Start with what the GAZ-2308 Ataman is: a Pickup truck with 2.4 , built from 1995 to 2001, when airbags, anti-lock brakes and Japanese build quality became the world standard. What it meant takes a little longer.
How it came about
The GAZ 2308 Ataman is a Russian off-road vehicle produced by GAZ from 1995 to 2001. It was developed as a utility vehicle intended for both civilian and institutional use and was one of several new models introduced by GAZ during the post-Soviet period. It was GAZ's first factory pick-up truck since the 1940s GAZ M415. Firstly released in 1995 as the GAZ-2307, it was a body-on frame pickup that shared it's front suspension, wheels and tires, rear axle, engine and gearbox with the GAZ-31029 Volga while the cab came from the GAZ-3307 truck. Only a pick-up prototype was built, although a wide range of versions, including vans and tippers, was to be produced. These were to be produced in both rear and front-wheel drive versions, but in reality only this real-wheel drive GAZ-2307 pickup prototype was ever built.
In 1996, GAZ decided to turn the concept into an all-wheel drive pickup, with otherwise minimal changes, and rename it GAZ-2308 "Ataman". The Ataman featured a body-on-frame construction and a four-wheel-drive system. Most examples were produced as two-door pickup trucks, although a number of derivative versions and prototypes were also developed, including station wagon and special-purpose variants. The vehicle used components from other GAZ models and was offered with both gasoline and diesel engines paired with a five-speed manual transmission. Production of the GAZ 2308 Ataman remained limited throughout its production run. The model was discontinued in 2001 and was not replaced by a direct successor.
The hardware
The engine is 2.4 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 1835 kg. Drive goes through a 4-speed manual / 5-speed manual, with lockable center differential and two-speed transfer case. The wheelbase is 3100 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
In the GAZ line-up the GAZ-2308 Ataman has a clear place: the factory was Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Honda CR-V, the Toyota Tacoma, the BMW Z3. Its GAZ stablemates include the Chaika and the GAZ 24-24.