Love this little beast, I'm on a very tight budget and the Lada Samara remains a truly great value car. I won't lie, it has been problematic, but the amount I paid for it, plus the amount I spend fixing and servicing it, plus the amount I spend on petrol for it... it's still cheap!
The Lada Samara is simply charming, if you ask me, and I think of mine as a member of the family. Of course, it's one of the older, more decrepit members of the family, but there are plenty of old decrepit people in my family. Some problems I've had include: clutch replacement, distributor trouble, carburettor, brake discs. That's actually not a lot though and most importantly it rarely brakes down unexpectedly.
I can get 50mpg on some trips which is really pretty good. It's a good old workhorse and has been going for a very long time and I hope that it will keep going for a lot longer. God bless Mother Russia!