As the ship is called, so it will float. Zinovy Gerdt sang badly, but convincingly as an actor instead of Captain Vrungel. The new Kalina 2 received an unintelligent, budgetary, courtyard, bazaar-trolleybus slogan for an advertising campaign - complete stuffing. It sounds, of course, disgusting, but by this, apparently, the plant wants to inform that the car is somehow special and for 400 thousand we will be offered not only a large trunk for potatoes, but something else.
Potatoes with minced meat
Minced meat is called exactly twenty and one options that are available in the budget Lada Kalina 2 station wagon. We left the technical characteristics of this stuffed car in the table and we will try not to touch them too much, but use them only to focus on especially important points in the design. Prices in the table correspond to April 2015.
What is special about the new Kalina Universal? Headlights, a front bumper painted in body color, as well as minced meat, as they deign to call additional equipment in Togliatti:
- optional automatic gearbox, familiar to many from Grant;
- car audio with a color screen that reacts to touch;
- a semi-air conditioner, that is, almost an air conditioner, a device that cannot work in automatic mode, like a full-fledged climate control system;
- heated windshield;
- light and rain sensors;
- 625 liters in the trunk.
Kalina station wagon, equipment and prices
A new Kalina station wagon can be bought for 400 thousand on average. it will cost a little cheaper, but we will fundamentally strive for universality both from the body and from the interior of the car. The new Kalina is 6 horses more powerful than the old one, and in the list of basic equipment you can see an electric power steering and an airbag for the driver. Strange things happened to these pillows on the previous version of Kalina.
As soon as the top version of the car came out, in which the pillow was by default, cases of theft of pillows from the steering wheel immediately became more frequent. The thieves simply knocked out the glass, broke the plastic case, took out the pillow and immediately took it to the service station, where the locksmith gladly accepted them at half price. After the help of numerous raids, it was possible to put things in order at the service station, cases of thefts of pillows became isolated. But most of all, the owners of those Kalins, who never had airbags, were offended. It’s just that the luxury and basic Kalinas of the first generation did not differ visually, so it was possible to determine the presence of the treasured pillow only by breaking into the car and gutting the pillow container.
Today, the average-priced equipment of the new Kalina (about 430,000) will be equipped in the base with a central lock, radio, and a useful remote control function for the trunk lock. The most expensive Kalina in the Suite configuration will cost about 600 thousand. For this money, the buyer will receive a 98-horsepower engine, a second passenger airbag, fog lights, and a full power window.
Engines and boxes
The first thing that the owners of the new Kalins note is a clearer gear shift. This despite the fact that almost all the gears in the gearbox remained the same. Clarity was achieved through the use of steel synchronizers with a multi-cone gearing system. Brass synchronizers are a thing of the past, and although they were less noisy, nevertheless, it was in first and second gear that they most often failed. Removing a box to replace synchronizers every 15 thousand is not a bright prospect, so the appearance of steel synchronizers will delight newly minted Kalinovods.
The motors remained in the arsenal of Kalina all the same. These eight-valve and 16-valve petrol engines are all too well known to the public from past factory models. In principle, there can be three engines - 87-horsepower eight-valve, 92 and 108-horsepower 16-valve engines. They differ in compression ratio and lightweight connecting rods and pistons.
Interior, crickets and squeaks
Even experienced optimists note that there is not a hint of quality factor inside the car. The upholstery materials remain the same, still reminiscent of Grant with their spartan decoration and the hungry sheen of cheap plastic. The only element of the interior that you can’t fill a bump on is the steering wheel. It is soft and pleasant to the touch. Cheap plastic does not have even half of the fasteners that the technology provides, so squeaks, knocks and groans of panels will force the owner to deal with sealing and finalizing panels and door cards in the near future.
We do not consider such trifles as the rumble of a relay in the cabin, because these are already frank nit-picking against the background of noisy and cheap panels. The suspension on the Kalina station wagon remained exactly the same as on the Grant, only the rear struts were modified to take into account the increased carrying capacity of the station wagon.
You can find a lot of splinters, but given that this is one of the cheapest cars in the country, then Kalina can be forgiven a lot. Nevertheless, I would like to someday live to see the day when VAZ cars would be sold not because there is nowhere cheaper, but because it is a high-quality and reliable car for adequate money.