Moskvich-408

Moskvich-408 at a glance: maker, years and purpose

The Moskvich-408 was the small family saloon of the Soviet Union (USSR) in the second half of the 1960s, built mainly by MZMA and, after the October 1968 renaming, by AZLK. It succeeded the rounded Moskvich-407 with a new, more angular body and became the plant's main export car of the decade.

IZh assembled a duplicate version, the IZh-408, in 1966 and 1967, and after 1967 the engines were assembled by UZAM. Abroad, Scaldia-Volga SA in Vilvoorde near Brussels, Belgium, completed partly built cars and fitted some with Perkins diesel engines. Balkancar in Lovech, Bulgaria, is also listed as an assembly point, although detail on that operation is thin.

Production ended in December 1975, when the 408 and 412 gave way to the modernised M-2138 and Moskvich-2140; some references extend the range to 1976.

How the Moskvich-408 came about: 1959 to 1975

Work on the 408 started in 1959, the first prototype ran in March 1961 and series production began on 1 August 1964. That five-year gap reflects how much was new: the body and much of the chassis were fresh, while the engine and gearbox still grew out of the 407 family.

The Moskvich-403 acted as a bridge, combining the old 402-type body with mechanical parts intended for the 408, and it stayed in production until July 1965. The plant's millionth car was built on 18 May 1967, and its two millionth in August 1974.

The total number built is harder to pin down. No separate figure for the 408 has been published in the sources consulted; one secondary source estimates nearly 1.5 million cars for the combined 408 and 412 family between 1964 and 1976.

Body, chassis and brakes

The 408 body was a re-engineered development of the 402, 403 and 407 line, not a copy of a foreign car. The Opel link that often appears in Moskvich histories belongs to the first post-war model: the Moskvich-400 of 1946 was based on the 1938 Opel Kadett K38.

The structure is a unitary steel body with four doors and room for five. The front suspension is independent, with double wishbones, while the rear uses a live axle on leaf springs. It was a conventional layout for a 1960s rear-drive saloon, chosen for durability rather than ride refinement.

Braking was by drums on all four wheels. The early system was unassisted and self-adjusting; from 1969 the car gained a hydrovacuum servo and a split circuit, so a single leak no longer meant losing all braking. In December 1969 both the 408 and 412 received the reworked body, so early and late cars are easy to tell apart.

Engine, gearbox and the 412 comparison

The Moskvich-408 used one engine in series production: a 1,358 cc cast-iron inline-four with overhead valves, rated at 37 kW (50 PS) at 4,750 rpm and 92 Nm (68 lb-ft) at 2,750 rpm. Bore and stroke are 76 × 75 mm (2.99 × 2.95 in), and the compression ratio is 7.0:1, with a two-barrel downdraught carburettor.

The low compression ratio was deliberate. The engine ran on low-octane petrol of roughly 75 to 80 octane, and the 408 stayed in production beside the more modern 412 partly because it tolerated low-grade fuel and oil better. A gross figure of about 60 hp (SAE) for the same engine also appears in period material. Export engines were uprated to 40 kW (54 hp), and export cars were quoted at 130 km/h (81 mph) instead of 120 km/h (75 mph), with the 0–100 km/h time cut from 29 to 27 seconds.

Gearbox and gear lever

Drive goes to the rear wheels through a four-speed manual gearbox. On the 408 the lever sat on the steering column for most of the production run; the column shift is usually quoted as lasting until 1973, although some accounts date the move to a floor lever to mid-1972. Sources also differ on the synchromesh, with one British history describing the gearbox as fully synchronised and older descriptions limiting it to second, third and fourth. The 412 used a newer gearbox with a floor-mounted lever from late 1968.

How the 408 differs from the 412

The 412 is the same car with a different engine and interior, at least in the first years. From 1967 to 1969 both shared one chassis and body. The 412 used a 1,478 cc overhead-camshaft engine with an aluminium alloy block, designed by Igor Okunev and rated at 55 kW (75 hp). A car with the 1.5-litre OHC unit is therefore a 412 or a converted 408.

Moskvich-408 specifications

Figures are for the four-door saloon; where early and late 408IE cars differ, both are given.

The late kerb weight differs between datasets, hence the range. The fuel figure applies to early cars; a city consumption of 6.5 L/100 km that circulates online is not supported by the data we checked. Boot volume is not listed because no reliable figure was found.

Moskvich-408 variants: 426, 433, export and diesel

The 408 family covers the saloon in several specifications, an estate, a van, special-purpose versions, a convertible prototype and Belgian-assembled diesels.

The Tourist was a 2+2 fastback convertible with an aluminium body, built as a pair of prototypes in March 1964, and it is reported to have used fuel injection.

For the Belgian diesel cars, Scaldia-Volga first fitted the Perkins 4.99, a 1.6-litre engine rated at 32 kW (44 hp), from 1965 to early 1966, then the larger Perkins 4.108 of about 1.76 litres, quoted at 38 kW (52 hp SAE). Top speed was quoted at 120 km/h (75 mph).

Export names

The 408 was sold under several names abroad. It was the Elite or Elite 1300 in Finland and other European markets, the Carat in Norway, the Moskvitch 1300 in France and the Scaldia in Belgium and the Netherlands. English sources often spell the brand Moskvitch, German ones Moskwitsch. Exports went as far as Kuwait and Ecuador, and by 1968 55% of the plant's production left the country, sold under the slogan "More worth than its price".

In service: operation, reliability and legacy

The 408's engineering favoured tolerance over refinement: a low-compression engine, a leaf-sprung rear axle and drum brakes are simple to understand and keep running.

Western observers judged the Moskvich range mostly on value. Period comment on the closely related 412 praised the amount of car for the money, a strong heater and standard equipment such as a radio, while criticising crude controls, ageing styling and uneven build quality. The remarks concern the 412, but the two cars shared the same basic design. In Britain, Satra Motors began importing Moskvich cars in mid-1970.

Among Eastern European contemporaries such as the front-drive, two-stroke Wartburg 353 and the rear-engined Skoda 1000 MB, the 408 was the conventional choice, and that layout carried over to the 412 and the 2140. The 412 also earned the brand's motorsport results in the early 1970s; the 408 itself was not the rally car.

Spotting a genuine 408 today

The first step with a surviving Moskvich-408 is to establish which car it actually is, because the 408, 412 and export versions look alike and parts have moved between them. These checks help:

• Headlamps and tail lamps: round headlamps point to a car built before December 1969, rectangular headlamps and horizontal tail lamps to the later body; four headlamps indicate the export 408E.
• Engine: the 408 has a 1,358 cc OHV unit; an overhead-camshaft 1.5-litre engine means a 412 or a later swap.
• Brakes: a vacuum servo and split circuit indicate a 1969-on car.
• Gear lever: a column shift is original for most 408s; a floor lever can be original on very late cars or a later modification.
• Body: as with any unitary steel car of this age, sills, floors and the areas around the suspension mounts deserve close inspection (general advice, not a known model-specific defect).

The long family line helps with parts, as many components are shared with the 412, and the history of Moskvich and AZLK shows how one engineering thread ran from the 400 to the 2140. For other cars of the same era, see our selection of Soviet classic cars or browse all Moskvich models.