AvtoVAZ, sporting a sly smirk, rolled out the updated Bronto, and it looks like a rebellion against glossy automotive nonsense. While the whole world is collectively going crazy for electric cars that fall into hibernation when passing Electronic Warfare (EW) countermeasures, and for crossovers whose plastic bumpers fall off when hitting a curb, Tolyatti is delivering a primal vehicle. Do they want us to finally ditch mortgages in the concrete jungle and move to the forests? It seems so.

This machine wasn’t built to sit in traffic on Sadovoye. It scoffs at coconut lattes, car-sharing services, and parking finder apps, but it views the world through vintage round headlights that remember Gagarin, asking: «Asphalt? Is this edible?» It has a new 1.8L engine that allows the old, wheezing «classic» not just to breathe deeply, but to pull through impassable mire with the tenacity of Schwarzenegger. It doesn’t need maps, the internet, or roads at all. It only needs the courage of the person behind the wheel.

They mounted enormous mud tires on it—three inches larger than those on a standard Lada Niva. They reinforced the transmission, raised the ground clearance, installed a light fixture on the roof, and somehow added a safety airbag. Now, when you’re churning through muck where wolves fear to tread, you can do it slightly safer for your chest.

A line of fishermen, collective farm chairmen, and other rugged men with chainsaws has already stretched from the Lada entrance gate to Surgut. Bronto hasn’t returned to compete with those glamorous parquet wood finishers. It has returned to remind them what a machine built for survival is. And judging by the fact that it has been updated, AvtoVAZ seems to have some idea about our near future.
Get your winches and felt boots ready, comrades. The glamour is over. Besides, spending one and a half million rubles for factory tuning with a warranty is pocket change.