UAZ-452

I'd really like to get one of these, the bus or ambulance style ones.



Before russia invaded the Ukraine, I had a friend who was talking with me about the possibility of importing the 25+ year old ones here to the US.  He and I figured out we could have bought the older UAZ's and imported them here to the US for about $2300.00 each.  That included the original purchase price plus the shipping and import duties.

Of course being 25+ years old they wouldn't have all of the more modern conveniences.like the one in the video has.   No power steering, 4 wheel drum brakes on many of the really older ones.  A 4 cylinder engine with the less powerful engine, but they would have the old style really STRONG portal hub axles.  Those however limited the top speed to only about 58 mph without damaging the axles.  The newer ones can do about 70 mph.  But those can't be imported legally and they have the weaker portal axles which require more maintenance.

However I REALLY like the old ones which could still be hand cranked started.  Some of them had the crank permanently affixed to the front bumper, so you would have to unfold the handle and slide it back into the engine PTO to engage the crankshaft to hand start it.the newer ones used the same handle for the scissor jack to hand start it.  And the newest ones as far as I know still have the hand start crank, but I don't know what type.

My friend told me that the older UAZ's don't have fully synchroed transmissions so I"d probably have to double clutch, but I used to drive a Semi for a living so I'm used to that.

It's have a lot more room inside than a Pinzgauer, PLUS it already has a hard top.

Of course if I were able to get one, I'd have to paint it a desert tan and set it up for a dual battery and a front winch.