The Successor...

... to my old Niva. She is now 14 years old, still running okay - except that there is now this serious problem of acquiring the OEM parts, and all because of that stupid and senseless Russian war* against Ukraine... :(

It is my fourth Niva, as I always liked that car - a lot. Now it will definitely be my last one. I will give my money to progress, not to regression into the blackness of the past.

Thus, we simply needed another reliable car, but of the kind for which the components are readily available.

I was looking at an interestingly priced second-hand Toyota RAV4, but it turned out the engine was shot to the level where the repair simply isn't worth the trouble.

And then my friend found me this FIAT Panda, (4x4, 1.3-liter Diesel) in excellent condition at an even more interesting price. So that was it! The car is similar to Niva in its ability to go Any Season - Any Terrain, so it is colloquially described as "wild goat"...
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* "Special military operation" - yeah, my southern backside! IMHO, it is just plain vanity- and greed-driven territory and resource grab in the most brazen and criminal way imaginable. With all respect to the Russian folk throughout history, the Russia of today's is not getting one single effing cent from me.
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