Photo: AutoVAZ
If you haven't spent most of your life in the Eastern part of Europe, you're completely forgiven if the name Lada means absolutely nothing to you.
However, after they've launched this surprisingly apt concept, you might want to find out more about this Russian brand. Renowned back in the day for the sturdiness of its cars - and not for much else - Lada has always been the main local brand of passenger cars in Russia, offering a pretty broad range of vehicles: from hatchbacks to sedans, estates and even the famous Lada Niva SUV.
The Lada Vesta Cross concept was teased a few days ago, but we decided it wasn't worth the attention. We're men enough to come out today and say we were wrong, as this car appears to have some serious potential.
Bear in mind the Lada Vesta itself is only a concept car at the moment, with production expected to start this September. If it does go into production, the Vesta should signal a new era in the automaker's history, with a significant leap in terms of design and interior quality.
Lada Vesta Cross concept is a 4WD estate interpretation of the sedan concept launched one year ago. The cross wagon was unveiled at the Moscow Off-Road Show and it's hard to see a reason AutoVAZ, the company behind the Lada brand, wouldn't build it in the near future.
As things stand right now, the official reaction is that it's too early for any decisive comment on the future of this concept.
The Lada Vesta Cross concept relies on some pretty conservative design lines and only pushes the envelope with some symmetrical creases on the side of the car. Ironically, that's exactly the visual element we like the least, but luckily they don't make much aerodynamic sense either so they might be dropped for the production model.
The interior design looks decent with a dashboard similar to what Opel is doing right now, but using three different colors - one of which is an eye-burning orange - is something that has to be done with extreme care, or not at all. However, these are minor things that the production car might not even face, should AutoVAZ actually decide to sell it.
If this is representative for the things to come from Lada, we might just have a new important player in the budget-car area.
The Lada Vesta Cross concept was teased a few days ago, but we decided it wasn't worth the attention. We're men enough to come out today and say we were wrong, as this car appears to have some serious potential.
Bear in mind the Lada Vesta itself is only a concept car at the moment, with production expected to start this September. If it does go into production, the Vesta should signal a new era in the automaker's history, with a significant leap in terms of design and interior quality.
Lada Vesta Cross concept is a 4WD estate interpretation of the sedan concept launched one year ago. The cross wagon was unveiled at the Moscow Off-Road Show and it's hard to see a reason AutoVAZ, the company behind the Lada brand, wouldn't build it in the near future.
As things stand right now, the official reaction is that it's too early for any decisive comment on the future of this concept.
The Lada Vesta Cross concept relies on some pretty conservative design lines and only pushes the envelope with some symmetrical creases on the side of the car. Ironically, that's exactly the visual element we like the least, but luckily they don't make much aerodynamic sense either so they might be dropped for the production model.
The interior design looks decent with a dashboard similar to what Opel is doing right now, but using three different colors - one of which is an eye-burning orange - is something that has to be done with extreme care, or not at all. However, these are minor things that the production car might not even face, should AutoVAZ actually decide to sell it.
If this is representative for the things to come from Lada, we might just have a new important player in the budget-car area.
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