Soviet car designations

I often notice in this section that many people confuse the designation of models (such as 2101, 2112 etc), although they are quite well systematized, and with knowledge of this designation system, there should be no problems.

Name of this system is ОН 025 270-66 (ON 025 070-66), the text of that document is here, this is industry normal created in 1966.

According to this system, the car is designated by four digits (all subsequent digits indicate the model version).

The first digit indicates engine volume for passenger cars or gross weight for all other types (trucks, buses, etc.):

• 1 - less than 1,2 l / lighter than 1,2 tons;
• 2 - 1,2-2,0 l / 1,2-2 t;
• 3 - 2-4 l / 2-8 t;
• 4 - more than 4 l / 8-14 t;
• 5 - trucks and buses only, 14-20 t;
• 6 - also trucks and buses only, 20-40 t;
• 7 - more than 40 t.

The second digit indicates the type of vehicle:

• 1 - passenger car
• 2 - bus
• 3 - flatbed truck
• 4 - truck tractor
• 5 - dump truck
• 6 - tank truck
• 7 - van truck
• 8 and 9 - various special ones, such as car hearsers.

The third and fourth digits indicate the serial number of the model of the car of this type with this engine or gross weight.

Thus, for example, VAZ-21063 is a passenger car (because the second digit is 1) with an engine volume of 1,2 liters to 2 liters (because the first digit is 2), the model number is 06, and the model version is 3.

I hope this information will be interesting and useful for someone, and the numbers in the designations of the models will cease to be meaningless :)