CHEVROLET NIVA test drive since 2002 SUV

A year of mature

More than a year has passed since the beginning of the production of the Russian-American all-terrain vehicle Chevrolet Niva. During this period, a lot was said about her and written - good and not very. The magazine has repeatedly praised the car for pleasant handling, modern ergonomics, and sufficient cross -country ability. But at the same time he criticized low reliability and very expensive service.
In the meantime, the manufacturer made changes to the design, improved technology. In general, there were reasons to think that fields have become more expensive for a year, but also much better. So we decided in a pair of the Chevrolet-Niva, which was already available in the editorial office, released in November 2002, buy a car of the late 2003. We carefully studied the novelty, compared with a copy that we knew and now we will talk about impressions.
Your own among strangers
Having conducted pre-sale training, polite and courteous workers of the proprietary Ji-Um station wished us a happy journey. And the path lay in the technical center ZR, where we undertook to look for assembly flaws. Fortunately, they found a little, but still something gained.
Even on the way, the first, most serious complaint arose - the gearbox of the front axle is noisy. We hope that this will not develop into a serious problem, since the warranty station has still eliminated such defects without talking.
From minor claims, it was noted that the engine temperature indicator speaks a lie. When driving along the highway, his arrow does not reach 90C and even at the time of turning on the fans does not want to show more than 92-94C. The connected diagnostic device is not so optimistic, believing that a hundred degrees (as expected) still heats up. For a car with a chevrolet emblem, we consider such deviations in the readings a disadvantage: this is not a simple corpus line ...
However, if we approach the assessment of a joint product taking into account its roots, the picture will turn out to be very rainbow. In the last couple of months, we were able to evaluate the quality of cars assembled in Izhevsk (see ZR, 2004, No. 1) and in Togliatti on the VAZ conveyor (see this number). And now we can safely say: Chevrolet Niva is collected much better. And compared with our last year's car, it also has a number of constructive advantages.
Perhaps it will seem strange, but among the most significant changes to the consumer in the design of the machine we will call the replacement of two Zhiguli belts, which until recently brought the generator with pomp and the pumping pump, to one polyclolin. Firstly, now you don’t need to pull the generator belt every now and then so that it does not whistle, secondly, the pump will live longer (its bearing suffers from the belt overthrow), thirdly, the clinic belt lasts longer.
How much has the layout has changed? The generator moved to the other side of the engine and rose much higher - this is done on most all -around, and not only on them.
The second that caught my eye was the corrected fuel neck. On that one -year -old field, the valve built into the neck was lowered too deep and did not allow the car to refill to normally: to fill 30 liters, it took about 10 minutes! Now it is easy to reach the valve with your finger. There are no obstacles to gasoline and on the trigger of the gas pistol can be pressed to the stop: two minutes - the tank is full!
Today, all cars, even in configuration L, install an electric drive and heating of external mirrors. Among other things, this helped remove the vibrations of the mirrors that annoy the owners of the first serial machines. Fighting headlights and cooling system of hydraulic power fluid appeared. The latter is very useful if on the street under 40C or you climbed 500 meters above sea level.
The salon filter is now installing on all fields - before there was only a place for him. True, it seemed strange that the cover behind which the filter was hidden was put on a sealant. Taking this opportunity, once again we remind the readers that from the second quarter of 2003, all cars are painted not on a vase, but at the SP itself, in a modern automatic chamber. The buyer is offered four colors - white (ordinary) and three metallics: silver, dark green and cherry. In addition, many body details have bilateral galvanizing.
We are also happy to report that the machine purchased by the editorial office successfully overcame the test of cold in the already famous readers of the Zilovsky refrigerator (see ZR, 2004, No. 1). Since we drove her there with engine oil, flooded at the factory, at minus 30C, of \u200b\u200bcourse, she did not start. But the threshold in minus 25C overcame. In the tests, including assessing the speed of heating of the salon, other machines, and other cars, participated, which we are going to tell separately - more and more.
Alien among his own
One of the questions often asked by the driver are questions: what does the car have from Chevrolet? The easiest way to answer is: the emblem is true. If the mood is bad, say: the cost of service. Well, if it’s good, you can boast of imported hydraulic wraps and brakes, talk about high -quality and expensive raw materials for plastic parts, about the most modern assembly and painting equipment installed in the joint venture. This is how things are today, but the situation will soon change.
This year is planned a lot of changes, the most expected of which is the Opelian ecotek FAM 1 volume of 1.8 liters with 16 valves per cylinder. Its capacity is one and a half times higher than that of today's Vazovsky, and the moment is more than 30%. The Japanese mechanical five -speed Icein gearbox will work with it, to which, in turn, they will add (without an intermediate shaft) the same handout that goes today on Chevrolet -Niva - on the basis of ordinary Niva, but with finely modular teeth, another mechanism. Switching (under one lever) and additional mounting support.
Together with the imported power unit on the machine in the LX configuration, ABS, air conditioning, the driver’s airplane pillows and the front passenger, belts with ronacers and restriction of the load, adjust the driver's seat in height. They plan to install not 15-, but 16-inch wheels under tires 215/65R16 on such a car.
The car in this performance is promised to sell for 13 thousand euros, but this is only a preliminary forecast.
Those who decide in the new year to buy Chevrolet Niva with a domestic power unit are also waiting for many useful (so I want to say for health) innovations. First of all, this is a countless number of body improvements designed to ensure a high level of passive safety. All of them were developed for export configuration, but not to make your body for each version of the machine.
If everything goes according to plan, then the VAZ power unit will gently squeeze out the imported. At least this was said by representatives of the JJ-Em-Autsovaz joint venture at last year's car dealership in Moscow. The manufacturer intends to maintain such a ratio of cars for cars with Vazovsky and Opelian engines, in which the majority will make a choice in favor of the latter.
By the way, in this regard, the question arises: was the transfer of prices for Niva in euros as a way of agitation for Opel and Aisin? Or was it just a demand for the car was higher than expected the joint ventures of the joint venture? Then we pay attention to one more circumstance. New Year's discounts on Chevrolet Niva pleasantly pleased and surprised at the same time - about 500 euros. Thus, a minimum of 288,888 rubles, or $ 9860, or about 8,000 euros, was asked for a car. This may be evidence of the flexible pricing policy of the joint venture or ... a small bust with the price that arose after the transfer of cost in euros while maintaining dollar numbers. For consumers, the latter is probably also not bad. At least, we can hope that with a further price increase, the manufacturer will not rush.
This ... is necessary alone, not everyone
Concluding the story, we draw your attention to one unusual circumstance. The export machine in the LX configuration will be more powerful, safe, probably even better collected, but ... four -seater. At least that is what official materials say.
We guess what this is connected with. For example, with difficulties in ensuring the safety of the fifth passenger or with excess of the calculated full weight of the car. But even having come up with (for yourself) such explanations, we continue to be surprised at the strange decision of the manufacturer. In our opinion, such difficulties with certification cannot justify it: after all, even Mitsubishi Pajero Pinin/›Mitsubishi Pajero Pinin with a five -door body is a five -seater car, although it is noticeably smaller than the Togliatti machine. Or again a temporary decision? Did Ji-Em really learn to learn from Russian colleagues ...

The mirrors with electric drive are now installed on all fields ...

... and fog lights.

Correct neck: the valve can be reached with a finger.

The new one is only seven hundred kilometers on the odometer.

The long -awaited clinovable belt of the generator, pump and pump Gur is getting rid of a mass defect.

The U -shaped tube in the foreground is the water -wire liquid cooler.

Imported muffler - from tenneko -abutomotive. But for some reason is grimy ...

In the refrigerator, in addition to starting properties, the dynamics of heating is evaluated. Therefore, the car is on the drums and lean.
 

Alexander Budkin.
Photo: Alexander Kulnev

Source: The magazine "Driving"