Although introduced in 1979 and first produced in quantity in 1980, the Riva's origins are older: it is a modernised and restyled version of the original Lada type VAZ-2101 "Zhiguli" saloon, which was introduced in 1970 as a modified license copy of the Fiat 124. VAZ began development work on the facelift version as early as 1975, and the first prototypes were built in 1977, although it would not be until 1983 - three years after its release in the Soviet Union - that the car was made available in Western European markets.