Fewer Levers, More Galvanization: Getting to Know the Updated Niva Legend
On July 20, the first Niva Legend will roll out of the AVTOVAZ assembly plant gates, featuring a whole range of updates designed to breathe new life into a car that has been on the assembly line for 50 years. Of course, the good old Niva, whose total production has exceeded three million units, has long since fallen out of the bestseller ranks, but demand for it remains stable – meaning there is reason to improve it and bring it up to modern standards. As much as that is even possible for a model designed more than half a century ago.
The current update should not be called a facelift, if only because the car’s exterior has hardly changed. The only detail that allows you to identify the updated Niva Legend at first glance is the plastic fairing trim on the hood’s air intake grille. This part is intended to prevent or at least minimize dust and water droplets from entering the air intake tract. All the changes are inside, and the main one is a heart transplant.
From now on, under the hood of the Niva Legend resides a 1.8-liter eight-valve VAZ-11184 engine with 90 hp – the same one that powers the Niva Travel. The increase of seven “horses” may not seem that big, but the main thing is the difference in torque. The 1.7-liter engine could produce a maximum of 129 Nm, and that at 4000 rpm. The VAZ-11184 has a maximum torque that is 24 Nm greater, and it reaches 80% of its peak value at just 1000 rpm. This means that the main drawback of the Niva off-road – the lack of low-end traction – is sharply reduced or at least mitigated. It becomes possible to power through obstacles that previously had to be taken exclusively with momentum.
But replacing the engine brought with it a host of other changes, including in the engine bay. A new engine mounting system had to be developed, with a new main bracket and new supports. The new shortened intake tract features an air filter housing with a clip-on lid, allowing the filter to be changed without any tools. The cross-section of the exhaust tract has been increased from 42 to 48 mm, and, as Grigory Lychev, head of the powertrain design department, said, the engine can now breathe easier.
The situation with thermal management was also improved. It turned out that when the electric fans were positioned in front of the radiator, the effective cooling area was only 178 square centimeters. Moving the fans behind the radiator made it possible to more than triple this area, to 626 square centimeters.
The specific geometry of the engine bay necessitated the design of a fundamentally new bracket for auxiliary units and the fuel rail. This same specificity required equipping the car with a new washer fluid reservoir of a rather complex shape. Looking ahead, I’ll say that it wasn’t possible to organize the rear window washer from the same source as the front one – the filler neck for the rear reservoir still protrudes in the trunk.
Thought was also given to improving acoustic comfort: the hood now features a single molded pad of a rather complex shape instead of four separate pieces. The complexity of the shape is also due to the retained layout of the spare wheel under the hood. Finally, the engine received a “sanction-resistant” M74.91 controller, whose software was calibrated and optimized specifically for the engine’s operation under the hood of the Niva Legend. These settings are intended to optimize engine performance, ensuring rated power, maximum torque, and improved fuel economy.
Andrei Alexandrovich Kromm, director of the “Niva Car Family” project, said that practically all the changes were made to the Niva Legend’s design “at the request of the workers,” meaning based on complaints voiced by owners. Throughout all the years of the Niva’s existence, owners complained about the ergonomically incorrect position of the gearshift lever, which required reaching for it. Online, you can find many recipes for homemade fixes for this ailment, involving moving the lever back, closer to the driver, and transmitting the lever’s movements to the fork via a rod. Now all this is implemented in factory conditions, and the rod is hidden under the plastic tunnel cover.
A whole cluster of transmission control levers looks like a strange anachronism in the 21st century. So they got rid of it: the new transfer case is finally controlled by a single lever. True, the cupholders disappeared from the plastic tunnel cover, but a standard place for a smartphone appeared. The steering wheel is from the Granta, with an airbag. By the way, the impact sensor that should trigger the airbag deployment is specially calibrated so that the airbags do not deploy off-road upon contact with the ground. The steering column is also new.
Another inherent defect has also been fixed – the transfer case mounting on two supports. In theory, this should be enough to radically reduce vibration levels and ensure the transfer case is less vulnerable when contacting obstacles off-road. Changes also had to be made to the gearbox, which now features a new clutch housing, a new reverse gear and 5th gear block, and a new 5th gear on the secondary shaft. The front and rear axles received forged differential side gears with altered geometry and an increased number of splines from 22 to 24, along with forged spider gears. Accordingly, the axle shafts also got 24 splines.
Significant changes also occurred in the front suspension. Now it uses control arms unified with the Niva Travel. The stabilizer bar, which previously also served to support the front axle, has been moved back, behind the differential, and now works only for stabilization. The springs are now manufactured using the cold coiling method, and the compression buffer stop strut has been lengthened by 10 mm to prevent contact between the tires and the housings. Finally, the entire front corner module is unified with the Niva Travel, and the front brakes now have ventilated discs.
The problem with the front tow hooks has been solved. Previously, they were attached to the front body panel, but now they are attached to special brackets, which also serve as the stabilizer bar mounting brackets – meaning they are attached to structural elements. But there is one conflict here: the plastic bumper of the Urban trim completely blocks access to these hooks. The designers decided that for this trim, it would be better to keep the screw-in tow hook, but they didn’t remove the “normal” hooks either – deeming it economically unfeasible. I would, of course, suggest equipping the plastic bumper of the Urban with hatches in the lower part to provide access to the hooks, but oh well, the VAZ designers know better.
And the cherry on top – galvanized body panels! Actually, the Niva Legend remained the only AVTOVAZ model completely lacking galvanization. And so – drumroll, fanfare, champagne spray… The hood, front and rear panels, rear door, and roof have received galvanization. In reality, this set raises certain questions: on most modern cars, the roof is precisely the only part left without galvanization. The fact that the front and rear panels and the hood are now stamped from galvanized metal is correct – these are the parts that very often get minor paintwork damage, after which they start to corrode. But it is a great pity that the floor, sills, and side panels remain without galvanization. Naturally, we asked the plant employees why this happened. The answer turned out to be quite mundane… Replacing “black” panels with galvanized ones requires replacing welding equipment and making serious changes to the technology. The plant was able to do this in some areas, but it simply did not have enough resources for a complete replacement. However, the plant did manage to change the body’s structural layout by introducing a number of reinforcements, including for mounting transmission units.
Prices for the updated Niva Legend have not yet been announced – they will appear when the cars start arriving at dealer warehouses, i.e., at the end of August or September. It is clear that the price will still increase – quite a few various innovations have been introduced into the car. However, the plant workers solemnly promised that the car would essentially remain in the same price category and would still be the cheapest all-wheel-drive car on the Russian market. And one more question that worried colleagues gathered at the presentation of the updated Niva Legend: how long is the life cycle of this model seen to be? The answer from Leonid Alexandrovich Orlov, director of products and programs, was simple and unambiguous: the Niva will remain in the plant’s production lineup as long as it is in demand by the consumer. So, there are no signs yet that the era of the Niva is coming to an end.
