Start with what the GAZ-31029 is: a 4-door saloon/sedan / 5-door estate/wagon (GAZ-31022) with 2.3 , built from 1992 to 1997, when airbags, anti-lock brakes and Japanese build quality became the world standard. What it meant takes a little longer.
The story
The GAZ-31029 Volga is an automobile manufactured by the Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (GAZ, Gorky Automobile Plant) from 1992 to 1997 as a generation of its Volga marque.
What is underneath
The engine is 2.3 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 1,390-1,550 kg. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 2,800 mm (110.2 in). These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
In the GAZ line-up the GAZ-31029 has a clear place: it replaced the GAZ-24-10 Volga; it handed the line to the GAZ-3110 Volga; the factory was Nizhny Novgorod. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Subaru Impreza, the Renault Twingo, the GM (General Motors) Hummer H1. Nearby in the GAZ catalogue sit the Chaika and the GAZ 24-24.