Ladas are(were) Eastern European Soviet block cars, with a reputation for being cheap and low quality, and in the UK, a low social status indicator used to mock people[1]. The joke could be that a Lada is already an unsafe car so a stretch-Lada can't be any worse (the joke is that you say one Lada is unsafe but actually they are ALL unsafe, ha ha). But then it doesn't need any mention of "99.999% of HN".
The joke could instead be that Ladas are safe enough, the stretch Lada was probably safe enough, and the thing to laugh at is the 99.999% of HN who can't judge the safety of cars, or naively aren't used to a world outside their Silicon Valley spafe-space luxury. i.e. it's a sneering putdown at HN users and nothing to do with Ladas per-se. Given the context of the last two comments I read by throwaway account starting with sneering at HN and Reddit users, and the need to specify "99.999% of HN users would say X", I lean towards this interpretation.
That doesn't mean you can't find it a hilarious witty comment, sneering at some "inferior" group is a popular thing people laugh at. (Weirdly?[1]) You might find it a funny joke, and it might be sneering and against the guidelines, both at the same time. "I loled" isn't sufficient to say it's on-topic, you should be arguing that it wasn't sneering. Better again, arguing that it was within the spirit of the guidelines more than the letter of them; just jokes alone are not against the guidelines explicitly but are frequently frowned on.
Sneerclub and status grabbing are my own personal soupnazi topics of the moment; once you see comments where the main purpose is to sneer at how dumb some large disparate group is, or the flip-side to claim status as a superior, you see them everywhere. e.g. these two just seen in tabs I have open:
My point was that even a normal Lada is going to feel like a tin can compared to what most people here have as their frame of reference. I'm not sure why anyone found that offensive. In retrospect I like the "stretch Lada is 5/3 as safe as normal Lada" line of reasoning better.
Thank you for your in depth reply!
Considering the author responded with His intention, it seems you have read the tea leaves wrong on intended meaning.
