Lada axes the venerable 2107

Oh no! After a 30-year production run, the Russians aren't going to build any more Lada 2107s!

AvtoVaz is axing the three-box saloon after sales dwindled by 76% in the first quarter of 2012 - the manufacturer blames consumers turning to considerably less rubbish cars for the downturn.

"Demand for the 'classic' has dropped a lot. It is time to say goodbye," says company spokesman, Igor Burenkov.

The 2107 is an updated model of the 2101, which was first developed by the Soviet Union under agreement with Italy based on the 1966 Fiat 124 - one of the most advanced sports saloons of the period.

But once the Fiat had made its way to Mother Russia, AvtoVaz decided that the technology it employed was far too... decadent. It threw away the disc brakes and replaced them with drums, added a starting handle, fitted a manual fuel pump then decided the make the whole thing out of absurdly thick metal. Thus creating a machine as antiquated as the sickle and tough as the hammer that crosses it. Or, as Jeremy Clarkson prefers to describe it in this film, "simply the worst car in the world".

Watch Jeremy drive the Lada Riva here

AvtoVaz (its original manufacturer) didn't keep its 95mph sedan to itself, though - it was sold in Europe under the Riva tag, and exported as far from Russia as New Zealand, Mexico and Brazil.

Now tell us your best Lada joke, TopGear.communists