Start with what the Lada Samara is: a 2-door convertible / 3/5-door hatchback / 4-door saloon / 2-door panel van / 3/5-door SUV with 1.1L VAZ 21081 I4, built from 1984 to 2013, in the age of turbocharging and the first electronic engine management. What it meant takes a little longer.
How it came about
The VAZ-2108, known as the Lada Samara in much of Western Europe, is a series of small family cars produced by Soviet/Russian vehicle manufacturer AvtoVAZ under the Lada brand between 1984 and 2013. The model name Samara originally was used only for exported models, in the Soviet Union the same model was called Sputnik ("fellow traveler", "satellite") until 1991, when the sedan version of the Samara entered in production, using the export name.
It was the first front-wheel drive serial car built in the Soviet Union since the LuAZ-969V. The Samara was repeatedly modified and restyled during the years of production before it was finally discontinued in December 2013.
The hardware
The engine is 1.1L VAZ 21081 I4; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Drive goes through a 4-speed manual / 5-speed manual. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 2460 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
In the Lada line-up the Lada Samara has a clear place: it replaced the VAZ-2105 (or Lada Riva); it handed the line to the Lada Priora; the factory was Togliatti. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Toyota MR2, the SEAT Ibiza, the Renault Espace. Its Lada stablemates include the LADA Granta and the LADA Kalina.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Lada Samara — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.