Nothing wrong with Lada Nivas. They received a bad rap because of an ignition distributor and module different to the OS models because of pollution regulations (they used one from a camira I believe, such a reliable donor), which made them stop under hot conditions. I relocated the ignition module on mine and haven't looked back.
Apart from being made in the USSR or later Russia, when I bought mine a mate who worked for Toyota, reckoned that they were no good because they had a monocoque chassis, constant 4WD (AWD) and coil suspension, which sounds sort of familiar when compared to what many are driving now.
I still have mine (It probably has $0 resale value). It always goes, even when I don't drive it for years and Parts are ridiculously cheap when compared to Japanese vehicles, even if the quality isn't that great.
It's not a great tow vehicle, the torque and power's not really suited to that.
It's noisy at speed so you need a loud stereo.
It does have a free revving engine (Fiat), AWD and is SWB but quite wide. Driving it on winding dirt roads at the highest allowed speed is just plain FUN.