Cross-pollination: what has changed in the popular Russian jeep
At the end of autumn, Lada dealerships will start receiving upgraded Niva Travel SUVs with a new 1.8—liter engine, a modified brake system and suspension, as well as an updated exterior. The Izvestia correspondent found out how these changes affected the car and why the new engine is a "hybrid".
Hedgehog and snake
The updated Lada Niva Travel, shown at the SPIEF in June, almost overshadowed the main debutant of the forum at the AvtoVAZ stand — the future Lada Azimut crossover. The main change is definitely the new 1.8-liter engine. With its introduction, the 1.7-liter engine, which has always been equipped with the car since its birth in 1998, will retire. Until about the middle of next year, it will continue to be installed on the "classic" Niva, and then on this model it will be replaced by a 1.8-liter powertrain.
The engine is, in fact, a "hybrid" of two other VAZ engines: from the 1.8 EVO 16-valve engine, which is equipped with Vesta, it borrowed the cylinder block, crankshaft and connecting rod-piston group. And the eight-valve cylinder head is taken from the "Grant" 1.6 liter engine.
With the exception of the steering wheel, borrowed from Lada Granta, the interior of the Niva Travel has not changed.
Unlike its predecessor, the new engine has become "clumsy" — if the timing belt breaks, the pistons will not meet the valves, followed by the inevitable bending of the latter. In such a situation, it will be necessary to simply replace the broken belt — the engine itself will not require expensive repairs. In addition, according to Andrey Kromm, director of the Niva project, by increasing the maintenance interval from 10 to 15 thousand km and reducing the cost of maintenance for the Niva with a 1.8-liter engine, with a higher mileage, the owner of the updated car will pay less for its maintenance.
The new engine has become slightly more powerful and more powerful than its predecessor: 90 hp versus the previous 83 hp and 153 Nm of torque versus 129 Nm. Seven additional "horses" under the hood, of course, is not much of a "surge of strength." And an increase of 24 Nm is not the most outstanding indicator. More importantly, the output to maximum thrust and power has shifted to a lower RPM zone.
As noted by Grigory Lychev, head of the AvtoVAZ powertrain design department, if the previous 1.7-liter engine produced maximum thrust at about 3.5–4 thousand revolutions per minute, then the new 130 Nm indicator is already available at 1.5 thousand revolutions.
—Measurements of the so-called elasticity have shown that the Niva with the new engine spends almost two times less time accelerating from 80 to 120 km/h than the model with the 1.7—liter engine," he said.
On and off the roads
Starting from a standstill and accelerating to the classic hundred did not bring any surprises. In this discipline, there is, of course, a difference between cars with new and old engines. But it is not a matter of principle. It was 19 seconds, it became 16... by the standards of modern cars, it's still almost an eternity.
The Niva with a 1.8-liter engine accelerates to 100 km/h in 16 seconds.
The 1.8-liter engine's character is most evident when overtaking or driving on long climbs. On the previous model, in order to successfully outrun some slow-moving car on the highway, it was necessary to switch to fourth or even third speed — the 1.7-liter engine "came out of suspended animation" only at speeds at which the tachometer needle was very close to the red zone on the scale.
I remembered a trip to the Crimea that I had just purchased from a friend of Niva Travel, when a more or less decent climb on the M-4 "Don" highway resembled a lottery: shall we stop or hang out? It was a pity to spin up the engine, which had not yet been tested, and therefore, as soon as the road went up, I had to stand in the right lane and enviously watch the trucks flying by from the left.
Due to the "grassroots" nature of the new engine, it has become easier to overcome climbs and overtake in a car.
With the new 1.8-liter engine, it is much easier to overtake and overcome long climbs on the Niva. The engine starts to "pull" at lower revs, without forcing the driver to frantically operate the gear lever in search of the right gear. Already from 1.5–2 thousand revolutions per minute, the engine accelerates the car quite briskly. Of course, it doesn't squeeze into the chair, but it doesn't make you strain when overtaking either.
It behaves noticeably better with the new Niva Travel engine even off-road. Due to the "grassroots" nature of the 1.8-liter engine, it allows you to overcome sand and mud "without load". In the previous "Field", such obstacles often had to be taken "running" at high speeds, risking "burrowing" into loose soil due to wheel slippage.
Good traction at low revs allows you to overcome off-road obstacles "intelligibly", without the risk of slipping wheels.
There are also changes in the chassis: due to the upgraded front stabilizer bar, which was moved to the front of the suspension, the car began to behave more stably on the road and less "prowl" on asphalt irregularities. The ventilated brake discs with increased diameter that appear in the front allow you to reliably brake the car at high speed. And with the onset of dusk, the advantage of the new LED headlights over the previous "halogen" ones became obvious: they illuminate the dark road much better and further.
The issue price
At the presentation, representatives of the automobile plant reported that the new engine reduced the noise level by 15 dB. It is likely that this is the case. However, against the background of the still "howling" transmission and the whistling of the wind in the door seals, this decrease is not particularly noticeable. The transmission hum is a family feature of both classic Lada and Niva cars. AvtoVAZ is well aware of it. It can be fixed by completely modernizing the transmission itself, the plant's engineers note in behind-the-scenes conversations. Technically, this is quite "within the teeth" of the enterprise, but how much it will cost the end user in the end is a rhetorical question.
According to preliminary information, the updated Lada Niva Travel, depending on the configuration, will cost more than its predecessor by 50-150 thousand rubles.
The updated Lada Niva Travel will obviously be more expensive than the previous version with a 1.7-liter engine. Exact prices and options will be announced closer to the start of sales, which are expected in late autumn. In the meantime, according to preliminary information, we are talking about an increase of 50-150 thousand rubles, depending on the level of equipment.
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