Moskvich-400

Moskvich-400 at a glance

The Moskvich-400 is a compact four-door, rear-drive family saloon, and its full factory designation, 400-420, combines the engine type (400) with the body type (420). The plant that built it was called MZMA from August 1945 and became AZLK in October 1968, long after this model had gone.

In 1954 it became the 401-420, or Moskvich-401, which looked identical; the changes were mechanical. This page covers both, plus the cabriolet, van and pickup on the same platform, so the full span is 1946 to 1956.

Every later Moskvich of the next two decades grew from it, from the 402 of 1956 through the Moskvich-407 and Moskvich-403 to the Moskvich-408.

From KIM-10 to the Kadett decision

The plant already had a small-car project before the war. It took the name KIM (Communist International of Youth) in December 1930, worked as a branch of GAZ assembling Ford-based GAZ-A cars and GAZ-AA lorries from 1933, and became independent in 1939.

Its first own design, the KIM-10, was a compact saloon inspired by the British Ford Prefect. Only a few hundred were made between November 1940 and April 1941: the usual figure is 338, although one account gives about 500. The German invasion stopped production, and the plant was evacuated in October 1941.

Work on a post-war small car started in 1944. Production was approved in May 1945, and in June 1945 the four-door Opel Kadett was chosen as the basis. Planners are reported to have considered and rejected the KdF-Wagen (the future Volkswagen Beetle) and the front-wheel-drive DKW F8. In August 1945 the plant was renamed MZMA.

The exact date of the first car varies by source. Most give 9 December 1946, while one account of the Kadett's history dates the start of production to 4 December.

How closely is it a Kadett?

The Moskvich-400 is, mechanically and visually, a pre-war Opel Kadett K38 with four doors. The key figures line up almost exactly.

Opel built about 107,000 Kadetts by May 1940, as a two-door saloon, a Cabrio-Limousine and, from the late 1930s, as the four-door Kadett Spezial. The four-door body is the one the Soviet car took over, while the engine had come to the Kadett from the earlier Opel P4.

How the design and tooling reached MZMA is where accounts differ, and no single version can be confirmed:

• Reparations from Germany. Several histories say Kadett equipment was taken east after the war as reparations, including body tooling from the Ambi-Budd works and machinery from Opel's main plant at Rüsselsheim.
• Rebuilt tooling. Other accounts say the relevant plants were too badly damaged for much usable equipment or drawings to survive. In this version most of the stamping dies were made anew in the USSR, captured Kadetts were studied and measured, and inch-based drawings were converted to metric.
• German engineers in the Soviet zone. A third version has the four-door body redrawn with the help of German engineers working in the Soviet occupation zone.

The versions are not mutually exclusive, and some recent research argues that no usable plans or tooling were captured at all. The result is not disputed: a car that differed from the Kadett only in details, about 15 mm (0.6 in) longer overall.

Design and engineering

The 400's engineering was modern for a small car of the late 1930s, which is what it really was. Its body was a single welded steel structure with no separate chassis frame, a layout Opel had used on the Olympia before applying it to the Kadett.

At the front, the wheels were independently sprung. On the Kadett this was a simplified Dubonnet-type unit, and the Moskvich used the same principle. At the back, a live axle sat on semi-elliptic leaf springs. Hydraulic drum brakes worked on all four wheels, and the electrical system ran at 6 volts; 12-volt electrics came only with the 402. Ground clearance was a generous 200 mm (7.9 in), and rated payload 270 kg (595 lb).

A mesh oil filter appeared in 1949, and in 1951 the gearbox gained synchromesh on its top two gears and a column-mounted lever.

Engine and drivetrain

The Moskvich-400 used a single engine: a 1,074 cc inline-four with side valves, a cast-iron block and one carburettor. It produced 17 kW (23 PS) at 3,600 rpm, and maximum torque is usually quoted as 55 Nm (41 lb-ft) at 2,000 rpm. Bore and stroke were 67.5 × 75 mm (2.66 × 2.95 in).

The compression ratio is usually given as 5.6:1, although one dataset lists 5.8:1. The Kadett version of the same engine was rated at 3,400 rpm, so the Soviet figure was taken at slightly higher engine speed.

What the 401 changed

The 1954 Moskvich-401 kept the 1,074 cc capacity but raised compression to 6.2:1, lifting output by 3 PS to 19 kW (26 PS). Around the engine, the inlet and exhaust manifolds, starter motor and dynamo were improved, and the update also brought better wheel bearings and a revised handbrake. None of this changed the look of the car.

Both versions drove the rear wheels through a three-speed manual gearbox. Until 1951 the box had no synchromesh, so every change called for careful double-declutching.

Moskvich-400 specifications

All values refer to the saloon, with separate figures wherever the 401 differs from the 400.

Kerb weight is the least settled figure: 885 kg is the most widely quoted, but values between 845 and 855 kg (1,863 to 1,885 lb) also appear, including for a preserved 1955 car. The fuel consumption was regarded as the best of any Soviet car at the time.

Moskvich-400 variants and derivatives

Besides the saloon, MZMA built three production derivatives and several prototypes.

The cabriolet kept all four doors and followed the cabrio-limousine idea the Kadett had also offered, with a roof that folded back. Sources disagree on the delivery van: one says production began in 1948, another that the 1948 van stayed a prototype and only the 401-422 reached series production. Both agree it was the last body style to end, in December 1956.

The experimental "403" of 1949 is unrelated to the production Moskvich-403 of the 1960s.

Production and exports

The usual annual figures are 1,501 cars in 1947, 4,808 in 1948 and 19,906 in 1949. The 100,000th Moskvich left the line in October 1952.

The combined total for the 400 and 401 is usually given as 247,439, and other histories round it to close to 250,000. A breakdown by body style has not been confirmed by independent sources.

The 400 was among the first Soviet cars sold in the West. Sales in Belgium began in October 1950, where it was priced against small British cars such as the Ford Anglia, Ford Prefect and Morris Minor. Few were sold despite the low price. Cars also went to East Germany, where the name was spelt Moskwitsch.

Driving a Moskvich-400

By period figures the 400 was slow even for its day: 90 km/h (56 mph) flat out and about 55 seconds to reach 80 km/h (50 mph). Economy and simplicity were its strengths, with about 9 L/100 km (31 mpg UK) and a sidevalve engine with few parts to go wrong. It is often described as the first Soviet car built in series for private buyers.

Legacy and successors

The Moskvich-402 replaced the saloon on 20 April 1956. It had a new, larger body and a 1,222 cc sidevalve engine of 35 PS, and it brought 12-volt electrics. Overhead-valve engines arrived in 1958 with the 407. The 403 then bridged the gap to the 408 and its sister model, the Moskvich-412. For the full story of the plant and its later renaming, see our history of Moskvich and AZLK.

For Opel, the episode left an unusual footnote: the Kadett it had stopped building in 1940 continued in Soviet production, in four-door form, until 1956.

Preservation and collecting today

With a surviving car, first establish whether it is a 400 or a 401; they look the same, so engine specification and paperwork decide. Other checks:

• Gearbox: a column lever and synchromesh on second and third indicate a car built in 1951 or later.
• Engine parts: the 1,074 cc unit differs from the 402's larger sidevalve and the later overhead-valve engines, so later Moskvich parts are no direct substitute.
• Structure: on any unitary body of this age, corrosion in load-bearing areas weakens the car directly (general advice, not a documented model fault).

No market values are given, as no dated, sourced prices exist. Browse more Soviet classic cars, other classic cars of the 1940s or all Moskvich models.