Russia’s automotive market is booming – still. Despite tightened bank lending throughout the world, Russia included, and concerns over job cuts, Russians are still turning out in record numbers to buy new cars. The Russian market has emerged as a strong point for General Motors and Ford, two Detroit automakers seeking good news from anywhere, even unexpected sources.
Chevrolet’s Lacetti, a product of GM Daewoo assembled in South Korea, has overtaken Ford’s evergreen Focus as the best-seller in Russia, primarily because GM was able to immediately allocate more cars to the Russian market than Ford was able to do.
The Lacetti is best-known to North American consumers as the Suzuki Reno and Forenza, or, in some markets, as the Chevrolet Optra.
GM’s October sales were up about 22 percent in Russia, a market expected to reach about 2.8 million vehicle sales overall in 2008.
11/13, 10:46 AM
posted by:
HoosierHero
Does it run on Vodka?
11/13, 11:06 AM
posted by:
mayer_ray_nagin
great. russians get the chevy cruze 2 years before we do.
11/13, 12:23 PM
posted by:
Need4SSpeed
lol every market is getting the Cruze before we do. Hey at least Chevy got a best seller in some market… GM just needs to pull out of the U.S market…. They’re better off everywhere else in the world over their home market…. which is sad…
11/13, 12:28 PM
posted by:
howsmydriving
Comrades wanted….da, da, da.
11/13, 1:02 PM
posted by:
Borat
That is the same car that GM suspended producing for 45 days. Now it will not be selling all that well: you can’t sell what you don’t produce.
11/13, 1:18 PM
posted by:
jackjimturkey
Russia/China/India are the future
Hoosier: waste of Vodka … Russia has plenty of oil.
11/13, 2:01 PM
posted by:
Bremen_Koenigsegg
They all want to be stars in a reasonably priced car.
11/13, 2:27 PM
posted by:
yarddog82abn
RUSSIA?….
RUSSIA!……
YA…… “GM” IS DOING RELAY GOOD IN RUSSIA, MAYBE THEY SHOULD ASK THEM FOR A BAIL-OUT….
RUSSIA………
11/13, 4:34 PM
posted by:
thegriffon
Russian market Lacettis aren’t built in Korea. They are assembled from kits by Russian company Avtotor in a factory in Konigsberg in East Prussia. Avtotor also assembles Hummers, Cadillacs, Kias and BMWs.
11/13, 8:00 PM
posted by:
pzimet
It’s not a Cruze you fools. It’s a Forenza.
11/13, 8:22 PM
posted by:
DrFill
Those sales increases are deceiving, as the entire market is growing at a similar rate.
If you can get 10-15% of Russia and China, you can weather a lot of storms.
DrFill