Real disadvantages of Lada XRay: 3 years of testing revealed the disadvantages of the model

Production of the Lada XRay at AvtoVAZ began on December 15, 2015, and sales began on February 14, 2016 at 120 dealers in 56 cities. During 2016-2018 the car was mercilessly tested by many car owners and based on their reviews we can talk about the pros and cons of Xray.

Almost three years that have passed since the start of sales have allowed the owners of the purchased cars to test them in a variety of operating conditions, and this testing not only confirmed the declared ones, but also revealed shortcomings that the concern is working on already during the production process.

From the many different reviews from car enthusiasts, we will select the negative ones, consider their reasoning and group them into areas:

• Body;
• Trunk;
• Salon;
• Engine;
• Optics;
• Transmission;
• Brake system.

Body

Lada Xray was expected since 2012, moreover, as a crossover, but, 3 years later, to the disappointment of those expecting the presentation, it still resembled a small hatchback with increased ground clearance to 195 mm and only front-wheel drive.

The spectacular profile of the sides of the Lada X Ray, the embossing of the doors and wings has a downside - the difficulty of restoring oval contours on these body parts after damage.

There are no roof rails on the XRay roof, so it is not possible to install a roof rack on top, other than a rare universal one from the 60s, and the price of foreign-made luggage boxes is several tens of thousands of rubles.

The hood in the open position is fixed low - by a short strut, which makes access to the engine compartment inconvenient - you have to bend over.

The body sills are not protected by any coating underneath, and as a result of the abrasive effect of gravel flying from under the wheels (common to a crossover), they quickly begin to corrode.

The volume of the Lada XRay fuel tank is small for a crossover - only 50 liters. In addition, the gas tank is equipped with a primitive metal inlet neck without drainage or any protective linings. The hatch cover, behind which the neck is located, is disproportionately large, does not have any locking device and opens freely from the outside without driver intervention.

The side mirrors of the Lada XRay, given the height of the car, are small, so they are not only visually disproportionate to the body, but also have little information. At the same time, the amplitude of mirror adjustments (the travel of the adjusting lever) is clearly insufficient, since tall drivers who move the seat far back have to manually install the mirror element into a comfortable position through the lowered window of the driver's door.

The protection of the engine compartment from below needs improvement, since the engine becomes very dirty even after a short off-road drive.

The doors of the Lada XRay do not have fixed positions after opening, which is inconvenient when there is wind or the car is stopped on a slope.

XRay glass, both side and windshield, has low abrasion resistance. After a few months of use, scratches appear on the windshield from the operation of the windshield wipers, and on the side ones - from lifting and lowering.

The X-Ray engine compartment seals, even though they are installed even in the front part, do not cope with their task of protecting the engine from dust from above. The reason for this is an unsuccessful cross-section profile and insufficiently elastic manufacturing material.

Advantages

1. Many reviews are pleased with the design and good build quality. Separately, the perfect closing of the doors is noted.
2. The paint quality is comparable to cool foreign cars. The depth of the varnish coating and the absence of “cellulite” are noted.
3. The interior is warm, heats up quickly and, most importantly, quiet. I can't hear the engine. External noise - even more so. Only instruments indicate the operation of the engine. The climate system operates relatively smoothly. The glass does not sweat even in very cold weather. It is recommended to reduce the frontal heat supply to make the legs more comfortable.
4. Good reviews about the washer nozzles - a real fog covering the entire glass. No need to adjust. And the efficiency is excellent. True, it is also noted that the glass hardly gets splashed when driving through puddles.
5. It starts up equally well in both summer and winter. Or rather, it starts in winter like in summer
6. Reviews contain compliments to the standard light.
7. The steering compliance is sensitive, even sharply responsive, so at first the driver needs to be careful when driving at high speeds. But habit is something acquired.
8. The engine pulls in traffic jams even at idle.
9. “Business owners” note the decent trunk capacity. But at the same time give them a folding seat! We are glad that transporting a long vehicle with the rear seats folded down is no longer a problem.
10. The real fuel consumption is quite consistent with the standards stated in the specifications: 8-9 liters in the city, which is not an excellent indicator!? Although some note increased consumption. But more on that later. There are also reviews on the fuel gauge. To the surprise of many, the electronic analogue of the fuel gauge turned out to be a fairly accurate device. They say that using the “squares” to monitor the fuel is much easier.
11. I was pleasantly surprised by the hill start assist system installed on the Lada X Rey Optima, although many do not know about its existence.

x ray optima advanced photo

Trunk

The volume of the standard trunk of the Lada XRay is 361 liters - a decent figure, but still not enough for a crossover. In addition, there are other complaints about the trunk.

The body opening for the trunk lid is small and, moreover, due to the design of the rear lights, it is narrowed in width in the upper half. This imposes restrictions when loading oversized luggage.

The dimensions of the trunk lid glass do not provide sufficient visibility from the rear panorama from the cabin, so the manufacturer equipped the car with a parking sensor system and a rear view camera.

The floor in the luggage compartment is two-layer, the top layer is a removable false floor with eyelets at the corners for securing luggage. The strength of the raised floor is not designed for the transportation of heavy objects - under the influence of a load concentrated on a small area, it bends, and the close arrangement of the fastening eyes creates inconvenience when tying slings to them.

Under the raised floor there is a second bottom covered with a sheet of cardboard with a fleecy fabric trim. The distance between the trunk floors is 10-12 cm over its entire area, and the purpose of this space is uncertain. In addition, the material of the second floor is not waterproof.

Small capacity

Despite the fact that some work was done on the interior when the model was being developed. Some people will find it very cramped. The same flaw was noticed in a related model - Renault Speway.

If you drive a car alone, then everything is very good, but it will be very uncomfortable for passengers in the back if people who are taller than average sit in front.

The trunk has a volume of just over 300 liters, which is still not enough today, especially for a crossover, which is exactly how this model is positioned.

Optics

A serious drawback of equipping the Lada XRay with optics is the lensless block headlights, although they are already divided into low and high beam.

The fog lights do not have a beveled reflector that allows illumination of the roadside, and are installed too deep in the bumper sockets - dirt and snow from the road accumulate in these sockets along the way, and weak fog lamps (not LED) aggravate the poor lighting situation.

Attempts to independently adjust these headlights do not improve the situation.

The red fog lamp, installed in the center of the lower part of the rear bumper, due to the aerodynamic features of the Lada X-Ray, is covered in a layer of snow from the road in winter, and the engine exhaust only aggravates the situation.

Flaws

1. Dirt under the hood . The engine compartment absorbs everything that is formed by the car in front, especially the truck.
2. The carpet gets very dirty.
3. In severe frosts, the interior is warm, however, in the second fan mode, the glass freezes from the corners.
4. There is no information about whether the heated seats are on or not. It is advisable to equip this function with an indicator.
5. Windshield wipers from the factory, as a rule, are not cleaned and squeak quite a lot.
6. The gearbox lever casing freezes , which sometimes leads to gear shifting problems.
7. Some reviews complain about increased consumption. But judging by their conversations, these are the so-called daring drivers, whom you don’t feed with bread, but let them “sink” or “turn on the gas.” Apparently, they do not refuse this temptation during the running-in process. That’s why at the end of the run-in and even earlier, during its passage, they get such a sad result.
8. Many people do not like that the display shows either the time or the temperature outside the cabin. They want this information to be provided simultaneously.
9. There are complaints about the rear suspension. On an uneven road, the rear of the car shakes violently, even the “go fast – fewer potholes” method doesn’t help. True, this is a problem with almost all front-wheel drive vehicles.
10. In the reviews there are mentions of the unimportant high beam mode. Although mostly positive reviews about the light.

Salon

The interior of the Lada X-Ray is a bit cramped for a crossover, especially in the rear. The comfortable seats are decorated with a high-quality, non-staining and pleasant-to-touch fabric, but even moving the front seats not completely back makes it uncomfortable for the passengers sitting behind them.

Moreover, there is no light above the rear passengers, and there is nowhere for them to put drinks - there is only one cup holder for 3 seats, and the pockets in the backs of the front seats are of small capacity.

Plastic interior trim - door cards, front panel look attractive, but are very hard to the touch and noisy on contact.

The upholstery material is low-quality carpet, not dense enough, and rubber mats for this model are not cheap - 3 thousand rubles.

In the first batches of Lada XRay that came off the AvtoVAZ assembly line, the backlighting of the instruments on the control panel was turned on manually; after modification by the manufacturer, the instruments are constantly illuminated, but there is still no indication of the coolant temperature.

There is no reach adjustment for the steering wheel, only height adjustment.

The location of the window lifters is unfortunate - you have to use them with your hand bent backwards.

The width of the A-pillar trim covers impairs visibility from the driver's seat; hidden areas could be smaller.

The noise insulation of the wheel arches leaves much to be desired - every pebble can be heard from under the wheel.

The display size of the standard head unit is large, but its information content is low - at a time, not counting the amount of fuel in the tank, only one parameter is displayed.

Engine

Equipping the Lada X Ray with HR16DE engines (1.6 liters, 110 hp), despite its reliability and efficiency, has been discontinued since June 2016. The Nissan engine is installed only in the “XRay” anniversary series modification, limited in quantity; all other cars are equipped with domestic VAZ-21129 and VAZ-21179 engines. Let's look at the disadvantages inherent in both of these internal combustion engines.

The dense layout of the space under the hood, due to the irrational arrangement of the air ducts, makes it difficult to access the engine for routine maintenance, especially keeping it clean, as discussed in the “body” section.

The service life of both engines is 200 thousand km, which is not enough for a crossover. The gas distribution mechanism (GRM) drive is a belt drive, which is significantly inferior in reliability to a chain drive.

It is recommended to replace the timing belt after 180 thousand kilometers, while on the VAZ-21179 this operation is complicated - there are no usual marks on the pulleys, so the camshafts must be removed, and they are secured with a special tool.

If the timing belt breaks, the standard pistons of both engines, due to their configuration, bend the valves, and replacing the pistons with tuning ones deprives the car of warranty service.

The VAZ-21129 and VAZ-21179 engines are quite noisy, and only additional layers of sound insulation in the engine compartment reduce the noise level in the cabin.

Price

Despite the fact that now many AvtoVAZ models have exceeded the half-million mark, and it seems that users have already become accustomed to this. X Ray Cross in the top modification is ready to cross the million mark.

Whether it is a lot or a little, everyone will decide for themselves. There may not be many competitors at this price, but they still exist. And if you add a few hundred, then there are a lot of them, and buying the controversial crossover from AvtoVAZ no longer becomes objectively the best choice.

Transmission

The Lada XRay is equipped with two transmission options: mechanical and 5-band robotic transmission type AMT of the VAZ-21827 series.

There are no objective complaints about the manual transmission, but there are complaints about the “robot”:

• according to the operating rules, a robotic automatic transmission does not need to be warmed up, but in practice, driving without warming up is accompanied by jerks;
• when standing in a traffic jam for a long time, you need to switch to “neutral”;
• the VAZ-21179 engine in combination with this transmission ensures acceleration of the car to 100 km/h in at least 10.2 seconds;
• quick overtaking on the highway is only possible when the gearbox is switched to manual mode.

Suspension

The Lada Xrey suspension is assembled from components from the manufacturer Renault and adapted to operating conditions on Russian roads.

The first impression is that it is a bit harsh, but this assessment becomes an advantage after you are convinced of the stable operation of the suspension, regardless of the profile and type of road surface - it confidently “eats” unevenness and does not break through in potholes.

Brake system

On the Lada XRay, depending on the configuration, wheels are installed on R-15 or R-16 rims. Regardless of the size of the wheels, the brakes are disc in front and drum in the rear, the efficiency of which is much lower.

The list of shortcomings will probably be added to by car enthusiasts over time. Some of them will be taken into account by the manufacturer and eliminated, while others will be considered consistent with the declared class of the car. However, we can say with confidence that the list of advantages of this car is many times greater than the number of disadvantages, and after improvement it will become an even more desirable acquisition for a wide range of car enthusiasts.

What are the main differences from the simple Lada XRAY

To better understand what will be discussed, let’s take a look at some of the changes that are presented in the new XRAY Cross relative to the older model. There are enough of them and here are the main ones:

• increased ground clearance, which is now 21.5 centimeters (was 19.5 centimeters);
• black (not painted in body color) plastic on the bottom of the car;
• seventeen-inch wheels;
• custom all-season tires (personal development of Continental for this model);
• modified interior (ergonomics);
• improved chassis.

Some other elements have also undergone modifications. Now it's time to get down to the main disadvantages of the car.