Russian car-makers in despair over Russians' fondness for foreign-made cars

The sales of foreign cars in Russia break all possible records

Foreign car-makers have published a report about their sales on the Russian market over the past nine months thus striking the final blow to the Russian automotive industry.

If the present-day tendencies continue, by the end of the year Russians will buy about 600,000 foreign cars, which makes up over fifty percent of sales of Russian car-makers. At the time when Russian car-makers are reducing the yield, the sales of foreign-made cars have increased by 66 percent over the nine months as compared with the same year-ago period. This demonstrates that in a couple of years there will be no Russian car-makers at all.

Hyundai, Toyota and Daewoo are the three leading Asian car-makers that have fixed the aggregate sale of 157,595 autos over the nine months of this year. European makers of Ford and Renault have sold 55,786 autos over the same period. Hyundai is an unconditional leader in sales in Russia. Toyota is expected to achieve bigger sales in Russia as it is going to build its machine works in St.Petersburg. Daewoo has advanced to the third position in the Russian sales, Mitsubishi is following it. At that, the Japanese car-maker demonstrates incredible dynamics. Ford has slid to the fifth position, but experts believe this company has the strongest potential. The car-maker launched no advertising campaign but it successfully collected 14,000 orders for Ford Focus II in Russia, the car which no one has ever seen in this country. Ford works in the Russian city of Vsevolzhsk plans to produce 60,000 autos next year. So, the present-day tactical retreat of Ford will yield strategic triumph of the car-maker in the nearest future.

As for Renault, it has advanced from the 8th to the 7th position in the rating thanks to launching of its works in Moscow, and next year the company is highly likely to be among the top five foreign car-makers fixing big sales in Russia. Nissan now holds the 6th position, the same it fixed last year despite its 74 percent increase in sales this year. Inexpensive middle-class sedans Hyundai Accent, Daewoo Nexia, Mitsubishi Lancer are also very popular in Russia.