I grew up with these Lada jokes and for me Ladas were just something ridiculous and for some reason I can only remember them in this godawful cream colour tinged with rust around every possible edge. Then a couple of years back I visited Georgia and Armenia and I saw moderately well maintained Ladas in black and I have to say there was something very charming about them! Tbilisi can be pretty hilly and steep and I was pretty surprised to see Ladas zipping up and down them with ease, side by side with shiny BMWs and Mercedes[1]. I also loved the GAZ Volga, I think they're a bit rarer though.

[1] there's heaps of new-ish Mercedes, BMW, Audi etc (many right-hand drive) in Georgia which is confusing as it's not a wealthy country at all. I got talking to an Insurance guy who'd told me this is because Georgia is the end of the line for a chain of insurance fraud starting in the UK\Germany, where cars would be "stolen", claimed on insurance and then moved on + re-registered somehow in the next country. This process is repeated until they ended up in Georgia and were sold for a knockdown price because they'd already recouped their money many times over. Ex-USSR countries are really interesting and I'd thoroughly recommend them for a visit, just learn a couple of phrases in the local language or Russian to make things a little smoother :)

Ladas were a common sight in the UK on the early 80's. Especially in Scotland where they did well in the tough conditions. They were also cheap.

I've still not figured out how, if Top Gear was to be believed, how the BMW 3-series became the best-selling vehicle in the UK.