‘This year has already seen a certain revival of the local automobile market. We haven’t got any shortage thanks to the company’s shipping volumes and working policies. However, it’s true of Yekaterinburg’s car market as a whole that there might be not enough expensive cars for customers to buy,’ OOO Mercedez Benz official dealer Delta Center’s Sales Manager Andrei Yurtanov said to UrBC.

‘The demand did go down a bit, even though we have regular customers and special policies. Our statistical data is based on incidental sales rather than a big customer flow, but, all in all, our sales volumes plunged by 50% to 60% last year. The year 2009 was difficult for all of us. The customers who normally used to buy a new car every one or two years had to do this less often, so the demand declined. However, we’ve developed a new approach now, with a new, ruble-based price list, which reduced some prices due to the differences in the exchange rate. Also, our customers’ situation has grown more stable in general, so they can now afford to buy new automobiles or switch from a second-hand car to a new one. So we are hoping for some uplift in 2010,’ Yurtanov observed.