The Lada Samara is a 3 door five speed front wheel drive hatchback from Russia. A five door hatch and a saloon were also made. In Australia they were called the Cevaro and Sable repectively, but in other countries they were all called Samara.
In most countries it was offered in a choice of body styles and engine capacities (1.1 litre, 1.3 litre and 1.5 litre versions of the same engine), but in Australia they basically sold one body style and engine capacity at a time. The 1.3 litre Samara was sold between 1988 and 1991, the 1.5 litre five door Cevaro between 1990 and 1993, the 1.5 litre Sable saloon between 1994 and 1995 and then the Cevaro again between 1995 and 1996.

The Samara was of similar size to the Ford Laser, Toyota Corolla, Nissan Pulsar and Hyundai Excel of the time.

Although it was first sold in Australia in 1988, I've read that it was first produced in 1984. Sales finished in 1996, and as I understand it, right hand drive models (as we have in Australia) are no longer being made.

Reviews I've read say that the Samara's Porsche designed engine was actually quite good. But in this country cars of this size are usually powered by 1.6 or even 1.8 litre engines, and some reviewers reported that the Samara's performance was adequate rather than exciting (although others were impressed - see my 'Reviews' page)

The Samara was better equipped than other budget cars of the time. For example, base model Hyundai Excels had only 4 gears, while the Samara always had 5. I've seen Ford Lasers and Holden Barinas without passenger side external mirrors, which the Samara has. The toolkit was apparently better than most (although it was missing from my car).

Peter Brock (Australia's greatest Super-car / Touring car driver) was very enthusiastic about the Samara - although maybe he was influenced by the fact that his company was involved in preparing the cars for sale. (But that's a very cynical interpretation. The other possibility is that he was impressed by the car and so decided to work with it, and that's actually far more likely. If you're wanting to make money in business, you choose a product you think will succeed.)

My car had a 'Summer Pak' badge. I'm not sure of every detail of Lada Samara standard equipment and trim, but it appears to me that the 'Summer Pak' included window tinting, airconditioning and body coloured bumpers and mirrors.

The Lada brand is produced by the AutoVAZ company in Togliatti, Russia. AutoVAZ is by far the largest Russian car company, and I'm not sure if this is still the case, but at one time they had the largest car plant in Europe. The 3 door Samara is also known as the VAZ 2108, the 5 door as the VAZ 2109, and the saloon as the VAZ 21099.