Overview and Common Failures
The body resists corrosion fairly well. The first rust appears in the wheel arches and along the edges of the doors. The paint is not very durable, but chips do not yellow quickly.
The Sport interior is not significantly different from a standard car in good condition. Attention is drawn to the comfortable seats, leather steering wheel, and red stitching throughout. As for the negatives, budget materials, weak sound insulation, and electrical issues can be mentioned.
The 1.6-liter 16-valve power unit VAZ 21127 came stock with this model, but the engine VAZ 21126-77 has been significantly modernized. It features original camshafts, a straight-through exhaust, and its own sport engine management program. Thanks to this, the power has increased from 98 to 118 horsepower, and the acceleration to 100 km/h takes 9.5 seconds. There are no reliability problems; modern VAZ engines don't give much trouble. The scariest thing here is a roller or pump wedge with a belt break and valve bending.
The VAZ 2181 manual transmission is distinguished by a shortened main pair from 3.7 to 4.3, but otherwise it is the same manual transmission with a cable drive as in other models. It works a bit noisy, sometimes leaks occur, but it doesn't cause any major problems.
The sport suspension here is much stiffer than usual and has many original parts. Repairing such a suspension costs significantly more than stock, luckily it is not required often. The brakes squeak, but work decently, especially if you buy good brake pads. The power steering requires getting used to due to the electric power-assisted steering, and the rack may start knocking at around 50,000 km.
