I spend a fair bit of time in rural Bulgaria. The hire cars are expensive and not up to road conditions of rutted cart tracks. I notice that most neighbours drive old Lada Nivas, which stopped being imported into UK many years ago. I am thinking of buying a car to be left in BG. They are relatively cheap new at about 8500 euros.

I've heard they now have a better GM sourced engine which is more reliable than the old one, but the cars are very basic (no radio etc), which is all I need. Have you heard anything negative about the current Lada Niva 4x4? They seem fairly robust and are at least half the price of the nearest rival in BG, or a quarter the price of a Land Rover.