Lada Ownersa Group

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Comment by Stephen Page on October 13, 2008 at 7:32am

SATRA MOTORS LIMITED
Background Information

The Company was formed in March 1960 and originally traded as Thompson and Taylor (Russian Cars) Limited, dealing exclusively in Soviet car imports. In June 1970, the concessionaires were taken over by the New York-based Satra Corporation and became Satra Motors Limited. Satra is an abbreviation of Soviet American Trading and the company was formed to promote trade between East and West.

In mid-1970, Satra Motors started to import the then new Moskvich vehicle and sales increased dramatically over the previous year's figures. Expansion of the Satra dealer network, combined with an energetic sales drive for the new model, accounted for an increase from 20 dealers and sales of 300 cars in 1969 to 268 dealers and sales of 14,500 cars in 1973. In May 1974, the first of the new Lada 1200 range - a saloon and an estate - became available.

A new subsidiary company - Satra Belarus Limited - was formed in April 1974 to handle to distribute Soviet Belarus agricultural tractors to the UK market, following a twelve month testing programme with twelve wheeled and crawler tractors.

Negotiations for the importation of Soviet motorcycles commenced in the autumn of 1973 and Satra Belarus subsequently took over the UK concession from Wells Motorcycles Ltd of Manor Park, London.

The Moskvich 1500 range and the Lada 1200 range were distributed from the Satra Motors Car Importation and Preparation Centre, Carnaby Industrial Estate, Bridlington, North Humberside.

Why Carnaby? A deep water port on Britain's east coast was needed for car imports and nearby Hull provided the perfect solution.

In 1989, the company's sales and administration departments moved to the Midlands and the following year Satra was taken over by TKM, giving it a solid foundation for the '90s. Shortly afterwards, TKM itself became part of the Inchcape group, the world's largest independent importer and distributor of motor vehicles. And so Motor Vehicle Imports was born.

At busy times, up to 300 cars a week passed in and out of it's gates. Factory? Production process? Well, not strictly true: the cars that rolled out of the enormous cargo ships and on to the transporters to make the short to Carnaby were finished - complied fully with British safety and emissions regulations and could have been handed over to the customers on the quayside. Virtually. However, to meet the more rigorous demands and expectations of the far more sophisticated western European markets, the cars received a great deal more care and attention as they passed through the various departments within Carnaby where a £500,000 investment had made this facility one of the most advanced in the UK, with specialised paint shop, a bang-up-to-date road test unit to check mechanicals and electricals, as well as a huge parts distribution centre.

Lada made the basic models, but most car buyers opted for L and GL models with progressively more equipment; and, in the case of a Samara GL a 1.5 engine. Each model travelled down its own production line as did the Riva and 4x4 Niva. After a thorough pre-delivery inspection, the top Samara models got bumpers painted to match the body colour, re-covered seats, leather-trimmed steering wheels and gear-knobs, sunroofs, in-car-entertainment packages, coach-lines, rear reflector panels, wheel-trims - they were all expertly fitted. In fact a total of 14 people were constantly dedicated to upgrading model specifications. Here special edition of Samaras are lined up in the paint shop for 'up-speccing' as motor industry insiders call it.


Teams of two on a special assembly line transformed the basic specification Niva model into the top of the range Cossack which was equipped with stylish new five-spoke alloy wheels, re-covered cloth seats, new door-trims and headlining, stereo radio/cassette player, bull bars front and rear, a sunroof, external spare wheel carrier, roof rack bars, halogen spot lights at the front, sporty wheel arch extensions and the individual Cossack graphic decals.
The majority of components used in the up-specification process were UK sourced and Lada spent more than 1.5 million pounds annually with British companies.
From 1977, Lada produced the Niva four-wheel drive. It was hugely superior to Japanese rivals like the infamous Suzuki SJ in terms of practicality and stability, and above all else, few off-roaders in the world could better it's off-road ability. The Niva sold at a sizeable price discount to its rivals. This was one area where Lada achieved some market success in the 1990s. The Niva was adopted by several British police forces, the Coastguard, the Manx Electricity Board and attracted something of a cult following within the 4x4 enthusiast fraternity in the UK and elsewhere.


In February 1995, the 333,333rd Lada, a Samara 1.5GGXS was produced at the Carnaby Import Centre and to mark the achievement, the vehicle was donated to the Cancer Research Campaign after it was voted the most deserving cause by the entire staff of MVI UK. Over the years Lada also supported Childwatch, BEN - the Motor and Allied Trades Benevolent Fund and individual dealers were also very supportive of worthwhile causes. They also sponsored at various times the Lada Classic Snooker Tournament, Leeds Rugby League Football Club, and the Trafford Metros ice hockey team to name a few!

In August 1996 the long awaited advertisement for the fuel injected Samara appeared in the press with the headline, 'There isn't a single reason to buy the new 1.5 injected Samara.' Taken out of context this headline perhaps forewarned that all was not well with Lada in the UK. During a trip to Russia at the beginning of 1997, a new deal for the supply of spares was agreed, but not the all important supply of new right-hand-drive stock. AvtoVaz wanted more money per unit as they did not have the hard cash to buy fuel injection components from GM and could not, due to emissions legislation, bring carburettor equipped cars into the UK. MVI wanted more product for their money. A further meeting ended in deadlock. MVI boss Terry Clarkson resigned and took part in discussions with an unnamed company to buy MVI from Inchcape and continue the Lada franchise, buying units from Finland - the Baltic Samara.

On July 4th 1997 it was officially announced Lada cars had finally reached the end of the road in Britain. No new cars would be imported, but Lada owners, thought to number 100,000 would still get parts and servicing through UK dealers. MVI's owners Inchcape said an offer to acquire MVI had now been withdrawn and the Lada business had been closed. Reason given, the difficulty in obtaining an American-made part to enable Ladas to comply with emission standards meant the Russian manufacturer AvtoVaz could no longer supply cars to MVI based at Carnaby. After over 350,000 sales, one of Britain's most talked about and best loved cars was consigned to motoring history. At their peak in 1988, more than 30,000 Lada cars were sold, although almost 10 years later, this figure had fallen to around 4,500 cars. The most popular model was the Samara and the most popular colour red.

9th July 1997, the last 1000 new Ladas available in the UK were offered for sale, not only through Lada dealers but other Inchcape outlets. The 939 Samaras, 17 Riva Estates and 44 4x4 Nivas were in great demand and a Lada hot-line was set up to handle enquiries.

Still produced in Russia, the latest models are available in western Europe but not here in the UK.