After more than four decades in production, the legendary Lada is about to be killed off because sales are becoming the joke. We’ve all heard a hundred gags about the Russian brand (What do you call a Lada at the top of a hill? A miracle. BAZING!), but in its home turf the cars have continued to sell like dirty western cheeseburgers for decades.

Introduced in 1970 as the VAZ-2101 Zhiguli saloon, it became a synonymous with Soviet Russia, and has remained popular in its home country – despite being to the car industry what VHS is to home cinema today. Ladas have a reputation for this sort of thing.

But a whopping 76% sales dip in the first quarter of 2012 has prompted maker AvtoVAZ to declare “it’s time to say goodbye,” according to The Sun.