GTP Cool Wall: 1972-2003 UAZ 469

  • Thread starter Thread starter White & Nerdy
  • 72 comments
  • 8,496 views

1972-2003 UAZ 469

  • Total voters
    86
  • Poll closed .
I'd buy one. In Red. Park it across the Bering Strait from The Last Frontier while blaring a certain theme song over a tannoy.

In all seriousness, I don't normally see much point in taking the OP's bias into account when voting. It's a very capable and extremely common vehicle in northern Eurasia and has been for decades. But I've never once thought of it as cool since it's pretty uninteresting in my opinion. So meh.
 
Communism or capitalism - say, what does it have to do with the cars? I adore German '30s cars like Mercedes SSK, Auto Union V16, Maybach Zeppelin, etc, and I don't care of the fact they were made by Nazis. Cars are designed to serve good to their owners, regardless of the economic/social system in a particular country.

Communism may be uncool, there are many reasons for that. And UAZ may be uncool, too, it certainly has some lacks.
But an engineering creation has nothing to do with the politicians. Don't some of you get it?
 
Rage Racer
Don't some of you get it?
Click to expand...

Undoubtedly. Even so, you have to remember coolness is about as subjective a judgement value as can be, so W&N has all the rigth in the world to find it uncool because ZOMG commies, while everyone else might find it subzero just to bash on him even if they didn't even read what car it was.
 
I know a funny article about the UAZ which clearly describes the good and the bad traits of this car. :D
I'll translate it and post here... later. I gotta go to GT6, my El Camino is waiting. :gtpflag:

P.S. "The better your jeep is, the farther you'll have to walk for a tractor."
 
Interesting specimen we have here...

Not cool enough for me, but it's not a meh car either... Man, I'm having a crisis :lol:

Ok, I'll give it a cool
 
Tough one, at first glance t screams uncool but it has this subtle coolness to it, and it's making me vote cool.
 
The Soviets made some genuinely cool cars, one of them made the headlines on Jalopnik today actually, but this isn't one of them. It looks like something you could buy from a military surplus auction. Imagine parking in front of a girl's driveway with one of these: Seriously Uncool.
 
I voted Seriously Uncool on impulse.

It's just a funny looking little jeep thing. The front end looks odd and droopy and that weird bulge thing along the side is just weird and totally destroys any nice lines it could have. Looks-wise, it is indeed at the bottom of Seriously Uncool.

However...I'm having second thoughts. Its offroading is impressive enough to make me wish I could change my vote up to Uncool. Still...this thing isn't cool at all; it's ugly in a bad way even for a small offroader.
 
Cool. Our military still uses these. :p As alarm clocks that is, as their starter sounds like dog that is getting beaten to an inch of it's life.
 
Just another Jeep clone. And not even a good one, like this:

GF+S1.jpg


Uncool.
 
CarBastard
The Soviets made some genuinely cool cars, one of them made the headlines on Jalopnik today actually
Click to expand...
LuAZ Proto? Unfortunately, that one was never mass-produced... But the basis, LuAZ 969M, was worth being nominated there, too. :D

CarBastard
Imagine parking in front of a girl's driveway with one of these: Seriously Uncool.
Click to expand...
:lol: Yeah, my friends recommended me not to buy it, because "girls will think you're some kind of kolkhoznik [a Russian term similar to "redneck" in America]". But the real reason why I'm not planning to buy a Bobik is... its uselessness. I live in a big city which actually has roads (unlike the rest of the country), so this off-road thing would be wearing its mud tires on the city asphalt 98% of the time, but still consume fuel like a jeep (slightly more than a Volga with the same engine).
However, it can have a nice use for a picnic on the countryside... unless it suddenly gets broken in the middle of nowhere (but you can repair it with with a couple of wrenches, a hammer and a "*#%!", don't you?).
If you have a tent version, you can enjoy driving a convertible in summer... Or freeze to death in winter.

- Damn, it's so cold, let's get in your car to warm up?
- No way, I have an UAZ with a tent roof.
- ****!

This car requires you to have balls!
Despite of many objective lacks, this is the main reason why UAZ 469, nicknamed Bobik ("Bobby", "Little Bob") or Kozlik ("Little goat") deserves a Sub-Zero from me.
You might say, I'd give Sub-Zero to almost any car that requires balls from its driver. :D

Leonidae@MFT
Cool. Our military still uses these. :p As alarm clocks that is, as their starter sounds like dog that is getting beaten to an inch of it's life.
Click to expand...
:D yeah, I like that sound. When I hear it, I'll never confuse it with anything else, I'll clearly tell it's an UAZ, even with closed eyes.
 
Last edited:
Just checked, this is a vehicle in DCS, so that means you can unleash a 500 kilo guided bomb right into its engine block.:D
 
Rage Racer
Communism or capitalism - say, what does it have to do with the cars?

[...]

But an engineering creation has nothing to do with the politicians. Don't some of you get it?
Click to expand...
That's not exactly true. Even in decadent Western captialist societies, a lot of the engineering is guided by legislation - just look at Euro6 emissions regs.

In the more socialist and communist parts of the world, cars are designed by committee - no sparks of genius (because none are allowed), no love, no passion - and form doesn't follow function because there just isn't any form (after all, beauty is aspirational). It's precious little coincidence that the socialist-culture-dominated British Leyland cars were dismal, communist Eastern Bloc cars were dismal, communist Chinese cars are dismal (and just look at what they do without paying any attention to crash safety regs or intellectual property law) and communist North Korea is literally stuck making copies of Ladas and the odd E-Class clone for high-ranking party officials - while capitalist South Korea's Kia and Hyundai models are now not only well in the pack but amongst the best cars in their classes.

Politics plays a massive role in vehicle engineering and production.

If someone wants to include the background of a car in part of their decision over whether it's cool or not - pretty much the most subjective thing in the universe - they can go right ahead.
 
Famine
In the more socialist and communist parts of the world, cars are designed by committee - no sparks of genius (because none are allowed), no love, no passion - and form doesn't follow function because there just isn't any form (after all, beauty is aspirational). It's precious little coincidence that the socialist-culture-dominated British Leyland cars were dismal, communist Eastern Bloc cars were dismal, [...]
Click to expand...

Well, the UAZ 469 was designed as a military vehicle (civilian usage of which is the second role), and the army's orders were to make it cheap, simple and effective, they didn't care about such things as "love", "passion", etc. It wasn't the Party's requirements, it's the military origin.
The only way how the socialist system affected this car is the manufacturer. Until 1956, the main off-road car manufactuer in the Union was GAZ, and UAZ was just another assembly plant for GAZ 4x4 vehicles. But then, the Transport Ministry of USSR ordered GAZ to stop the jeep production and leave it to UAZ (yep, socialism is when the government tells manufacturers what to do and what not to do), and UAZ has got its own design bureau that developed its own cars, like the 452 (the 4x4 van family) and the 469.

Jeep (Willys), Land Rover and MB Gelandewagen were initially military vehicles, too, and they have become legends. But UAZ... UAZ just didn't keep up with the time, and didn't become popular in any first world country (except for Italy, thanks to Martorelli brothers). And the successor of the 469 - UAZ Hunter - is not even close to the LR Defender in popularity. But this is another story...

Now, about "commie" cars being dismal... Yes, some of the Eastern Bloc cars, like Trabant, Wartburg, Dacia, Lada 2105 (aka Riva), really look like they were chopped out of a wood brick. But "designed by committee" is some kind of a stereotype. The GAZ Volga family (21, 24) makes sure they were designed by designers. They have passion and a lot of fans (even outside the former USSR). There were also quite stylish cars, like 1959 Skoda Felicia (Czechoslovakia, but socialist, too) and even small class cars like Moskvich 402 and the iconic ZAZ Zaporozhets family - IMO, they are pretty elegant.

Famine
If someone wants to include the background of a car in part of their decision over whether it's cool or not - pretty much the most subjective thing in the universe - they can go right ahead.
Click to expand...
Of course they can, but in my opinion, this is weird to underrate a vehicle because of a social/economy system in its country of origin. But OK, this is everyone's own decision.
 
Rage Racer
Well, the UAZ 469 was designed as a military vehicle (civilian usage of which is the second role), and the army's orders were to make it cheap, simple and effective, they didn't care about such things as "love", "passion", etc. It wasn't the Party's requirements, it's the military origin.
The only way how the socialist system affected this car is the manufacturer.
Click to expand...
That'd be quite a significant way politics affected the car...
Rage Racer
(yep, socialism is when the government tells manufacturers what to do and what not to do)
Click to expand...
As would that.
Rage Racer
But "designed by committee" is some kind of a stereotype. The GAZ Volga family (21, 24) makes sure they were designed by designers. They have passion and a lot of fans (even outside the former USSR). There were also quite stylish cars, like 1959 Skoda Felicia (Czechoslovakia, but socialist, too) and even small class cars like Moskvich 402 and the iconic ZAZ Zaporozhets family - IMO, they are pretty elegant.
Click to expand...
Just like every other emerging communist car-maker, those are all pretty inelegant clones of Western cars from 20 years earlier - and, particularly the Volga, were "influenced" by party members whims.

Politics affects how cars are designed, engineered and manufactured, from simple legislation about the position of high level brakelights right up to high-ranking party members demanding a redesign because the aspirational fascia is not in keeping with the message of communism (see the GAZ 21 Zvezda). It's how things are.
Rage Racer
Of course they can, but in my opinion, this is weird to underrate a vehicle because of a social/economy system in its country of origin. But OK, this is everyone's own decision.
Click to expand...
In my opinion it's weird to say a car's uncool just because some of its motive power comes from an electrochemical process rather than a thermochemical one - but yet the current Cool Wall caretaker takes great delight in doing that frequently.
 
hmmmm, hmmmmmm, hmmmmmmm...hmmmmm *thinking*

Okay, I'll stop that, I'm just in a silly mood. I made my decision and judging by how it looks and by seeing it push its way through snow & water like that: I'm going to deem it cool.
 
This thing would be a million times better if it had more ground clearance. You can only really go as deep as the differential and pizza cutter tires don't help
 
Political background/climate may well affect the design of an automobile, but automatically Uncool because the product of a communist regime, reads to me like it's the Commie heritage he thinks makes it uncool, rather than the design decisions implemented on the vehicle that he may find uncool being dictated by a communist regime. Maybe a small definition difference, but I think it's clear how the original comment was meant, he does't like commies, or anything to do with them. Which is fine I guess, we all use different measures to determine cool?
 
Famine
That'd be quite a significant way politics affected the car...
Click to expand...
But there's not much to do with the performance or design. The 469 is a successor of the GAZ 69 (that was assembled by UAZ, too). In capitalist countries, we sometimes see similar occasions when one car's production is moved to another plant (of a different company) and the new owners devolep the car themselves.

Famine
Just like every other emerging communist car-maker, those are all pretty inelegant clones of Western cars from 20 years earlier - and, particularly the Volga, were "influenced" by party members whims.

Politics affects how cars are designed, engineered and manufactured, from simple legislation about the position of high level brakelights right up to high-ranking party members demanding a redesign because the aspirational fascia is not in keeping with the message of communism (see the GAZ 21 Zvezda). It's how things are.
Click to expand...
Well, this would be a too long and annoying discussion about clone or not, what were they "influenced" by, etc, so I'll leave it.
Regarding the GAZ 21 "Star" edition - yes, the initial Volga's front grill shape was the "Shark jaw", but the officials strongly advised the GAZ designers to give it some "party orientation" (the legend was that marshal Zhukov said "redesign it, giving you two weeks!"). But that star was scaring off the Western export buyers ("Commies, Cold War, Red Threat, OMG!"), so the 1958 model had the prototype's "Shark" grill back. Today, that early "Star" edition is pretty rare and expensive (some of them also had automatic gearboxes).

Famine
In my opinion it's weird to say a car's uncool just because some of its motive power comes from an electrochemical process rather than a thermochemical one...
Click to expand...
I think so, too, and I never determine cars uncool just because ot the hybrid/electric engine. There's another reason why I think Prius is not cool. :)

Slashfan
This thing would be a million times better if it had more ground clearance. You can only really go as deep as the differential and pizza cutter tires don't help
Click to expand...
The army version of the 469 is equipped with reductors on the axles, giving it ground clearance of 300 mm.
960.jpg

^This one has army-type axles. They are widely available and easy to install on any 469 or 3151.
And the suspension is easy to lift if you want MOAR clearance and/or bigger wheels.
 
Last edited:

Latest Posts

Back