It's a Fiat 124 built under license in the Soviet Union. Instead of the Italian dual overhead cam engine, the Soviets decided to drop in their own single overhead cam variety. If I'm not totally mistaken, the Soviets did changes on the body, for better rust protection
I like how the US dealer is touting the fact it has a clean CarFax. No sheet! It's from the Soviet Union! It won't HAVE a CarFax report! LOL!!
Just before I joined the military in 1980 I worked at a detail shop in Winnipeg and one of the shops contracts was prepping new Ladas' for a local dealership, after cleaning off all of the coatings applied for shipping and polishing we would drive them to the dealership in convoys of 8-10 cars. They were pretty basic transportation, inexpensive to buy and maintain and at least for a friend who owned one pretty reliable.