On July 20, the first Niva Legend equipped with a comprehensive set of updates designed to breathe new life into a vehicle that has been on the assembly line for 50 years will roll out of the AVTOVAZ assembly plant gates. Of course, the good old Niva, whose total production run has exceeded three million units, has long since fallen out of the bestseller cohort, but demand for it remains stable – meaning there is reason to improve it and bring it up to modern standards. As much as that is even possible for a model designed more than half a century ago.
The current update should not be called a facelift, if only because the car's exterior has practically not changed. The only detail that allows you to identify the updated Niva Legend at first glance is the plastic fairing trim of the air intake grille on the hood. This part is designed to prevent or at least minimize the ingress of dust and water droplets into the air intake tract. All the changes are inside, and the main one is a heart transplant.
From now on, under the hood of the Niva Legend resides a 1.8-liter eight-valve VAZ-11184 engine producing 90 hp – the same one that powers the Niva Travel. The increase of seven "horses" seems not so significant, but the main thing is the difference in torque. The 1.7-liter engine could deliver a maximum of 129 Nm, and that at 4000 rpm. The VAZ-11184 has a maximum torque that is 24 Nm greater, and it reaches 80% of its peak value already at 1000 rpm. This means that the main drawback of the Niva off-road – the lack of traction at low revs – is sharply reduced or at least mitigated. It becomes possible to crawl through obstacles that previously had to be taken exclusively with momentum.
But replacing the engine entailed a host of other changes, including in the engine bay. A new engine mounting system had to be developed, with a new main bracket and new supports. The new shortened intake tract features an air filter housing with a clip-on lid, allowing the filter to be changed without using any tools. The cross-section of the exhaust tract has been increased from 42 to 48 mm, and, as Grigory Lychev, head of the powertrain design department, said, the engine now breathes easier.
The situation with thermal management was also improved. It turned out that when the electric fans were positioned in front of the radiator, the effective cooling area was only 178 square centimeters. Moving the fans behind the radiator made it possible to more than triple it, to 626 square centimeters.
The specific geometry of the engine bay necessitated the design of a fundamentally new bracket for auxiliary units and the fuel rail. This same specificity required equipping the car with a new washer fluid reservoir of a rather complex shape. Looking ahead, I'll say that it was not possible to organize the rear window washer from a single source with the front one – the filler neck for the rear reservoir still protrudes in the trunk.
Thought was also given to improving acoustic comfort: the hood now features a single molded pad of a rather complex shape instead of four separate pieces. The complexity of the shape is also due to the preserved layout of the spare wheel under the hood. Finally, the engine received a "sanctions-resistant" M74.91 controller, the software of which was calibrated and optimized specifically for the engine's operation under the hood of the Niva Legend. These settings should optimize engine performance, ensuring rated power, maximum torque, and improved fuel economy.
Andrei Alexandrovich Kromm, director of the "Niva Family of Vehicles" project, said that practically all changes were made to the Niva Legend's design "at the request of the workers," meaning based on complaints voiced by owners. Throughout all the years of the Niva's existence, owners complained about the ergonomically incorrect position of the gearshift lever, which required reaching for it. Online, you can find many recipes for homemade fixes for this ailment, involving moving the lever back, closer to the driver, and transmitting the lever's movements to the fork via a rod. Now all this is implemented in factory conditions, and the rod is hidden under the plastic tunnel cover.
A whole cluster of transmission control levers looks like a strange anachronism in the 21st century. So they got rid of it: the new transfer case is finally controlled by a single lever. True, the cupholders disappeared from the plastic tunnel cover, but a standard place for a smartphone appeared. The steering wheel is from the Granta, with an airbag. By the way, the impact sensor that should trigger the airbag deployment is specially calibrated so that the airbags do not deploy off-road upon contact with the ground. The steering column is also new.
Another inherent defect has also been fixed – the transfer case mounting on two supports. In theory, this should be enough to radically reduce vibration levels and ensure the transfer case is less vulnerable when contacting obstacles off-road. Changes also had to be made to the gearbox, which now features a new clutch housing, a new set of reverse and 5th gear gears, and a new 5th gear on the secondary shaft. The front and rear axles received forged differential side gears with altered geometry and an increased number of splines from 22 to 24, and forged pinion gears. Accordingly, the axle shafts also got 24 splines.
Significant changes also occurred in the front suspension. Now it uses control arms unified with the Niva Travel. The stabilizer bar, which previously performed the function of supporting the front axle in addition to its main function, has moved back, behind the differential, and now works only for stabilization. The springs are now manufactured using the cold coiling method, and the compression bump stop support strut has been lengthened by 10 mm to prevent contact between the tires and the housings. Finally, the entire front corner module is unified with the Niva Travel, and the front brakes now have ventilated discs.
The problem with the front tow hooks has been solved. Previously, they were attached to the front body panel, but now they are attached to special brackets, which are simultaneously the stabilizer bar mounting brackets – i.e., to structural elements. But there is one conflict here: the plastic bumper of the Urban trim completely blocks access to these hooks. The designers decided that for this trim, it would be more correct to keep the screw-in tow hook, but they didn't remove the "normal" hooks either – they considered it economically unfeasible. I would, of course, suggest equipping the Urban plastic bumper with hatches in the lower part to provide access to the hooks, but oh well, the VAZ designers know better.
And the cherry on top – galvanized bodywork! Actually, the Niva Legend remained the only AVTOVAZ model completely lacking galvanization. And so – boom, fanfare, champagne spray... The hood, front and rear panels, rear door, and roof received galvanization. Actually, this set raises certain questions: on most modern cars, the roof is precisely the only part without galvanization. The fact that the front and rear panels and the hood are now stamped from galvanized metal is correct – these are the parts that very often get minor paintwork damage, after which they start to corrode. But the fact that the floor, sills, and side panels remain without galvanization is a great pity. Naturally, we asked the plant employees why this happened. The answer turned out to be quite banal... Replacing "black" panels with galvanized ones requires replacing welding equipment and serious changes in technology. The plant was able to do this in some areas, but it simply did not have enough resources for a complete replacement. However, the plant managed to change the body's structural layout by introducing a number of reinforcements, including for mounting transmission units.
Prices for the updated Niva Legend have not yet been announced – they will appear when cars start arriving at dealer warehouses, i.e., in late August – September. It is clear that the price will still increase – quite a lot of various innovations have been introduced into the car. However, the plant workers solemnly promised that the car would essentially remain in the same price category and would still be the cheapest all-wheel drive car on the Russian market. And one more question that worried colleagues gathered at the presentation of the updated Niva Legend: how long is the life cycle of this model seen to be? The answer from Leonid Alexandrovich Orlov, Director of Products and Programs, was simple and unambiguous: the Niva will remain in the plant's production lineup as long as it is in demand by the consumer. So, there are no signs yet that the Niva era is nearing its end.
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