Recently, Vu Ngoc, a car collector from Thanh Hoa, has amazed the vintage car community in Vietnam by finding and restoring a beautiful Volga M-24 to its original condition.
Volga is one of the three Soviet Union car brands (Volga, Lada, UAZ) that hold a special place in the minds of Vietnamese people who have lived through the war. “Volga for ministers, Lada for officials” is a popular saying that perfectly describes an era more than 40 years ago, when it was the standard for high-ranking officials. Among them, the Volga M-24 was considered to be on par with the Mercedes-Benz E-Class or the Toyota Camry of today.
The 1973 Volga M-24 was brought to Thanh Hoa from Tuyen Quang in a highly damaged condition. The previous owner had put a Mercedes-Benz logo on the car’s body and the wheels.
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Over time, especially since the country opened up in the 1990s, Soviet cars gradually disappeared to make way for Japanese, American, and European cars. Many Volgas, Ladas, and UAZs were sold off by state agencies and entered civilian ownership, but they did not last long before being replaced by the increasing number of imported and locally assembled cars on the streets. Soviet cars slowly faded away and became a nostalgic memory for the generation that had lived through two wars. |
The seats in the car are not original from the 1973 model
The owner said that he spent up to 90 million VND to bring the Volga M-24 to Thanh Hoa, while the normal price for this type of car on the market is only from 30 to 50 million VND. In addition, finding a workshop willing to work on the old Soviet car was not easy because it required a lot of work, and the parts were hard to find, so most mechanics preferred working on Japanese or Korean cars.
Cao Ngoc spent a year searching for a Volga M-24 to purchase. “This is a car that is closely connected to my childhood, so when I decided to find one, I asked acquaintances in northern provinces such as Phu Tho, Thai Nguyen, Bac Giang… but I couldn’t find any that I liked, most of them were in bad condition. I finally found one in Tuyen Quang that was in good shape,” Ngoc said.
 The 1973 Volga M-24 was brought from Tuyen Quang to Thanh Hoa in a highly damaged condition. The previous owner had put a Mercedes-Benz logo on the car’s body |
The restoration process for the Volga M-24 was costly and time-consuming. It took Cao Ngoc over a year to find and purchase the car. Then, he had to find a workshop that would agree to restore the old Soviet car, which was not an easy task due to the amount of work and the difficulty of finding parts. Finally, he found a workshop that agreed to work on the Volga, and he had to wait for the parts to be ordered and shipped from Russia. The restoration process took 3 months to repair the body frame and another 40 days for painting and assembling the car. The total cost of the restoration was around 180 million VND ($7,776), including labor costs and the price of the parts.
The completed Volga M-24 looks almost brand new with its glossy black paint and clean exterior details
After going through a long searching process for the car and finding a workshop to restore it, Cao Ngoc has finally fulfilled his passion and brought back the memories of the ration era with his beautifully restored Volga M-24.
 The exterior details of the car have been brought back to their original state, except for the missing logos on the front fenders and the use of Mercedes-Benz wheel covers |
 The dashboard with fully mechanical gauges, covered with glass and wood veneer |
 In the year 2019, on the streets of today, this car from nearly 50 years ago still shines and maintains its own beauty |
