CHEVROLET NIVA test drive since 2009 SUV

Chevrolet Niva test drive: with ABS, airbags and hope for 2015

The portal Kolesa.ru went to the banks of the Volga to see with his own eyes how the safest chevrolet is created in the entire history of its existence. Behind her steering wheel, we appreciated the cross-country ability of Togliatti forests, and having talked with the leadership of the GM-Avtovaz joint venture, we learned the details of the creation of a new generation of a popular Russian all-terrain vehicle.

Togliatti and AvtoVAZ are like Petersburg and a copper horseman (as well as Hermitage, Zenit and Putin) - concepts inseparable from each other. In the city, everything lives and is spinning around the All -Russian auto giant: car rangers with Zhiguli move along the streets with the regularity of urban transport. Local TV channel on the first hotel TV button - VAZ TV. And in the broadcast of federal channels, interviews with the top management of the enterprise are cutting now and then. But if you add only two Latin letters to AvtoVAZ, you get a completely different story

The joint American-Russian enterprise GM-Autons was formed in the summer of 2001 for one purpose: the release of the new Chevrolet Niva is not the one that the Russian expanses for more than twenty years, but of the completely new VAZ-2123, which received the overseas name Chevrolet and the Golden Cross On the false radiator lattice!

In 2011, having summed up a ten-year result of the work, everyone was satisfied: both American investors and Russian leaders of GM autocrats. Brought to mind and converted by the Americans from a semi -finished state, the Chevrolet Niva remains a hit of sales, having survived the first pancake joint venture - Chevrolet Viva, and at the same time the global financial crisis. What is the secret of such a popularity of a car that is structurally outdated at the start stage?

The Russian SUV underwent the first serious update in 2004: air conditioning appeared in the car. For five years, it took engineers and specialists of the Italian atelier Bertone so that the Niva will go through the restyling procedure. And finally, on August 1, 2011, the release of the new Chevrolet Niva with a package of safety, including the ABS system and a couple of frontal airbags.

However, it will not be possible to call new improvements to active and passive safety, even with a stretch. The fact is that ABS, airbags, belt pretense and reinforced body appeared in the Chevrolet Niva back in 2003 on the export version, which was pulled under the requirements of Euroncap. And I must say, they were extremely successful: after the crash test of the European standard (64 km/h with 40% overlap about the crushed barrier), the Niva was able to earn 12.5 points out of 16 possible (4 stars out of 5). Recall that the VAZ-2123 for the domestic market, at that time, completely failed the test, earned a total of 1.6 points. And the classic field (VAZ-2121), renamed Lada 4x4, after the crash test completely became another Togliatti death capsule.

Domestic buyers did not see a safe Niva. The reason is banal price. In the early 2000s, the cost of Chevrolet Niva without any improvements exceeded the price of the classic VAZ-2121 double (!), Directly competing in this indicator, with the first generation Kia Sportage produced in Kaliningrad. The introduction of constructive improvements would completely bury the American-Russian project.

But he survived, and develops quite successfully, although very slowly. In order to experience all the updates of the SUV in his own skin, and, moreover, to ask the plans for the future personally with GM-Autsovaz, Jeffrey Glover, we went to the very heart of a joint venture for the assembly conveyor.

So collect the Chevrolet Niva
The regime enterprise of the defense complex is the first thought that comes to mind at the GM -Autsovaz plant: two posts of control with the mandatory registration of people and electronic equipment, protective specials and movement only on a pre -laid route to the side - can be hooked with scurrying loaders from carts of spare parts. Everywhere cleanliness and order.



Personed Chevrolet Niva. The only robot is engaged in ultra -precise squeezing of glue on windshields. And so that the factory workers do not turn into cyborgs, the mechanics every two hours change responsibilities. After each assembly stage, mandatory quality control, which is subject to 100% of cars. They even leave the assembly conveyor of Shniva, only after the test line, including checking all components and assemblies. In general, the word quality during the tour was sounded so many times that the output created a complete feeling that the new Chevrolet Niva 2011 will never break.

In the forests of the Samara region
The test drive was organized in the forest, where the new Chevrolet Niva feels like a fish in water. However, it was still necessary to get to the forest, moreover, by asphalt. And it is on the asphalt that all the shortcomings of the domestic jeep pop up. A weak 80-horsepower engine turns the track overtaking, in a real test for the nervous system, not to mention the fact that after 3,000 revolutions with his sound, it drowns out everything and everything.

The vibrations transmitted to the gearbox lever, although not so obvious, are still very noticeable. And the rear gear still needs to be turned on with two hands. There is no clarity in the management of an all -wheel drive transmission, which, however, had to use it infrequently. The only noticeable improvement, which appeared in May 2010, the altered smoothness of the course that allowed the niva with indifference belongs to multi -caliber potholes. The suspension helps to smooth out the irregularities and tires of Continental, regularly installed on the GLS and GLC versions (the L and LC configurations are equipped with Barguzin tires).

Bosch ABS work can be safely estimated at 4 with a plus. Only too early triggering on wet sand (which partially imitated snow) did not allow the anti -lock system to put it perfectly! Let's see what will happen in winter. After all, the work of ABS helps both the brake force distribution program on the wheels and the system for braking in the bend. But it is already clear that modern brakes are definitely reducing the accident rate and will allow you to preserve the lives of both drivers and pedestrians.

The TRW, thank God, did not have to check the airbags of the company, just like the seat of seat belts. The three -spoke steering wheel remained as slippery, but above the decorative cover that covers the passenger pillow, the specialists worked: the gaps between the plastic panels are minimal.

The fact that Chevrolet Niva is a serious SUV, I was convinced in the winter of 2009, when I pulled out on this car, stuck in the metro snow virgin lands, parking neighbors.

As expected, with all forest moats, sand lifting and deep ruts, Niva coped playfully, confirming the capture of the next obstacle, the smell of soldered adhesion. The main thing is not to lose the peak moment of traction. I had to use a lower gear only once. The blocking of differential was completely left without work, as well as the accompanying 15 test cars, the technician Chevrolet Niva Trophy, shod in toothy tires. Such a version, by the way, should also appear in show rooms.

Offasses of the element of the Russian jeep. Outside the asphalt, you do not pay attention, neither vibration, nor for no sound insulation, nor on cotton control, nor on the lack of horses under the hood.

Niva tormented by journalists

But what about asphalt characteristics? Or the new Chevrolet Niva 2011 as before - is the car not for the city? With these and many other questions, we went to a press conference organized on the banks of the Volga, which was present at: GM-Autress Director GM Jeffrey Glover, Director of Sales and Marketing Konstantin Bayshev, Product Development Manager Mikhail Bagrov, Deputy Director of Engineering Valery Chupshev and Public Relations Director Sergei Lepnukhov.

Already in the assembly hall, after the quality of the word, on a huge advertising poster of the Chevrolet Niva, behind the director’s table, how the inscription hung: a guarantee of 35,000 km!. Total. Even stretching for two years, a guarantee with such a mileage is too small. My annual mileage comes close to this mark. And to change the car every year, excuse me, an unacceptable luxury, especially for potential buyers of Chevrolet Niva 2011.

More than half of journalists about the bouquet of the shortcomings of the new Chevrolet Niva can be formulated in one: when the domestic auto industry, especially in cooperation with a world car giant, will release a truly high-quality and modified car that will be able to compete with Western analogues on equal terms?.

Having lowered the long speeches of Jeffrey Glover that GM -authorship is continuously working on modernization of the Niva, and the company's motto is a continuous improvement, the answer can be put in one short offer: Chevrolet Niva is the best that can be built for this money.

And after all, Mr. Glover is absolutely right. No matter how many journalists and consumers scold the Chevroletovskoye Niva, buy a more or less modern, a full-fledged five-seater SUV with a constant full-wheel drive for 439,000 rubles that lower the transmission and locking of differential is simply not possible.

- And what? It turns out, as in the case of the Soviet VAZ-2121, we will drive for another twenty years on an outdated car in all parameters, once again a five-year period will be added according to the new option?

- Not. The fact is that in 2015 (if nothing changes), the law on compliance with ecological norms of Euro-5 enters into force in Russia. It is he who will become a lid of the coffin, which will cover the 1.7 engine installed on the Chevrolet Niva.

The possibility of introducing a new power unit is now being engaged in GM-authorship specialists. But not only them. The new engine will pull on the update of almost all the components of the car: transmission, all -wheel drive system, suspension and brakes.

- Is it possible to say that we are talking about the new generation of Chevrolet Niva, which will appear in 2015?

- In general, yes.

- What engine and gearboxes will stand on the II of the II?

- The fact that he will definitely be more powerful is for sure. In addition to mechanics, the appearance of automatic transmission is possible. The relevance and profitability of the appearance of an automatic machine in the field is now being studied.

- Is the installation of a diesel unit considered? After all, the solar engine, with good craving on the bottom, like no other, would have approached a serious SUV.

- They thought they were discussing. But we decided to dwell on the gasoline version. Diesel is more expensive, both in itself and in maintenance. And, in addition, it requires high -quality fuel, which is not everywhere in Russia you can get.

It was not possible to get large details about the new project, and the highest ranks of the GM-authorship themselves, apparently, not so long ago actively dealt with the issue of developing a new generation of Chevrolet Niva. It is only a pity that our auto industry is still engaged in global modernization from under the state stick.

And as for the current Niva, the emerging package of security, of course, is an indisputable plus. But for the city life, Chevrolet Niva is still not suitable. But a more profitable assistant to a fisherman, a hunter or just a driver who leads an active extra -asphalt life, it seems to me, simply cannot be found.


Author: Ilya Ogorodnikov
Photo: Ilya Ogorodnikov

Source: Wheel magazine [September 2011]