Not long ago, I went to Iceland and came close to buying a $1,000 UAZ-452 "Bukhanka" van in Reykjavik. This didn't happen, but my fascination with the USSR-era Bukhanka (which is Russian for "loaf of bread") remains. 50 years ago, the first Bukhanka rolled off the UAZ assembly line in Ulyanovsk, Russia, and you can still buy a brand-new Буханка today. Let's take a look at some of the 2015 models.
2015 UAZ-3909 Combi
The UAZ-3909 Combi aka "Farmer" passenger/cargo van seems like your most all-around useful new Bukhanka. The high ground clearance, four-wheel drive (with proper high/low range) and five-speed manual transmission make it ideal for bringing friends and gear to your dacha in the mountains.
It's not exactly plush, but this is a real truck.
The interiors on the new Bukhankas haven't changed much since Leonid Brezhnev was General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (the Soviets really went in for lengthy job titles). This is no pretend truck made to instill a bogus sense of ruggedness -- this is a rock-and-stick-simple Russian truck made to travel on bad roads to distant locations with primitive maintenance facilities.
In what must be a literal translation from the Russian, this is known as a
UAZ will sell you many different types of "Special Vehicles" versions of the Bukhanka. How about a Bukhanka school bus? Forward-control school buses for those difficult-to-reach schools in the woods!
We'd call this a
Bukhanka prison van? Of course!
It's like having a '65 Jeep FC van, but brand-new. As we can see in this video (which features the UAZ-452 predecessor, the UAZ-450), Russians have a lot of affection for the good old Loaf of Bread.
