About ZAZ
ZAZ or Zaporizhia Automobile Building Plant (Ukrainian: ЗАЗ, Запорізький автомобілебудівельний завод) is the main automobile-manufacturer of Ukraine, based in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhya. It is also known for its former mother company name, AvtoZAZ.
History
The company was established in 1960 as ZAZ (Zaporozhskiy avtomobil'nyi zavod) to produce the copy of Fiat 600—a car for the ordinary people. From 1975 to 2002, the factory was a part of AvtoZAZ holding, which was transformed into joint-stock company in 1990s.
The models named "Zaporozhets" (Russian: Запорожец) were powered by an air-cooled rear mounted V4 engine made by MeMZ (based in neighboring Melitopol'). The body of earlier models 965 was similar to the Fiat 600. The redesigned 966 looked more like a NSU Prinz. Despite low reliability and prestige of those cars, they have shown an unbeaten accessibility and popularity among Soviets, becoming the "car for pensioners and intellectuals".
Newer front wheel drive cars are based on model 1102 Tavria (in production since 1980s) and are powered by a water cooled, front mounted MeMZ engine and fall into micro-class.
