One of the biggest questions I receive about Soviet 4x4s within the USA is the availability of getting parts due to the current sanctions that are in effect in Eastern Europe. Surprisingly enough there is a literal Lada parts store in the US. That is right, imagine a local Soviet AutoZone down the road. Located within Miami, Florida Zhakarov Auto Parts is the one of the only parts store in the US that sells only parts for Russian cars. While the existence of a store like this seems a bit wacky on the surface, when you start looking into the details it makes perfect sense. Zhakorov Auto Parts is almost completely ran and operated by Cuban immigrants. If there is one group of people within the US that know how to navigate the tricky waters of sanctions, it is definitely Cubans. Due to US sanctions on Cuba, they had to heavily rely of Soviet car imports, and later on Russian. This means that many Cubans not only have experience with Soviet made vehicles, but many own them and rely on them for daily transportation. A few years ago I happened to be in Miami for a wedding and decided to visit the “Lada parts store.” Unfortunately, the usage of English was almost non-existent and my Spanish knowledge drops off after hola. My excitement peaked once I saw a picture of an UAZ on the door.

However that ended up tapering off once I understood that only VAZ parts were sold, excluding other makes such as UAZ and GAZ. TOTAL FALSE ADVERTISING. Due to the large Cuban population in South Florida it seems like there are enough Ladas in the area to make a business like this possible.

A quick search through Facebook marketplace shows how popular Ladas still are among Cuban expats. Upon doing research for this post I saw that there is another Lada parts store in Miami called M Z Parts Miami. Next time I visit Miami I definitely hope to check this shop out as well. Hopefully the popularity of Lada starts expanding from South Florida and one day it would be nice to see an UAZ parts store appear as well!