When I arrived in Jordan, I spent the first few days in Amman, Jordan’s capital city. While wandering the streets with my friends one day, I came across this unusual hatchback, and I started to get excited. Running around to the back to confirm my suspicions, I gleefully shouted, “It’s a Lada Samara! These were built by Russian communists! I’ve never seen one of these in person before, this is so cool!”
What I would soon discover is that the car’s owner, Muhammad, was working in a barber shop nearby and overheard me geeking out about his obscure Soviet hatchback. “Wanna take it for a ride?” He asked (temporarily leaving the person whose hair he was cutting, as I would later learn).
“For real?”
“Yeah!”
And then he TOSSED ME THE KEYS.
I love Jordanians 
So anyway, I got into the driver’s seat, my friend Julian got in the back, and Muhammad sat next to me. He asked if I knew how to drive stick, which I assured him I could, and then he had to show me where first gear was because the shifter felt like stirring a bowl of boiled eggs and I couldn’t figure out where any gears were.
Once the Lada was in gear, I was pleasantly surprised that the balance between the clutch and gas was very good. It felt a lot like my 2002 Civic back home, and I got used to it quickly. What took me more time to get used to was the brakes. They were extremely stiff, and I think they were unassisted drum brakes all around. I had to practically stand on the pedal to get any stopping power, but at least they didn’t lock up on me at any point.
It took a little while to get out on the main road, as I had to maneuver the car back and forth several times to get out of a parking lot at the bottom of the hill the Lada had been parked on, with each change of gears ultimately requiring the help of Muhammad because I still couldn’t figure it out. But Muhammad seemed to be having a good time nonetheless, so after waiting for a good gap, I finally ventured onto the main road and even successfully managed to shift into second gear briefly! But about two seconds after second gear, I came to a hill. It was a big hill. I couldn’t downshift fast enough, and I ended up parked on the hill, standing on the brakes. 
It was time to do… a hill start.
With the hill being so steep, the brakes being so stiff, and a parked Hyundai + oncoming traffic behind us, I kept trying and failing to transition quickly to the gas, but the car kept stalling as I crept ever closer to another car. Eventually I decided to just give it the beans, but I gave it a little too much beans, and well… I ended up doing a 20-foot burnout uphill in the Lada Samara.
I apologized immediately for doing a burnout in his car, but surprisingly, Muhammad would have none of it. He was laughing! He thought the burnout was hilarious, and giggled the whole time. After I parallel parked the car at the top of the hill, he even complimented my driving. That was a relief… Julian was a little less impressed and admitted that he thought he was about to die, but at least the owner had a good time.
How was the handling? Somewhere between truck and Civic, I’d say. Same with comfort. About what I expected.
Engine note? Agricultural!
Performance? Well, it wasn’t particularly revvy, nor was it very smooth, but it had decent torque and felt like it had adequate power for what it is.
Features? What features? It’s a cheap Russian hatchback with crank windows, a manual transmission, and front wheel drive, those are its features and it doesn’t need more. It also had a radio, and a heater, but I don’t know if either of them worked.
Build quality? Some of the panel gaps were inconsistent and the plastic interior was falling apart, but the car is also 30something years old and built by communists so ehhhhh who cares. I’m just impressed that it’s survived this long and is still being daily driven. This is the kind of build quality that matters most anyway.
All in all, I liked the Lada Samara. Five out of ten, would drive again!