No happiness in life: why any car news causes dismay

Not long ago, we published news about AVTOVAZ's new engines. And, of course, the comments were immediately filled with those who reacted negatively. Sometimes such reactions make you want to throw your hands up and not report anything new: no matter what we write, some people will always find a reason to beat their breasts and tear the automotive industry of any country to shreds. Although, it must be said, the problem often lies in that very breast-beating, not in the automotive industry.

I won't rewrite the news; you can read it here. If you don't want to open the link, let me remind you of the gist: AVTOVAZ is launching production of new engines with capacities of 1.6 and 1.8 litres. Good? In my opinion, it's very good indeed. But even here, some found a reason to nitpick. For example, they inexplicably threw in lamentations about the lack of a proprietary automatic gearbox. We've already discussed this: such an automatic would cost as much as a Sukhoi Superjet, due to the small production volume and the enormous investment in development and production. Let's make the same complaint to, say, BMW: why are they using some ZF gearboxes? Where is BMW's own automatic transmission? Shame on them, amateurs. Or let's recall those Jatco automatic transmissions that were shoved into everything, from Nissan and Infiniti to VAZ and Suzuki. Are they all too weak to build their own gearboxes? Maybe not, but it's far more profitable this way: there's a manufacturer that supplies its automatic transmissions to many companies. That's a normal business model. Where would AVTOVAZ supply its own automatics? To itself? Ridiculous.

Another ridiculous complaint is the lack of a turbocharger. Yes, yes, now is the perfect time for a mass-market car manufacturer to put turbocharged engines into series production. They are desperately needed for the Lada Iskra and Vesta. That's not even irony; it's sarcasm. Do you even know what you're talking about? How many buyers would a turbocharged Iskra find? And who would ultimately pay for the creation of such a version? That's right – the buyers of ordinary Nivas, Grants, and Vestas. And does anyone actually want that?

And finally, the icing on the cake. I'll quote it anyway: "135 hp from a 1.8-litre engine. Another 25 years, and they'll reach the level of 140-145 hp, like Japanese engines from the early 2000s, while simultaneously burning through a certain number of billions in investment." Oh, really? Let's recall Japanese engines from the early 2000s. Seventh-generation Honda Civic: 1.7-litre D17A – 120-130 hp, 1.7-litre D17Z – 127 hp. Second-generation Mazda6 in the GH body: 1.8-litre L813 – 120 hp. And that was produced not quite in the early 2000s: from 2007 to 2012. Maybe Toyota made 1.8-litre engines with 140-145 hp? Not a chance: the 1.8-litre 1ZZ-FE – 125-132 hp, the 7A-FE of the same capacity – 105-120 hp, the 7K-E – a mere 82-84 hp. True, in 2007 the 1.8-litre 2ZR-FAE appeared, and that one does have higher power – 140-150 hp depending on the modification. However, it burns oil, the Valvematic system often glitches, it suffers from carbon buildup in the intake, and has some other specific problems typical of a fairly highly-strung naturally aspirated engine. Do we need that from VAZ? I doubt it. By the way, the hybrid modification of the current 12th-generation Toyota Corolla in the E210 body has a 1.8-litre 2ZR-FXE engine producing just 98 hp, and only with the electric motor does it reach 122 "horses". Powerful, isn't it?

In general, we have plenty of crazy comments. Some of them really amuse me. For example, in our "Kolesa.ru Renderings" section, many people spout incredible nonsense about how we've enslaved AI, which draws us some pictures for free. Although, if you use your head and look at who has been running this section and since when, a lot becomes clear: its regular author, Nikita Chuiko, graduated from the "Automotive Design" faculty of the Moscow Automobile and Road Construction University (MAMI), has worked in design for 19 years, and has been on our team for 10 years. But commenters are convinced that all his renderings are the result of AI, which hasn't been around that long. I think I'll keep quiet.

It's a shame, of course, that absolutely any news gets negative comments from armchair experts. For some reason, many of them think that if you don't badmouth AVTOVAZ or GAZ, you'll be considered a fool. Praise a Chinese car, and you'll be branded an idiot. Well, we'll just have to live with it. Because the number of sensible people among our readers is still much greater, and we are always happy when we can tell them something new and interesting. But I won't bother responding to every bit of nonsense: I've already been labelled a snob (or rather, even a "snab" according to the spelling of one such commenter), so I have nothing to lose. Although, to everyone else, both I and all the other authors have responded, are responding, and will continue to respond as much as possible. So, thank you all for the feedback and the sensible points of view expressed under our publications – they are truly important and interesting to us.