The GAZ Sobol is a truck / / minibus from GAZ, built from 1998, when airbags, anti-lock brakes and Japanese build quality became the world standard. Under the bonnet: Petrol engine.
Where it came from
The GAZ Sobol (Russian Соболь for Sable) is a series of Russian light-duty trucks, vans and minivans, produced by the Gorky Automobile Plant from November 1998. GAZ refers to the Sobol as a minivan.
Under the skin
Power comes from Petrol engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It shifts through a 5-speed manual. 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 108.7 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
Its family tree is legible: assembly was at Nizhny Novgorod. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Audi TT, the Cadillac Escalade, the Ford Focus — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the GAZ catalogue sit the Chaika and the GAZ 24-24.