Actually problem was in a very bad quality control (same as with infamous Yugo later). So some were working fine, and some were delivered with screws missing and stuff like that. Overall, yes, it was not a good product - but when you get your lada and invest some time/money into fixing all the initial problems it would work and it was very hardy and able to work in tough conditions (winter, mud, bad roads, etc.). It was peoples' car, a product of a different era and different viewpoint. Very basic, not luxurious in any way, but affordable, and ultimately it would get you from point A to point B. If it didn't, parts were cheap and you didn't need any special skills or tools to fix it, so maintenance was fairly easy. My uncle owned one for around 20 years, and that car survived a lot more than any modern passenger car could take (among the other things you could put crazy amount of load in it without breaking the axle, he transported construction material in it like it was a truck).