The 1988 Volga GAZ 24-10 Is a Hilariously Bad Soviet Russian Car

this is a

1988

volga

gaz 2410 and it is a mid size sedan from the

soviet

union during communism

soviet

car manufacturers built soviet cars well and in general they were terribly outdated and ridiculously mediocre and this one is no exception and today i am going to Show me what I mean before we get started, be sure to check out the cars and bids which is my enthusiast car auction website with cool cars from the modern era. We have sold some amazing cars recently including this beautiful air cooled porsche 911 that sold for over 47k this mercedes sls amg roadster that sold for over 170k and this 97 toyota land cruiser that brought 26k if you are looking to sell your cool car from the modern era cars and deals are the place to do it and if you are looking to buy a cool car from the 1980s onwards.

Cars and deals have an amazing selection with daily auctions of great cars. Check out carsandbids.com. I borrowed this gas 2410 from a viewer here in the Los Angeles area and before even giving any context, yes, you heard me right, this is a

1988

model. Now when you think of 1988 vehicles, you probably think of this and this and this and this and you probably think it looks like something from the 1970s, but in Soviet Russia. This is what they were building in 1988 and, in fact, it is also what they were building in the 1970s. The 24 Boys first came out in 1970 and was scheduled for a replacement in the early 1980s, but political issues in The Soviet Union delayed that replacement and delayed.

And finally, delayed and delayed, in 1985 they came out with the GAZ 2410, which was an updated version of the same car that borrowed some new features from the GAZ luxury model that was only available to the Soviet ruling class. This is a 1988 model that was sold new to an engineer in St. Petersburg, but it said the engineer mainly used public transportation, which is why this car is in such good condition. Now under the hood is a 2.5-liter four-cylinder that makes about a hundred horsepower, said to be zero to sixty. about 19 seconds but beyond being slow what's really impressive about this car is how old it is how old it looks how old it feels how old it is and today I'm going to show you what I mean first I'm going to take you on a tour for this

volga

gaz 24-10 and show you all the quirks and features of this Soviet sedan that was never intended to come to America or end up on youtube, then I'll post it along the way and drive it and then give it a Doug rating .

I'm going to start with the Volga's quirks and features by discussing its styling, which is really surprising largely because it's 1988. It's just amazing how dated it looks. 70s, it seems like I said this car had its roots in the 70s, other car manufacturers in capitalist countries were constantly redesigning and improving and refining, but Gaz had to ask the Soviet government for permission to update and improve his vehicle and that permission It just didn't come. So this thing was delayed and delayed and it kept running and it was just the most outdated and ridiculous thing in 1988. It seems absurd when you look at this car.

Keep in mind that in the United States, the Lexus ls-400 was only two years away from going on sale. and the Soviets drove around in these and this was considered a luxury vehicle at the time, crazy, but anyway, next we moved on to getting in, a lot of cars in the 1980s, especially the luxury cars, had zero entry. key, but not this one, you put the key in. at the door, then you put your hand on the door handle and the door opened revealing there wasn't much room, the seat is all the way back right now and this is all the space this car had, it wasn't meant for be very comfortable even though it was a fairly large sedan and a luxury vehicle by Soviet standards, a few other things, by the way, this car had no door panel storage, this had become common in the Western world in the 1980s but not during the gauze you couldn't put your wallet there or papers or anything on your door panel it was just too fancy and by the way speaking of the door how about the exterior mirrors which of course are mounted on the door?

They are incredibly small, very 1970s looking, they are not power mirrors of course, but also they are hardly manually adjustable mirrors, you go to adjust them and they just go back to the original place they were in, you can't really adjust them for a better visibility. Either way, instead you're left with the way they came because they weren't done well at all. What a surprise, and next we move on to the 2410. You can see that the steering wheel actually looks pretty modern or at least. It's quite 80s looking which surprised me, it's pretty much the only thing here that's 80s looking although everything else is old but before we get to that I want to say I love the gaz logo .

These Soviet logos were so ridiculous with their symbols of power here. have a reindeer walking around like a confident powerful automaker even though they were building this in 1988 the other interesting thing with the steering wheel is the horn which sounds very 70's listen but anyway let's talk about some hilarity here, starting with the indicators. which is really crazy, for one thing there is no tachometer, even though this is a manual transmission car, you don't have a tachometer, you do have a clock, it's right in the middle of the gauge cluster, so It's not really accessible to the passenger, but there is a look here, but it's more interesting than that, the gauges on the left, you have a big circle with four separate gauges and I love how things are displayed.

Each meter has three small areas to let you know how that item is doing. cool and then good and then bad you can see what I'm talking about on the fuel gauge at the top the white one is cool and then the middle one with the lines is good and then the red one is bad but some of these are hilarious , For example. look at the battery indicator, there's a lot of bad and very little good and that's okay, you really want to be right in that little area of ​​great or good, otherwise you have a serious problem.

I also love the oil pressure gauge, you have two grid areas so I guess that's cool and really cool, what a ridiculous display for all these gauges and by the way also on these gauges the speedometer goes up to 200 kilometers per hour, which is 120 miles per hour, which is ridiculous, perhaps the most optimistic speedometer. I've ever seen this car would be lucky to hit 70 miles per hour, but it's there to give you something to aim for and then move on to the central controls, the climate controls on this vehicle are even weirder than the indicators of this car.

I don't have air conditioning, but that doesn't stop Gaz from giving you a blue climate slider and a red climate slider. Red is for heat. The blue one, I guess, must be just for the fan. The interesting thing is that they are different sizes. The blue one is smaller. The red is. bigger, why not make them uniform? Who knows below that it's even more interesting at the bottom right there is another slider that is somewhat redundant. It also lets you choose the temperature again: blue on the left, then blue, red in the middle, then red on the right.

The real question I have here is why do they have that if they already have the blue and red sliders on top and also why isn't the blue red in the middle? It's all the way to the right, next to the red one, why not? they just center it, it's exactly what they were thinking, it doesn't make sense and by the way you had no control to choose the fan speed here, instead there is just a switch to turn on or off, whatever fan speed you has given you, that's what you have. and you had to enjoy it now, above the climate controls you have the radio, which is actually not that unusual, you have a little tuner knob on the right, you can adjust the radio, you have a cassette in the middle, you can play a cassette tape, if you will, this is about what radios looked like in the 1970s, not 1988, but it's still what this car has, probably the most impressive technological advancement in this entire vehicle is on the left from the radio, this small switch places the antenna, press it. and it goes up automatically, this was common on cars sold in North America in the mid to late 80's and early 90's, this has it, which is very hard to believe, but that is the technology featured in the 24-10 and the next step back. in the middle below the climate controls you have four blank switches, I can't imagine what they would be for this car, it had no luxury features and I can't imagine there were any options or features that could be added so maybe they were just there for style now underneath you have a small panel that comes out that's where the ashtray and the lighter are hidden, you take it out and you can access those things and the next one also in the center, the clear focal point in this interior is the gear shift You can see that it has a flower on it and it is clear that it was not a factory item, of course it is an ornament added later and it gives the car a little more style that already has another ornament.

Open the glove box, you can see a more modern model. There is radio here so you can have the factory radio and keep your 2410 in perfect condition, but also play your music whenever you want, which is a nice improvement. Now also in the glove box you can see the only cupholders in this car, which are small. Cup-shaped cutouts on the glove box lid. You don't want to put glasses in or on them while driving, but they are there. I guess it's a suggestion of where you could put the glasses when you're standing. From there the rearview mirror moves up, which is unusual.

You can move it to position it like a normal rear view mirror but if you want to use the dimmer you have the switch at the bottom and when you pull it it only moves the mirror not the housing itself this is unusual I have never seen this before on no vehicle, the dimmer just moves the mirror, the housing stays on, which is strange on the 24-10 and by the way, speaking of mirrors on the sun visors for the front seats the passenger visor has a mirror as you would expect the visor from the driver no the driver can't look at himself only the passenger has that luxury in soviet russia and then we move to the back seat in the 24 -10 which is surprisingly spacious, there's actually more space back here than in the front, I have a space decent for the knees even with the front seat all the way back and I have pretty decent headroom, plus it's reasonably comfortable back here which is surprising although I think it's a consolation because apart from the space there's nothing in these rear seats, there's no climate vents back here, no wonder there's no headrest back here.

You didn't get it with this vehicle, you do have an armrest, but no. Not getting seat belts in North America in the 80's the idea of ​​not putting rear seat belts in a vehicle was unthinkable but this car doesn't have them. You only had front seat belts in a Soviet car from 1988. It's absolutely incredible, but they did make them. Make sure you give yourself the important stuff specifically, there is an ashtray in the rear door panels, so you don't have seatbelts or headrests for obvious safety features, but you do have an ashtray. Yes, Soviet priorities were indeed in order in the 1980s in their automotive industry. and then we went to the trunk at 24-10.

You open it by twisting this little latch on the boot lid and then it opens revealing sheer hilarity. On the one hand, the trunk is absolutely huge, this is one of those cars like American cars. in the '60s, where the trunk was too big and the passenger compartment was too small and they just did a terrible job with the use of space here, but it's a big trunk where you can put things, no lining, interestingly, that was considered too luxurious. your stuff just jumps around and if it hits pieces of metal, so be it, but my favorite thing in this trunk is the first aid kit that came with this car and is still with this car and it's awesome that you open it. and you have your typical bandages like you have at mercedes-benz first, but you also have bottles with liquid and not just one or it's like maybe it's neosporin, you have like four different bottles of liquid, what exactly did they think you were going to do if You had a minor injury to your car with all this fluid, what could it be for?

Do you drink it? I think interestingly the answer is yes because they also provided you with a small cup that you can use to drink the medication liquid, but what is this? It just makes absolutely no sense. This isn't even the best part of this medicine cabinet.first aid, although the best part is that it comes with pills, why what pills could they be used for in Soviet Russia? In Soviet Russia, the car comes with the first aid kit. comes with in soviet russia in soviet russia i figured you're driving in your car you have a small cut or a scratch you better have some pills on hand and that's why they give them to you in your first aid kit this is one of the more Ridiculous things I've ever seen and yet it's so fitting for this car and finally we move under the hood which is secured with these hinges on the sides and also with this fabric strap in the middle.

Luckily it's now a high quality 80's Soviet build. As I said here you get a 2.5 liter four cylinder engine that made 90 95 100 horsepower somewhere from 0 to 60 was a quick 19 seconds probably around the maximum speed. This engine, of course, has a carburetor. The Soviets had not yet started fuel injection. in the late 1980s, although the rest of the world had already done so, but that was the reality of using such an old vehicle for so long. By the way, also up front we have another opportunity to get a closer look at the Gaz logo, it's bigger. up here and you can see it's kind of a takeoff on the cadillac logo, it's got this kind of crest with these little ornaments on top and then in the middle you have this walking reindeer, this symbol of power, it's really the cadillac logo. a vehicle thatI could be proud of if this had been a vehicle like that, by the way, another item that I like under the hood says that your Volga breaks down at night, you open the hood and you can't really see anything.

Fortunately, they thought it through and provided you with this light. Flip the switch and the light comes on. This is an incredibly small light that doesn't really provide any illumination, but then again, this is an incredibly small engine that doesn't really need that much illumination, and besides, this is the luxury of more illumination. you were going to get it from a soviet car in the 1980s and those are the quirks and features of the volga gazz 2410 now it's time to take it out on the road and see how well it drives driving the gauze 24-10 without power steering in this vehicle It's no surprise, so turning the steering wheel is a challenge, as is almost everything here now, before I start driving, I want to clarify something because I've always wondered about this, what is it and why?

It is called Volga Gods 2410, like Volga and Gas. It turns out that Gaz is the name of the car manufacturer, so General Motors and Volga is like a brand name for this car, kind of like Buick. Now why do they have Gaz in the name? It would be like calling it Buick General Motors in some way and that's weird, but then again, why did they call it 24-10? It also has no real meaning to the vehicle, so there are a lot of questions here, but let's talk about the driving experience anyway. Pretty good for a vehicle from the 1960s, this is pretty good for one of those, although it's a disaster for a car from this era, a 1988 car with an interior that looks like this and drives like this, I mean, It's a total anachronism, it's absolutely crazy. anyone was building something in the '80s that was still objectively terrible, but that's what was happening in communism, so what are the problems with the driving experience?

Well they are plentiful, the biggest being of course that it is slow, it is profoundly radical, infinitely slow, there is also the fact that I cannot see behind me because it is not possible to adjust the mirror to the position you want, as I mentioned , it's also hot here, it was never very hot in communist Russia, it was cold there and they never expected this car. to be operated in southern California, uh, in the summer, but that's what's happening here now, interestingly, the owner told me that he bought this car, his father was Armenian and his father had one back in the day in Armenia and you know, it came to the United States a long time ago.

He got lost, of course, but he found one in the US and thinks it's the only 24-10 in the US, so the 24-10 is actually a bit strange. The 24 was for a long time the normal Volga, you know, the sedan and then the 10 was. kind of a stopgap measure until they introduced a more modern vehicle later, um, but I can't get over the fact that this is 1988, there's some plastic in here that says 80s, you know, that feels like the 80s, but everything the rest just feels like the early 70's. without any effort to make it better or improve it, which we know is actually the case as i check my gauges here the battery gauge is in the range where it needs to be to be fine , everything else looks good too, the car drives reasonably well.

I asked the owner how this is maintained. He said my dad has a friend who was a mechanic in the Soviet era in Eastern Europe and he maintained them then, so he maintains them now and I'm thinking this guy probably said, oh. God, I thought I had left them behind in Soviet Russia, but here comes one again, it's a totally strange vehicle and it's a crazy experience, the truth is that driving it doesn't feel any different from driving any other kind, you know, a early 70's car, that's just the crazy part. number one, it's this soviet car, so you won't see another one ever again and it's not a car from the early 70's either, it's ridiculously outdated and that's the volga gas 2410, this car is disastrous, terribly ridiculous, especially for a model of 1988 and if this had been sold anywhere except Soviet Russia they would have laughed at its production but it is certainly interesting to see this window to the USSR at least in car form and now it's time to give the 2410 a score from Doug starting with the categories and style of the weekend. the volga is okay, not attractive, not really terrible, but it looks old for its time and gets three out of ten acceleration, it's disastrous and gets one out of ten, same with such heavy and disconnected handling it gets a two out of 10.

The fun factor is a little higher although it is slow and doesn't handle well and it is a lot of fun to drive this knowing you are pretty much the only one and it gets a 3 out of 10. Finally a cool factor and this is really cool for an '80s sedan park at Carson Coffee and people who know what it is want to come see it. It gets a 5 out of 10 for a total weekend score of 14 out of 50. Above are the daily categories and features, there really aren't many, no rear seat belts in 1988, crazy, it gets a 2 out of 10.

The Comfort is okay, although not that good, it gets a six out of ten, the quality is a disaster, this car was not well made, the interior is not nice and the production standards are decades behind. It gets a 4 out of 10. Practicality is par for the course for a car like this and it gets a 5 out of 10. It finally has value and honestly, it's a good thing. Value: This isn't a good car, but it's okay and you could probably buy an imported one if you can find it for under 15 grand, maybe even around 10 grand or less, which isn't too bad for such a distinctive car. and interesting.

It scores a 6 out of 10 for a total daily score of 23 out of 50. Add it up and the score obtained is 37 out of 100, which puts it here against other relevant sedans, although it's worth noting that this isn't exactly fair. comparison, as most of these are high end luxury sedans and that wasn't really the purpose of the volga, still, the volga doesn't even come close to the sedans of its time from the western world, but it's incredibly interesting to see what It was a Soviet car. The car feels like it has decent knee room even with the front seat all the way back and I have pretty good head room back here, it's relatively non-stealing door