in Russia the price of a VAZ-2101 reaches 20,000 euros (VIDEO)

In April 1970, the first VAZ-2101 car, nicknamed the “penny” in the USSR, rolled off the assembly line of the Volzhsky Automobile Plant. To Soviet people, this car, the prototype of which was the Italian Fiat-124, seemed like a dream, a masterpiece on wheels. It turned out to be just that: a real people’s car, reliable and durable, outliving its first owners. At a referendum held by the magazine “Behind the Wheel”, the VAZ-2101 was recognized as the best Russian car of the twentieth century, and a monument to the “kopek” was opened in Moscow.

And it all started with the fact that in 1966, the USSR Ministry of Foreign Trade entered into a general agreement with the FIAT concern on the creation of a project for an automobile plant and its construction in the Soviet Union. Well, when choosing the base model for the assembly line, they didn’t go far: it was in the same 1966 that the Fiat-124 received the highest international recognition – the title “Car of the Year”.

True, when tested in the harsh Soviet realities, far from European standards (roads, climate, maintenance), the “Italian” showed itself to be a sissy, breaking down like a girl, refusing to go. It was necessary to make half a thousand changes and modifications to the basic design – large and small. The car for Russia had a new engine and a more rigid body, improved brakes, suspension and gearbox, and increased ground clearance. As a result, what came out of the VAZ assembly line in 1970 immediately became for the Soviet citizen not only a means of transportation, but also a luxury. A sign of wealth and prosperity.

Just four years following the release of the first car, in 1974, the plant produced 660 thousand Zhigulis – a dream on wheels rolled off the assembly line every 22 seconds. And in total, almost 5 million cars were produced between 1970 and 1988. “Kopeyka” became the most popular model not only of the plant, but of the entire Soviet automobile industry.

By the way, regarding the Zhiguli. This name for the car, proposed by VAZ tester Alexey Cherny, won a difficult struggle. Among more than 50 thousand proposals from all over the country, there were words such as “Katyusha”, “Falcon”, “Violet”, “Ataman” and other sonorous words. The matter was leaning towards the choice of VIL-100 (this, remember, was the year of Lenin’s 100th anniversary), but at the top they decided that driving the “Vladimir Ilyich” was somehow apolitical: Well, the people, as often happens, found their own name – “kopeck”!

With him the car has survived to this day. She still comes across us on the road, scurrying between Mercedes, “Koreans” and the current Chinese electric locomotives. According to Autostat, in Russia alone there are over 100 thousand VAZ-2101 cars running on their native roads, and the vast majority of them did without major repairs only thanks to the golden hands of the owners of these rarities.

If you look at car websites, among the hundreds of advertisements for sales of “penny” cars there are proposals of a radical nature. From “I’m selling a car that has been sitting in a garage for 40 years, everything is original” to “The car is rusty through and through, but it starts and drives.” And the prices are appropriate: from 35 thousand rubles for those who want to move into a garage for a long time to restore a car from the ashes to 2 million (20 thousand euros!) for nostalgic eccentrics and collectors.