She was my first car — a second-generation Renault Logan, produced in Togliatti, Russia. Essentially, she was the Russian-built version of the Dacia Logan.

Back in 2015, I had managed to save some money and was looking for a first-generation Logan. I knew it was not the most exciting or beautiful car, but that was not what mattered to me. I wanted something reliable, practical, spacious, easy to maintain, and good enough for Russian roads.

The problem was that by 2015, many first-generation Logans in Russia were already very tired. They were often used as taxis, or simply as hard-working family cars with huge mileage. Finding a decent one within my budget was much harder than I expected.

By that time, the second-generation Logan had already appeared. I really liked the design — she felt like a big step forward — but mechanically she was still close to the original Logan, which made her even more appealing. A new one was too expensive for me, but after months of searching I realised that a good first-generation car was not that much cheaper than a nearly new second-generation one.

Then I found this car for sale in Yekaterinburg, about two and a half hours away from me. She was one year old, had one previous owner, only 14,000 km on the clock, and still felt almost new inside. I decided to take a small loan to cover the difference, and the next day I got on a bus to go and see her.

I bought her straight away and drove her back to Chelyabinsk with support from my brother-in-law. It was exciting, but also a bit nerve-racking — I had never owned a car before, and this was my first proper long drive in my own car.

She had the simple and dependable K7M 1.6-litre engine, and over the next five years she became our family car. We drove her up to roughly 110,000 km, and she was genuinely reliable and easy to live with.

For the first couple of years I just enjoyed her in standard form. Later, I started making her more personal: roof rails, a roof rack, small styling changes, little design details, and eventually a suspension lift to give her a tougher, more off-road-capable look. She was also the car where I first started doing proper DIY work — including suspension repairs and changing brake discs myself.

She was not fast, not fancy, and not something most people would dream about. But she was honest, practical, reliable, and full of memories.

I really loved that Logan. Sadly, I had to sell her in 2020 before moving to the UK, because I simply couldn’t take her with me.

If you want to see more Logan-related stories - please visit [MyMotorStory.app](https://mymotorstory.app/car/1781700170984x291953224727920640) where I'm going to tell more stories of my ownership.

My first car: a Russian-built Renault Logan that took our family from 14,000 km to 110,000 km