The 1988 Volga GAZ 24-10 Is a Hilariously Bad Soviet Russian Car

this is a 1988 volga gaz 2410 and it is a mid-sized sedan from the soviet union during communism soviet automakers built well soviet cars and they were generally horribly laughably outdated and ridiculously mediocre and this one is no exception and today i'm going to show you what i mean [Music] before i get started be sure to check out cars and bids which is my enthusiast car auction website with cool cars from the modern era we have sold some amazing cars recently including this beautiful air-cooled porsche 911 which sold for over 47 thousand dollars this mercedes sls amg roadster which sold for over 170 thousand dollars and this 97 toyota land cruiser which brought 26 000 if you're looking to sell your cool car from the modern era cars and bids is the place to do it and if you're looking to buy a cool car from the 1980s and up cars and bids has an amazing selection with daily auctions of cool cars check it out carsandbids.com i've borrowed this gas 2410 from a viewer here in the los angeles area and before i even give any background yes you heard me right this is a 1988 model now when you think of 1988 vehicles you probably think of this and this and this and this and you probably think that this looks like something from the 1970s but in soviet russia this is what they were building in 1988 and actually it's also what they were building in the 1970s the guys 24 first came out in 1970 and it was scheduled for a replacement in the early 1980s but political issues in the soviet union delayed that replacement and delayed and delayed and delayed finally in 1985 they came out with the gaz 2410 which was an updated version of the same car that borrowed some new features from the luxury gaz model that was only available to the soviet ruling class this one is a 1988 model which was sold new to an engineer in saint petersburg but it said that the engineer primarily took public transportation which is why this car is in such nice condition now under the hood is a 2.5 liter four-cylinder that made about a hundred horsepower zero to sixty is said to be around 19 seconds but beyond being slow the really impressive thing about this car is how ancient it is how old it looks how old it feels how old it is and today i'm gonna show you what i mean first i'm going to take you on a tour of this volga gaz 24-10 and show you around all of the quirks and features of this soviet sedan that was never intended to come to america or wind up on youtube then i'm going to get it out on the road and drive it and then i'll give it a doug score all right i'm going to start the quirks and features of the volga by discussing its styling which is truly striking largely because this is 1988 it's just unbelievable how outdated this looks how 70s it looks now like i said this car had its roots in the 70s other automakers in capitalist countries were redesigning and constantly improving and refining but gaz had to ask the soviet government for permission to update and improve its vehicle and that permission was just not forthcoming so this thing lagged and lagged and kept going and was just the most outdated ridiculous looking thing by 1988 it just looks absurd when you look at this car keep in mind that in america the lexus ls-400 was only two years away from going on sale and the soviets were driving around in these and this was considered a luxury vehicle at the time crazy but anyway next up moving on to getting in now a lot of cars in the 1980s especially luxury cars had keyless entry but not this one you stuck your key in the door then you put your hand on the door handle pulled on it and the door opened revealing not very much room the seat is all the way back right now and this is all the room that this car had it was not intended to be very comfortable even though it was a fairly large sedan and a luxury vehicle by soviet standards a few other things by the way that this car didn't have one is any door panel storage this had become common in the western world by the 1980s but not for the gauze you couldn't put your wallet there or paperwork or anything in your door panel it was just too luxurious and by the way speaking of the door how about the exterior mirrors that of course are mounted on the door they're incredibly small very 1970s looking they're not power mirrors of course but also they're barely even manually adjustable mirrors you go to adjust them and they kind of just pop back into the original place they were in you can't really adjust them for better visibility in any way instead you're pretty much just stuck with the way they came because they weren't made well at all what a surprise and next up we move into the 2410. you can see the steering wheel is actually fairly modern looking or at least fairly 1980s looking which surprised me it's pretty much the only 1980s looking thing in here though everything else is ancient but before i get to that i want to say i love the gaz logo these soviet logos were just so ridiculous with their symbols of power here we have a reindeer striding like a confident powerful automaker even though they were building this in 1988 the other interesting thing with the steering wheel is the horn which sounds very 1970s take a listen but anyway let's talk about some of the hilarity in here starting with the gauges which are truly insane for one thing there's no tachometer even though this is a manual transmission car you didn't get a tachometer you did get a clock it's right in the middle of the gauge cluster so not really accessible to the passenger but there is a clock in here but more interesting than that the gauges over on the left you have a big circle with four separate gauges in it and i just love how stuff is displayed each gauge has three little areas to let you know how that item is doing you have great and then okay and then bad you can see what i'm talking about on the fuel gauge at the top the white is great and then the middle with the lines is okay and then the red is bad but some of these are hilarious for instance look at the battery gauge there's a lot of bad and very little great and okay you really want to be right in that tiny little area of great or okay otherwise you have a serious problem i also love in the oil pressure gauge you have two areas of grate so i guess that's great and then really great what what a ridiculous display for all these gauges and by the way also in these gauges the speedometer goes up to 200 kilometers an hour which is 120 miles an hour that is laughable maybe the most optimistic speedometer i have ever seen this car would be lucky if it hit 70 miles an hour but it's there to give you something to aspire to and next up moving into the center controls the climate controls for this vehicle are even more bizarre than the gauges this car does not have air conditioning but that doesn't stop gaz from giving you a blue climate slider and a red climate slider red is for heat blue i guess must just be for the fan now the interesting thing is they are different sizes blue is smaller red is larger why not make them uniform who knows below that it's even more interesting in the lower right there's another slider that's sort of redundant it also lets you choose temperature again blue over to the left then blue red in the middle and then red on the right the real question i have here is why do they have that if they already have the blue and red sliders above it and also why isn't the blue red in the middle it's all the way over to the right next to the red why didn't they just center it it's just what were they thinking it makes no sense and by the way you didn't have any controls to choose your fan speed in here instead there's just one switch on or off whatever fan speed it gave you that's what you got and you had to enjoy it now above the climate controls you have the radio which actually isn't really all that unusual you have a little tuner knob over on the right you can adjust the radio you have a cassette in the middle you can play a cassette tape if you want this is about how radios looked in the 1970s not in 1988 but nonetheless that's what this car has probably the most impressive technological advancement in this entire vehicle is to the left of the radio this little switch puts up the antenna press it and it goes up automatically this was common in cars sold in north america in the mid to late 80s and the early 90s this thing has it which is crazy hard to believe but that is the standout technology in the 24-10 and next up moving back to the middle below the climate controls you have four blank switches can't imagine what those would be for this car had no luxury features and i can't imagine there were any options or features that could be added so maybe they were just there for style now below that you have a little panel that comes out that's where the ashtray and cigarette lighter are hidden you pull that out and you can access those things and next up also in the center clear focal point in this interior is the gear lever which you can see has a flower in it and it's clear this was not a factory item of course this is an embellishment added later and it gives the car a little more flair than it already has another embellishment open up the glove box you can see a more modern radio in here this is so you can have the factory radio and keep your 2410 in perfect condition but also play your music when you want to which is an interesting upgrade now also in the glove box you can see this car's only cupholders which are just little cup shaped cutouts on the glovebox lid you wouldn't want to put any cups in them or on them when you're driving but they're there is i guess a suggestion of where you could put cups when you're stopped now next up moving up from there is the rear view mirror which is unusual you can move it around to position it like a normal rear view mirror but if you want to use the dimmer you have the switch on the bottom and when you pull it it moves only the mirror not the housing itself this is unusual i've never seen this before in any vehicle the dimmer just moves the mirror the housing stays put kind of a strange thing in the 24-10 and by the way speaking of mirrors on the sun visors for the front seats the passenger visor has a mirror as you'd expect the driver visor does not the driver does not get to look at themselves only the passenger has that luxury in soviet russia and next up we move on to the back seat in the 24-10 which is surprisingly roomy there's actually more room back here than there is in the front i have decent knee room even with the front seat all the way back and i have pretty decent headroom as well it's reasonably comfortable back here which is surprising although i think it's a consolation because other than the roominess there is nothing in these back seats there is no climate vents back here no surprise there is no headrests back here you didn't get that with this vehicle you do get an arm rest but you don't get seat belts in north america in the 80s the idea of not putting in rear seat belts in a vehicle was unthinkable but this car doesn't have them you only had front seat belts in a 1988 soviet car it's absolutely unbelievable but they did make sure to give you the important stuff specifically there is an ashtray on the rear door panels so you didn't get seatbelts or headrests to obvious safety items but you got an ashtray yes soviet priorities were really in order back in the 1980s in their auto industry and next up we move on to the trunk in the 24-10 you open it by twisting this little trunk lid latch and then it pops open revealing some real hilarity for one thing the trunk is absolutely huge this is one of those cars like american cars in the 60s where the trunk is too big and the passenger compartment is too small and they just did a terrible job with the use of space back here but it is a large trunk where you can put stuff no trunk lining interestingly that was deemed too luxurious your stuff just kind of bops around and if it hits metal pieces well then so be it but my very favorite thing in this trunk is the first aid kit which came with this car and is still with this car and it is unbelievable you open it up and you have your typical bandages like you have in mercedes-benz first it gets but you also have bottles with liquid and not just one or it's like maybe it's neosporin have like four different bottles of liquid what exactly did they think you were gonna do if you had some minor injury in your car with all of this liquid what could it be for do you drink it i think interestingly the answer is yes because they also provided a little cup that you can use to drink liquid from medicine but what is this it just makes absolutely no sense this isn't even the best part of this first aid kit though the best part is it comes with pills why what pills what could these be used for in soviet russia in soviet russia the car comes the first aid kit that comes with in soviet russia in soviet russia i figured you're driving along in your car you have a little cut or a scrape you better have some pills handy and so they give those to you in your first aid kit this is one of the most ridiculous things i've ever seen and yet it is so fitting for this car and finally we move under the hood which is secured with these hinges on the sides and also with this cloth strap in the middle thankfully this is high quality 1980s soviet construction now like i said under here you get a 2.5 liter four cylinder that made 90 95 100 horsepower somewhere in there 0 to 60 was a brisk 19 seconds that was probably around top speed this engine of course is carbureted the soviets hadn't quite started fuel injection in the late 1980s even though the rest of the world already had but that was sort of the reality of using such an old vehicle for so long by the way also up front we get another chance to have a closer look at the gaz logo it's larger up here and you can see it's kind of a takeoff on the cadillac logo it has this sort of crest with these little trimmings on top and then the middle you have that striding reindeer this symbol of power it really is a logo of a vehicle that you could be proud of if only this had been such a vehicle by the way one other item i like under the hood say your volga breaks down at night you open the hood you can't really see anything fortunately they thought that through and provided you with this light flip the switch and the light turns on this is an incredibly tiny light doesn't really provide any illumination at all but then again this is an incredibly tiny engine doesn't really need all that much illumination plus this is the most lighting luxury you were gonna get from a soviet car in the 1980s and so those are the quirks and features of the volga gazz 2410 now it's time to get this out on the road and see how it drives all right driving the gauze 24-10 no power steering in this vehicle no surprise so turning the wheel is a little bit of a challenge as is just about everything in here now before i get started with the drive i want to clarify something because i've always wondered about this myself what it why is it called the volga gods 2410 like what is volga and gas it turns out gaz is the name of the automaker so like general motors and volga is like a brand for this car so sort of like buick now why do they have gaz in the name it'd be like calling it the buick general motors something and that is weird but then again why did they call it the 24-10 that has no real significance to the vehicle either so there's a lot of questions here but anyway let's talk driving experience this drives pretty well for a 1960s vehicle this is pretty good for one of those really though it's a disaster for a car from this era a 1988 car with an interior that looks like this that drives like this i mean it's it's a total anachronism it's absolutely crazy that anybody was building anything in the 80s that was still this objectively utterly terrible but that's what was going on in communism so what are the issues with the driving experience well they are plentiful the biggest is of course it's slow it's just deeply radically unendingly slow there's also the fact that i can't see behind me because you can't possibly adjust the mirror into the position you want like i mentioned it's also warm in here it never really got warm in communist russia it was cold there and they never expected this car to be operated in southern california uh in the summer but that's what's happening here now interestingly the owner told me he bought this car his dad their armenian and his dad had one back in the day in armenia and you know it came to the states cars long lost of course but he found one in the states and he believes it's the only 24-10 in the united states so 24-10 is actually a little weird the 24 was for a long time the normal volga you know sedan and then the 10 was sort of a stop gap until they introduced a more modern vehicle later um but i just cannot get over the fact that this is 1988 there is some plastic in here that says 80s you know that kind of feels 80s but everything else just feels like early 70s with absolutely no effort paid to make it better or improve it which we know is actually the case as i check my gauges here the battery gauge is in that range where it needs to be to be okay everything else looks good too the car drives reasonably well i asked the owner how do you maintain this he said my dad has a friend who was a mechanic back in the soviet era back in eastern europe and he maintained them then so he maintains him now and i'm thinking this guy probably was like oh god i thought i left these behind soviet russia but here comes one again it is a totally bizarre vehicle and it's a crazy experience truthfully driving it doesn't feel any different from driving any other likes you know early 70s car it's just the crazy part is number one it's this soviet car so you're not going to see another one ever and also it's not an early 70s car it's it's laughably laughably outdated and so that's the volga gas 2410 this car is disastrous awful laughable especially for a 1988 model and if this had been sold anywhere but soviet russia it would have been laughed out of production but it's certainly interesting to see this window into the ussr at least in car form and now it's time to give the 2410 a doug score starting with the weekend categories and styling the volga is well it isn't attractive it's not truly terrible but it just looks ancient for its time and it gets a three out of ten acceleration is disastrous and it gets a one out of ten same with handling so ponderous and disconnected it gets a two out of 10. fun factor is a bit higher though even though it's slow and it doesn't handle well and there's some real fun in driving this thing around knowing you're pretty much the only one and it gets a 3 out of 10. finally cool factor and this is really cool for an 80s sedan park this at carson coffee and people who know what it is want to come check it out it gets a 5 out of 10 for a total weekend score of 14 out of 50. next up are the daily categories and features there really aren't many no rear seat belts in 1988 insane it gets a 2 out of 10. comfort is ok although not that great it gets a six out of ten quality is a disaster this car was not made well the interior isn't nice and the production standards are decades behind it gets a 4 out of 10. practicality is normal for a car like this and it gets a 5 out of 10. finally value and truthfully this is kind of a good value this isn't a good car but it's a neat one and you could probably buy an imported one if you can find it for under 15 grand maybe even around 10 grand or less which isn't so bad for such a distinctive and interesting car it gets a 6 out of 10 for a total daily score of 23 out of 50. added up and the dug score is 37 out of 100 which places it here against other relevant sedans dead last although it's worth noting this isn't exactly a fair comparison since most of these are top end luxury sedans and that wasn't really the purpose of the volga still the volga doesn't even come close to hanging with sedans of its day from the western world but it's incredibly interesting to see what a soviet car is like they have decent knee room even with the front seat all the way back and i have pretty good headroom back here it's relatively the door doesn't steal

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 2,653,268

Keywords: volga, gaz, volga gaz, volga gaz review, soviet car, soviet car review, russian car, russian car review, volga gaz 24, volga gaz 24-10, doug demuro, demuro, doug de muro

Id: KuidQ9ang1Q

Length: 22min 25sec (1345 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 11 2021