SP450andLE wrote:But to those of you who were just dicks, it's quite ashaming to think that people who should be united by 4wding are bitching like 8-year-old girls who all think their particular barbie doll is the best.
It's people like you who make me realise why other forums seem so much better at times (no offence Mike, I think you do a great job).
I agree.
Then you read of other people spending $1000s on their vehicles and think nothing of it and try to bag others because they have not done the same or have not got the same vehicle as them or think their vehicle is better than yours.
Last i heard god gave each of us free will.
Look at the attitudes when Jap vehicles first came into the country when all that people had was Vauxhalls, Austins, MG, Ford etc.
Why own a vehicle that costs plenty of $$ to fix when it breaks, full servicing costs can be big dollars (some trucks run 11 ltrs of oil!).
Rego and ruc can be $$ because of the weight of the truck.
A Niva is cheap to buy, reasonably cheap to maintain and service and can be fixed on the side of the road if necessary.
Why i think the Niva is bagged is because you have Jock Strap who gets into a Niva and drives the bejesus out of it because of some other clown has told him Niva's are shite (and believes him without finding out for himself if they are or not) and so expects it to break and when it does because he was driving it stupidly and trying to break it spouts to all and sundry that he thinks they are shite because he broke it
Any vehicle can break driven madly (sometimes gently), but with the Niva is the abilty to fix it yourself at reasonable cost if/when it does break.
This i think is getting even more important with the cost of living going up.
Such is the cost of the cold war i guess at the cost of Lada.
Whatever, i am happy to do all the servicing, modifying and what not to my Niva for cheap and the simple joy of it.
I have a thick skin, have heard all the jokes and have pulled stuck safaris with supposedly all the 4x4 goodies fitted to it out of ditches (stuck there i might add because of the guys ego)
If you have an issue with a Lada Niva it's your issue not mine.
Mine has never failed to get me home, once even when it broke the rubber drive donut between the g/box output and t/case input and i did not realise what had broke and after a full day 4x4ing i got it home and checked it to discover bits missing.
Anything that has broken has been what i had done/modified etc.
Makes a nice change from all the negativity we so often see... 
