Auction 52 Japanese used cars swept away in storm marine ship
Boots crunching on the packed snow of the largest batch of Siberian cars, Anatoly M Kiselev past row after row of cars that keep the Russia Far East bearing Toyota Land Cruisers, Mitsubishi Pajero, an Osaka delivery van, and chains Hondas and Nissans sensitive, many still bearing stickers of parking garages in Tokyo.
Incomprehensible Japanese characters emblazoned a Toyota pickup No problem LHD straight-car Russia No problem Everything sells.
A Russian car Zhiguli example, almost falls apart after 50,000 kilometers, said M. Kiselev, director of sales fur cap Montazhny Rynok, described as the largest car market in Khabarovsk There was no Russian car for a recent Saturday morning; almost all of the 414 cars, trucks and vans on the sales lot had already clocked 30,000 miles on the roads of Japan.
While the United States is the world's largest importer of new Japanese cars, Russia is now the largest importer of Japanese used cars.
With China and many countries in Southeast Asia closed for imports of used cars, some analysts fear that Russia has become a magnet for stolen cars, with western Russia attracting German cars stolen and eastern Russia attract vehicles stolen in Japan Japanese police broke up several flights rings shipping cars in Russia but the stolen vehicles are thought to represent only a small part of the illicit flows, probably less than 5 percent.
Stolen or not, high-quality Japanese cars are definitely improve things for a long time deprived of decent vehicle population - or any vehicle at all in the streets of Khabarovsk, listen to the happy Russian owners, these preowned Toyota vehicles swarms Hondas and Nissans help Russia are essential steps towards a culture of democratic automobile.
When I was a child, only officials had cars - everyone walked or else took the tram, said Sergei Rudenko, 46, the driver Aeroflot retirement as he piloted his smugly 11 years, Toyota Sprinter, Corolla variant sold in Japan, the Powder rock streets with snow Zhiguli See there the last model costs 20 000 - which is the price of four Japanese used cars.
The children in this city of more than 600,000 play the backseat playing spot the Russian car with Ladas, Volgas and sputnik increasingly rare, it takes the actual hunting to find a Russian-made car in the streets obstructed by Japanese imports.
To listen to the Russian and US automakers, however, the flow of used car imports is to delay the development of a domestic auto industry and threatening to impede the efforts of General Motors, Ford and other foreign automakers to build new modern vehicles in Russia 2002 the Russian automobile overall production fell 5 percent, to 970,000, slipping below the production in China for the first time this context, Ford and GM are embarking on editing projects competitors, investments totaling nearly 500 million.
To listen to Japanese consumers, Russian drivers get a free ride - or at least subsidized tour - due to Japanese laws that encourage owners to sell their cars after three years, giving an artificial lift to Japanese manufacturers .
In Japan, the car gets, the more expensive it is to save, Christopher Richter, auto analyst HSBC, said in Tokyo In reality, it is the automotive industry subsidy.
After three years on the road, Japanese cars are facing a formidable security inspection usually costs around 1200 is then repeated every two years for the life of the car.
More and more, after your fifth year, you have to ask yourself, is it worth it to keep the car Kurt Sanger, auto analyst at ING Financial, said in Tokyo.
Yet Japan's economic stagnation is squeezing the premium more drivers used cars stand at the forefront of government to go out and buy a new car in 2002, sales dropped 2 3 to percent to 5 8 Children million vehicles, the lowest level since 1986, and there were 40 percent more sales of used cars than new.
Japanese keep their cars longer, now about six years, compared to four and a half years in 1990.
Yet there are many good quality leads only Japanese cars Sunday left to keep rolling until Russia 200000 Used Japanese cars were exported to Russia in 2002, according to an estimate by Toshio Kimura, a frame with Japan used motor vehicles Export Association, a trade group.
Russians love cars four-wheel drive, heavy off-road type of cars because their roads are not very good, Chuzo Takayama, president of Honda Car Sales, said in Tokyo Treatments rocker high quality Japanese cars tend to hold up well on Russian roads, where salt is used generously in winter.
Officially, only about 25 000 cars were exported in 2002 to Russia, but many others were exported informally, on thousands of Russian fishing vessels and cargo ships that dock around the Japanese archipelago.
No less than 7,000 fishing boats come here a year, bringing the wood or the fish, M. Kimura said they return home full of Japanese used cars.
Mr. Richter, HSBC analyst, said they just ship these things through the Sea of Japan, they do not have to go too far.
Used cars now account for about 10 percent of annual exports to Japan vehicles.
Most cars arrive in the Russian Pacific port of Vladivostok.
I came across a prefecture police car Toyama, buses for a kindergarten, and a Japanese country inn, Yoichi Funabashi, a columnist for Foreign Affairs for Asahi Shimbun, the largest Japanese newspaper wrote at the end January-spotting his car in Vladivostok.
From the Pacific coast, many cars are driven here, eight, nearly 500-mile journey that the threads of only 50 commercial pilot.
On this site, the cars usually belong to sailors who bring them here and leave them until they are sold, Mr. Kisilev said we also have buyers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Chelyabinsk For these Western locations, cars are shipped by rail.
Yakutia buyers drive away their home cars, he said, referring to the winter trails on frozen rivers that lead 1,500 miles northwest of Yakutsk, the capital of the region.
Car sales reflect the distribution of income between the economically stagnant Russia and expanding west About 90 percent of Toyota vehicles sold in the Russian Far East are used about 90 percent of Toyota vehicles sold in more inclined western Europe are new.
With the Russians to buy 480,000 cars in 2002, about a third of car sales, German models dominated west and Japanese models in eastern thousands pass every year Kaliningrad, a outpost Russian Baltic Mercedes and BMW West police agencies stolen s estimated that up to half a million cars in Moscow were originally stolen in Europe.
In Japan, car thefts have almost doubled in ten years, reaching 62,673 in 2002. After police broke up several gangs shipping hundreds of stolen cars in Vladivostok, the government recently restored an old rule that allows the export of a car only after the presentation of evidence that the registration has been canceled.
Russian carmakers lobbied to raise tariffs on imports, but public debate has caused an increase of 30 per cent of imports The Russian government is wary of angering consumers and at the same time the desire to protect an inefficient industry In October, he raised taxes on cars over seven years, to 35 percent, compared to the right to 25 percent on imports of new cars.
The surge in imports caused several automakers in Russia to close the assembly lines intermittently until stocks fall.
The wave of imports came as US companies were preparing to produce the kind of robust and affordable cars a day should be able to compete with German and Japanese castoffs.
In 2003, Ford plans to produce 10,000 Focus cars in a new factory near St Petersburg With this plant 150 million, Ford became the first foreign automaker to have a plant in post-Soviet Russia.
General Motors plans to make 30,000 Chevrolet Niva in 2003 in a 335 million joint venture with AvtoVAZ, Russia's largest automaker.
Meanwhile, the Russians seem happy to drive their imports, often unaware of Japanese messages emblazoned on some vehicles.
A Toyota dealership in Vladivostok once repaired a car that was painted with the slogan back Japan in the Northwest Territories The slogan refers to four disputed islands claimed by Japan but occupied by Russia as the southern islands Bobtail since the end of World War II.
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