Is it worth buying a used Lada Vesta? Study

Vesta engine

Robotic gearbox

Car Lada Vesta sedan

Salon Lada Vesta

For fans of domestic cars, the release of the new Vesta assembly line was a real event. Finally, a car has appeared in the AvtoVAZ lineup, looking at which you can get aesthetic pleasure. The body lines are smooth, the gaps between parts are minimal, and the sound of a slamming door is not annoying! And even when you get into the car, you don’t feel disappointed: the finishing materials are pleasant to the touch, there are a lot of modern devices for comfortable driving, convenient placement of the car controls and devices inside the car. The new product looks decent, but how will it behave on the road? You should figure out whether it’s worth buying a Lada Vesta.

Main settings

LadaVesta went on sale in November 2015. It is the largest full-size sedan in class B. Its overall dimensions are impressive: length/width/height are 4410/1764/1497 mm, respectively. Compared to its closest competitors Kia Rio, Hyundai Solaris, Skoda Rapid and Volkswagen Polo, the new VAZ is larger in size and internal space.

On a note!

Ground clearance of 178 mm is also an advantage over the “four” budget foreign cars, which have 160.

Specifications

Vesta engine
The main units for the car were the developments of VAZ designers and devices borrowed from Renault. The engine line is represented by domestic engines developed by VAZ designers: a basic 1.6-liter 106-horsepower engine and a top-end 122-horsepower 1.8 unit. In comparison with its competitors, the “base” loses to the “single-volume” Kia and Hyundai, which develops a power of 123 “horses”. Polo and Rapid are partially inferior to Vesta, having at their disposal a 1.6-liter engine in two configurations: 90 and 110 horsepower, but for additional money they can be equipped with a 1.4-liter forced engine of 125 horsepower.

Robotic gearbox

In the choice of transmissions, domestic cars clearly lag behind their rivals. Reviews of the Lada Vesta on the “robot” have repeatedly criticized the too thoughtful switching. The robotic gearbox was developed by AvtoVAZ specialists to make driving easier, but it clearly falls short of a classic automatic transmission. The five-speed manual from Renault behaves more cheerfully, but is inferior to the modern six-speed gearbox of its opponents.

In terms of dynamic characteristics, budget cars are quite similar. The time to accelerate to “hundreds” does not go beyond 10 seconds for everyone. But when overcoming small off-road conditions, the Lada can give a head start thanks to its significant ground clearance.

Another unpleasant moment is the absence of a version of the car with a top-end engine paired with a manual transmission. Any car enthusiast who decides to buy a manual Vesta can be content with only the basic engine. It is unclear what this equipment option is based on. According to official data from representatives of the concern, preparatory work is underway to configure the transmission with a manual transmission for its further interaction with the 1.8 engine.

On a note!

According to the latest data from AvtoVAZ representatives, a restyled version of the Lada Vesta car should be released at the end of 2021, and top-end Exclusive equipment will appear among the trim levels.

Prices and options

Car Lada Vesta sedan
In order to decide whether to take the Lada Vesta, you need to compare it in terms of prices and equipment with other budget foreign cars.

In terms of pricing, Vesta wins in many respects. But based on the opinion of experts, the new VAZ product is inferior to all competitive models in terms of build quality and materials. Considering these facts, Lada Vesta is not that cheap.

Let's sum it up

The quite presentable Russian sedan Lada Vesta has both positive and negative sides. If you have not yet driven the new generation of the sedan, then you can confidently say after the trip that AvtoVAZ has grown. I don’t want to call this car a VAZ in the old fashioned way; I would like to use the more sonorous name Vesta. Modern design, good and beautiful style, excellent technical parameters - all this is perfectly combined in the new Russian car and has become a symbol of the growth of the domestic automobile industry.

However, praise and good words towards Vesta should not be the only focus of discussion. It is important to note the shortcomings in the assembly, and the problems with handling at high speed, and the real limitations of the engines for this car. We can safely say that the car needs some work. It’s also good that the machine is going through the stages of such improvements, based on feedback from customers. From this we can conclude that AvtoVAZ is indeed reforming. What do you think about the meaning of buying a Lada Vesta?

Cons and pros

Salon of Lada Vesta
Certain advantages of the Lada Vesta car include:

• spacious interior;
• interesting design;
• generous standard equipment;
• refined handling;
• high ground clearance;
• spacious trunk;
• affordable price.

Vesta also has disadvantages, and it’s worth paying special attention to them:

• poor sound insulation of the cabin;
• slow robotic gearbox;
• lack of locking of the gas tank flap;
• low quality interior finishing materials.

It creaks, but it goes

Having touched on the topic of the Lada Vesta suspension at the beginning, perhaps the idea appeared that the chassis was no good for anything. In fact, the platform is borrowed from Logan, which gives hope that not everything is so bad. Just think, the bushings and stabilizer struts will retire by 30-40 tkm. A trifle! And in principle, there are few questions about the chassis, especially considering the pitted and bumpy gluttony of the suspension. Ball joints last 50-60 tkm, steering ends last 80-100 thousand - everything is the same as in Logan.

Knocks when jumping over pits do not always mean investments in the suspension. Very often, ringing sounds are produced by brake calipers, which need to be lubricated or the guides need to be replaced.

There is a beam at the back - there is nothing to break

Kia cee'd station wagon

When it comes to an inexpensive and high-quality station wagon, the Kia Ceed immediately comes to mind. It was with him that we began to visualize the future car in car dealerships. And it was this model that for a long time was the reference car in the list of comparisons for the author.

The Sid is nice, comfortable and doesn't look like a hearse. Everything about it is great except for a few facts that are critical for me: low ground clearance (after grants), low front overhangs and the generational change that took place this summer.

One could somehow come to terms with the clearance and overhangs. My sister’s husband drives a station wagon to his parents’ dacha. But with the change of generations it turned out to be inconvenient.

There were almost no second-generation cars in St. Petersburg showrooms. When we arrived to look at something, we were offered a single seed in a strange configuration for 1,150 thousand rubles. It was over budget. When asked about discounts, promotions and offers, the manager told us only about a standard car loan and trading. We were not interested in such proposals.

If you forget about the appearance and brand, then the same functionality as in the West here cost 300 thousand more. If you think about it, three hundred thousand is two-thirds of the cost of a new grant. The cost of such a car without insurance and other expenses was much higher than our budget, so the seed was crossed off the list of available options. But crossed out with regret, because I like it.

It is worth saying that the seat offered to us did not have keyless entry, push-button start, heated windshield and rear seats, a rain sensor and a rear view camera. And these are very convenient buns that are available from cheaper competitors.

Skoda Rapid liftback

I was thinking about the rapid. In my opinion, this is something similar to polo, only a little bigger and more fun. The appearance was not very harmonious, but Skoda tried.

The most interesting difference is the cool green color. It was only because of him that I basically wanted to know what was going on with the rapids. After all, most automakers are sad when it comes to colors. I would like to take something different from the standard black-white-gray-red-blue color scheme.

Vesta was once in an awesome bright light green color. But they were released for a little over a year. And they didn’t make such station wagons at all. It's sad, but that's not what we're talking about now.

There is also interesting news in phantom color. But she only looks cool when she’s clean and in the sun. And it's just gray

After getting acquainted with the dealers' offers, it turned out that the Rapid would have cost us a little more than the Solaris. But at the same time, he would not have the same set of goodies. And the interior would differ from a semi-sedan only by the nameplate on the steering wheel.

For all our wishes, Vagov dealers wanted about 1,150 thousand rubles. It is expensive. Especially for a car that I don't particularly like on the outside. The cheerful green color is not worth it.

Hyundai Creta

Some time after the seed, a creta surfaced on the horizon. It's kind of like a tall hatchback that strives to become a crossover (especially in the all-wheel drive version), but not a station wagon (the length is too small). If you look at the seed, then why not think about the crete? Moreover, the simplest versions there cost one million rubles.

Creta looks quite controversial. If you remove the Korean nameplate, the car will easily get lost among the Lifans, Gili and other favas. This model has very rough lines, which is not typical for Hyundai design.

The main advantage of the creta is its higher seating position. This psychologically gives a slightly more sense of security than in a regular sedan.

True, after the seed and the news, it was very poor inside the creta. The package for 1,200 thousand rubles was reminiscent of our grant both in terms of the set of options and the overall impression of the interior. And the amount of free space inside was less than our expectations. But this is easy to explain, because the Creta is a relative of the not very spacious Hyundai Getz.

Rita for a very long time preferred the option with creta. There was even talk about pulling out all the stops and taking this particular car, but after considering other options, the creta dropped out of the rating as the least advantageous offer in terms of price/functionality ratio. There is no point in taking a small, ugly car without everything just for the sake of a high seating position.

This is Rita testing the back row of the seat. The only photo from all viewings and it’s blurry.

VolksWagen Polo sedan

Many opponents of the Vesta used the German folk polo cart as an example. This option was mentioned so often that I had to consider it.

For the same about a million rubles, VAG offers everything that its competitors have, but without heated rear seats. Unique goodies include LED daytime running lights and electric folding mirrors.

But all this is nonsense, because polo, in my understanding, is a kind of German grant at maximum speed. A high-quality, functional, comfortable and thoughtful, but absolutely nondescript car. Both externally and internally the car does not evoke any emotions. It has no distinctive features at all.

Standard proportions, standard lines. It will pass in traffic - you won’t notice it. The perfect car for spies.

Everything inside is also as ergonomic and boring as possible. So boring that it even smells like mothballs. They could have done something weird with something. But no - ordnung muss sein. After the Koreans and crazy Chinese, the eye rests here, but I’m not old enough to like this.

In addition, this is not the longest sedan. But I still wanted a station wagon. As a result, we did not seriously consider polo.

How do I see polo

Buy Vesta at any cost

Here it’s worth distracting yourself from the specific moment of buying a car. It was the beginning of August. Just after the sale of our Nyatkino apartment.

The AvtoVAZ conveyor was stopped to reconfigure the lines for the production of restyled grants. Dealers were selling off the remainder from their warehouses. In showrooms they began to organize queues to wait for the most popular car configurations. And our choice was quite popular - Vesta Cross or a regular SW in the maximum configuration.

We visited all the dealers. Somewhere there were no cars at all. Somewhere they promised to show us something, but on the spot it turned out that there was nothing and we could only sign up for a queue. They offered to sign up for the queue “around the end of September.” That is, it was necessary to wait until the AvtoVAZ conveyor started working, produced the required number of cars, delivered them to the dealers, the dealers processed them and received all the paperwork. And only after that we could start purchasing. It already smelled like mid-October, considering the realities of Russian business.

And I needed a car right now, before the abnormally warm and sunny summer ended. And I’m tired of driving with strange taxi drivers. Well, we haven’t gone to Pskov for a thousand years. In general, the desire to buy a car was great. But there was no choice on the market. All the salons were half empty.

And only one smart-ass dealer still had cars (this is the fast and the furious one in Bucharest). It’s very simple to understand why others don’t, but these others do. Immediately upon receiving the car, Fast and the Furious loads it with additional equipment, which you then cannot refuse. If you don’t like it, the next person in line will buy the car.

There were no crosses in the top in the afterburner. There were two regular station wagons. One black with additional equipment for long trips with a bunch of junk and one light beige with security systems and all sorts of mats and pads. We generally liked the light beige version, but there were some shortcomings. The most obvious is the useless windshields glued to the top edge of the doors. The whole evening, in several visits, we tormented the salon manager, negotiating the terms of purchase. At the same time, we even went to a Hyundai showroom to compare a specific Vesta with a specific Solar.

All our attempts to reduce the price were unsuccessful. The logic of the head of the sales department of the salon was simple - until the assembly line resumes operation, the queues will not clear up, which means that the car will sell for its money in any case (850 rubles plus additional equipment worth as much as 100 thousand rubles). At this stage, we decided to leave this salon and try our luck somewhere else.

But the next day it became obvious: either we agree to this option, or we wait another two months, risking that the car during this time may rise in price by exactly the amount of the overpayment for additional services.