The first cars in history were devoid of many modern conveniences, including the electric starters that are standard today. It was in 1912 when Charles F. Kettering invented the electrical system for Cadillac, which is considered a milestone. Namely, until then, manually turning the lever (crank) was the only way to start the engine, which was a physically demanding and often dangerous process.
Russian durability and reliability
Despite the available technology, the manual starter did not immediately become a thing of the past. Although it ceased to be the primary method of starting cars by the 1930s, it persisted on certain models decades after most of the world’s manufacturers abandoned it. The reason for its survival lay primarily in its role as a reliable backup system in extreme conditions.
The most striking example of such technological anachronism is – perhaps not unexpectedly – the Russian Lada Niva, a robust off-road vehicle known for its durability, but also for the questionable reliability of its electrical components. Precisely because of the specific conditions of use and the unreliability of batteries or electric starters in cold climates, Lada kept the option of manual starting in Niva in production until – 1997. In the attached video, you can see how a more modern Niva, with a 1.7-liter gasoline engine, could be started “on the crank”.
It is widely known that Russian production was slower to adapt to modern trends. Accordingly, even when they removed the manual starter from the Niva engines, some examples produced in 1998 still had a hole for inserting the lever in the front bumper.