“Kopeyka” for rent for 40 euros per hour. Zhiguli rental is open in Finland
The former official opened a rental company for Soviet Zhiguli in Finland.
Hannu Laurikainen worked for many years in the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications, then moved to Brussels as an official, and in the pandemic decided to change his field of activity and found a rental company for Soviet Zhiguli.
Even 40–45 years ago, a lot of these cars, produced for export under the Lada brand, drove on the roads of Finland. When calculating his business project, Laurikainen relied precisely on the Finnish nostalgia for the 1970s and 1980s.
Hannu Laurikainen gave up his career as an official in Brussels and started renting out old Zhigulis – “From the point of view of earnings, the idea is absolutely insane.”
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– Yle Novosti (@ylenovosti) May 15, 2021
“There is something in these cars,” he told yle.fi. “You won't be able to just go to the store in Zhiguli, there will certainly be people willing to chat and discuss the car”.
Having assembled a fleet of 10 cars (most of them were brought from the Baltic states), Hannu registered the company and named it “Siberian lobster”. He offers to rent a Kopeekka (“penny” – VAZ-2101) for an hour for 40 euros, Troikka (“three” – VAZ-2103) – for 35. An hour on a Lada Niva 1600 (1985) will cost 25 euros, Lada 1600SL (1985) – 15 euros.
Laurikainen is sure that the Zhiguli is a car designed for a long life. There is nothing superfluous in it, so it is easy to repair. “There has not yet been a single breakdown that I could not fix myself,” he says, not without pride.
According to him, working with Soviet cars brings much more joy than with official papers. The only thing is that the Finn has not yet reached the indicators of the planned profit. The company has been operating since April, and it cannot be said that there is no end of clients. But those who turn to “Siberian Lobster” are not quite ordinary people. Laurikainen especially remembered a businessman who drove into the rental yard in a luxury Mercedes and rented a six to go to negotiations.
