The thriving trade in Ladas is another example of how vintage has value of its own. Finland has auctioned off scores of the rundown Soviet-era cars abandoned by asylum seekers. One Lada estate car, with now-rare circular headlights, was bought by a Finnish collector for €280 (Dh1,134.50).
These cars’ poor build quality and rust-prone bodies have been the source of many jokes. One example: how do you double the value of a Lada? Fill the petrol tank. However, like the truly awful two-stroke Trabant cars of the same era, some people are still interested in collecting them. Just as vintage typewriters and film cameras have a cult appeal, maybe some of us seek reminders of simpler times.
Lada now even markets a model of its 1970s-era Niva four-wheel-drive in Germany called “the hipster”, in a bid to exploit its fringe appeal. The trouble is no real hipster will be able to claim they were into Ladas before they were hip.