options are second hand parts or those we have managed to find from Midas etc.

I once lost a bolt on one of the rear suspension arms, a Sunday afternoon just before xmas close to Coligny, turned into the first farmyard, scrounged a bolt of the farmer and on my way within 45 minutes. Ran into a new Audi A5 with a flat in the same area once, se would not have been able to carry on to Namibia on the spacesaver, had to send him back to KLerksdorp as there was none he f his size available from there to Upington.

Reliable,cause I can fix it myself.

Awesome to see, those Ladas have a nice 4x4 look to them, a real small 4x4 not a Suv.

How is spares availability and prices?

And can a Lada be a reliable daily driver?

Have know a few past Lada owners and they swore never to buy another Lada, main thing was them being unreliable and spending most of the time at the mechanics and then spares difficult to get hold of.

Are these versions of Lada still widely used in Russia and East Europe?