Now in Russia you can buy almost any new car of a foreign brand. The only question is that the price tag is likely to be hugely inflated. A normal person, seeing his numbers, will pass with a shudder. As a result, the cars sit in dealer showrooms and potential customers are unwilling to pay for them. And that’s a big problem for car dealership managers. And they go to great lengths, even outright harassment and deception of visitors – all for the chance to sell a car.
Journalists from the AvtoVzglyad portal came across a similar call at a Toyota dealership in Major City on Novorizhskoye highway. There, a sweet girl with a black eye very stubbornly offered us to buy a Toyota RAV4, frightening us with a “reliable forecast” that in the spring all cars would increase in price by another 30%. Like, buy now or it’s too late! Such “blackmail” looked quite convincing. So much so that after leaving the salon, we contacted the auto expert Sergey Burgazliev and asked him to comment on the “management prophecies.”
– Personally, I can’t imagine what needs to be done so that cars will increase in price by a third in the foreseeable future. If RAV4 costs 5.5 million now, what then – in a few months the price will rise to 6 million? The crossover is not for sale at the current price and no one will need it at the increased price, Mr. Burgazliev believes.
According to him, a strange and sad situation has now arisen in the domestic car market, especially in the mid-price segment. More or less liquid in terms of price / quality models of cars, buyers were already wiped out before the start of last fall. And now in Russia there is actually no offer of models of the middle price category.
– It will not be possible to “close” this question at the expense of domestic car brands. I personally observe the warehouses of AVTOVAZ dealers. They are slowly swelling: people are not ready to buy a new LADA Granta for a million rubles, the expert believes.
Meeting the demand by importing cars from abroad using “gray” schemes will also not work. Attempts by some companies to import small batches of European brands from the Chinese market will make no difference. For example, some major dealers recently brought us the Jetta VS5 crossover (technically an analogue of the Skoda Karoq), produced by the Volkswagen-FAW joint venture.
At the same time, representatives of the car dealership claim that the warranty of the German-Chinese joint venture applies to the cars. The facts are that the entire batch of Jetta VS5 was imported into Russia on a simplified scheme – for private individuals. They do not have the Russian “Vehicle Type Approval” (OTTS). SBKTS (“Certificate of Safety of a Wheeled Vehicle”) only – like any other car imported by a private dealer for personal use. Thus, the same right-hand drive “Japanese” appear in Russia in exactly the same way.
And from the point of view of Russian law, for the future happy owner of the Jetta VS5, this means the following: in the event of a warranty event, he can only “present” something to the car dealer with whom he had a purchase agreement. And if friction arises with the selling company on this occasion, it will be impossible in principle to “pull” the Volkswagen-FAW JV as a defendant. Characteristically, most of the cars that are now imported into Russia for sale in car dealerships have exactly the same status. That does not give hope for a recovery of the Russian car market in the near future.
Now in Russia you can buy almost any new car of a foreign brand. The only question is that the price tag is likely to be hugely inflated. A normal person, seeing his numbers, will pass with a shudder. As a result, the cars sit in dealer showrooms and potential customers are unwilling to pay for them. And that’s a big problem for car dealership managers. And they go to great lengths, even outright harassment and deception of visitors – all for the chance to sell a car.
Journalists from the AvtoVzglyad portal came across a similar call at a Toyota dealership in Major City on Novorizhskoye highway. There, a sweet girl with a black eye very stubbornly offered us to buy a Toyota RAV4, frightening us with a “reliable forecast” that in the spring all cars would increase in price by another 30%. Like, buy now or it’s too late! Such “blackmail” looked quite convincing. So much so that after leaving the salon, we contacted the auto expert Sergey Burgazliev and asked him to comment on the “management prophecies.”
– Personally, I can’t imagine what needs to be done so that cars will increase in price by a third in the foreseeable future. If RAV4 costs 5.5 million now, what then – in a few months the price will rise to 6 million? The crossover is not for sale at the current price and no one will need it at the increased price, Mr. Burgazliev believes.
According to him, a strange and sad situation has now arisen in the domestic car market, especially in the mid-price segment. More or less liquid in terms of price / quality models of cars, buyers were already wiped out before the start of last fall. And now in Russia there is actually no offer of models of the middle price category.
– It will not be possible to “close” this question at the expense of domestic car brands. I personally observe the warehouses of AVTOVAZ dealers. They are slowly swelling: people are not ready to buy a new LADA Granta for a million rubles, the expert believes.
Meeting the demand by importing cars from abroad using “gray” schemes will also not work. Attempts by some companies to import small batches of European brands from the Chinese market will make no difference. For example, some major dealers recently brought us the Jetta VS5 crossover (technically an analogue of the Skoda Karoq), produced by the Volkswagen-FAW joint venture.
At the same time, representatives of the car dealership claim that the warranty of the German-Chinese joint venture applies to the cars. The facts are that the entire batch of Jetta VS5 was imported into Russia on a simplified scheme – for private individuals. They do not have the Russian “Vehicle Type Approval” (OTTS). SBKTS (“Certificate of Safety of a Wheeled Vehicle”) only – like any other car imported by a private dealer for personal use. Thus, the same right-hand drive “Japanese” appear in Russia in exactly the same way.
And from the point of view of Russian law, for the future happy owner of the Jetta VS5, this means the following: in the event of a warranty event, he can only “present” something to the car dealer with whom he had a purchase agreement. And if friction arises with the selling company on this occasion, it will be impossible in principle to “pull” the Volkswagen-FAW JV as a defendant. Characteristically, most of the cars that are now imported into Russia for sale in car dealerships have exactly the same status. That does not give hope for a recovery of the Russian car market in the near future.
Source: Avto Vzglyad
Donald Salinas is an experienced automobile journalist and writer for Div Bracket. He brings his readers the latest news and developments from the world of automobiles, offering a unique and knowledgeable perspective on the latest trends and innovations in the automotive industry.