The new year 2023 has not really come into its own yet, but some news and largely random insiders already allow us to draw the first conclusions: there is no return to the past, no details about the new future of the Russian car market. Now buying a car is similar to the heady era of the 90s, more diluted “for color” with Chinese brands and the existence of the Internet. Everything else is like a reflection in a distorted mirror.
Anyone who yelled about “zeroing” – get it, sign it. What happened to Russia in 2022 is the same, hotly debated and now it has happened. According to many episodes, the domestic market, including the car market, returned to the 90s: 200,000 used right-hand drive cars arrived through Vladivostok, no less from Europe. Official distributors of the car do not deliver, but are dragged along by “shuttles”. There are no original parts, but unnamed boxes with parts of incomprehensible quality can be bought on the market. For a simple worker, only native LADA products are available, and even then with reservations. Word for word the same as a quarter of a century ago!
In fact, multi-year contracts ceased to exist, dealer networks and international relations crumbled, a significant number of car brands waived their commitments and even stopped renewing service equipment. From now on, as in the 1990s, Russian retailers become importers and representatives of foreign automakers. The circle is closed.
How to be, where to run, who to focus on? Everything is very bad with the latter, because even professional market parties admit that something like this has never happened before. The domestic car trade has never fallen into such a powerful vortex. Indeed, in previous crises – and can they now be considered crises at all – there were at least spare parts that made it possible to cheer up the country’s aging vehicle fleet.
There is no such thing today either: spare parts are scarce, although some particularly diligent ones have already announced the resumption of deliveries. The rest are “silently” transported by container through Armenia, Georgia and, less often, Kazakhstan. And judging by the extension of the moratorium on ERA-GLONASS for another year, there will be no noticeable improvements in the next 12 months. It is also not worth hoping that the abandoned factories will immediately be inhabited by the Chinese and hundreds of thousands of new cars will be produced – it will take time. Hold on, in a word.
Answering the questions “how to be” and “where to run”, we can safely give one piece of advice: the best car is now your car. The one that is. It must be protected and driven more carefully, as any accident will lead to months of downtime waiting for spare parts. The machine must, as far as possible, be properly maintained and repaired, without delaying repairs and periodic inspections.
Calling a shovel a shovel, buying another, and even more so a new car today, is an exam of the strength of mind and wallet, which not everyone will pass. Did this happen to a domestic motorist? Of course it did. And repeatedly. So we are not used to tightening our belts. We remember the “old-fashioned” methods and technologies, store pads and filters for future use, prepare in advance for car maintenance, and also respond more gently, more thoughtfully to the military’s proposal to cover the bottom with Movil and Pushsal .
Need a car? Then to hell with technology and ambition: the simpler and “archaic”, the better. A naturally aspirated engine instead of a turbo engine, a simpler but fresher car instead of the Necropremium and other old Mercedes. After all, it doesn’t get any worse. And when it gets better, we’ll laugh together later.
The new year 2023 has not really come into its own yet, but some news and largely random insiders already allow us to draw the first conclusions: there is no return to the past, no details about the new future of the Russian car market. Now buying a car is similar to the heady era of the 90s, more diluted “for color” with Chinese brands and the existence of the Internet. Everything else is like a reflection in a distorted mirror.
Anyone who yelled about “zeroing” – get it, sign it. What happened to Russia in 2022 is the same, hotly debated and now it has happened. According to many episodes, the domestic market, including the car market, returned to the 90s: 200,000 used right-hand drive vehicles arrived through Vladivostok, no less from Europe. Official distributors of the car do not deliver, but are dragged along by “shuttles”. There are no original parts, but unnamed boxes with parts of incomprehensible quality can be bought on the market. For a simple worker, only native LADA products are available, and even then with reservations. Word for word the same as a quarter of a century ago!
In fact, multi-year contracts ceased to exist, dealer networks and international relations crumbled, a significant number of car brands waived their commitments and even stopped renewing service equipment. From now on, as in the 1990s, Russian retailers become importers and representatives of foreign automakers. The circle is closed.
How to be, where to run, who to focus on? Everything is very bad with the latter, because even professional market parties admit that something like this has never happened before. The domestic car trade has never fallen into such a powerful vortex. Indeed, in previous crises – and can they now be considered crises at all – there were at least spare parts that made it possible to cheer up the country’s aging vehicle fleet.
There is no such thing today either: spare parts are scarce, although some particularly diligent ones have already announced the resumption of deliveries. The rest are “silently” transported by container through Armenia, Georgia and, less often, Kazakhstan. And judging by the extension of the moratorium on ERA-GLONASS for another year, there will be no noticeable improvements in the next 12 months. It is also not worth hoping that the abandoned factories will immediately be inhabited by the Chinese and hundreds of thousands of new cars will be produced – it will take time. Hold on, in a word.
Answering the questions “how to be” and “where to run”, we can safely give one piece of advice: the best car is now your car. The one that is. It must be protected and driven more carefully, because any accident will lead to months of downtime, waiting for spare parts. The machine must, as far as possible, be properly maintained, without delaying repairs and periodic inspections.
Calling a shovel a shovel, buying another, and even more so a new car today, is an exam of the strength of mind and wallet, which not everyone will pass. Did this happen to a domestic motorist? Of course it did. And repeatedly. So we are not used to tightening our belts. We remember the “old-fashioned” methods and technologies, store pads and filters for future use, prepare in advance for car maintenance, and also respond more gently, more thoughtfully to the military’s proposal to cover the bottom with Movil and Pushsal .
Need a car? Then to hell with technology and ambition: the simpler and “archaic”, the better. A naturally aspirated engine instead of a turbo engine, a simpler but fresher car instead of the Necropremium and other old Mercedes. After all, it doesn’t get any worse. And when it gets better, we’ll laugh together later.
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.