Notebook

Workhorse clunker to depart

Production will likely stop next year on the Soviet workhorse sedan – the Zhiguli semyorka (Model 7), which has dominated the country’s roads for nearly 30 years.

The semyorka is a second generation spin-off of a Fiat made at the Volga-based AvtoVAZ plant, and to this day is the most popular Russian-made vehicle, due to its low cost (R185,000, or about $6,500) and the ubiquity of spare parts. Yet it does have notoriously awful emission standards and a tendency to break down regularly.