Inexpensive cars’ sales drop 40%, Avtoland Holding says

‘The car dealers still haven’t been able to reach the pre-recession sales levels comparable with the years 2007 and 2008. This means the recession is far from being over yet. The current automobile sales, in fact, only make up a quarter of what was sold in the year 2007, even though the figure could reach up to 60% if there existed sufficient car quotas,’ OOO Avtoland Holding’s Marketing & Advertising Director Svetlana Petrovikh said to UrBC.

‘The somewhat restored consumer demand has already caused a shortage of the most popular makes, so now the best-selling cars are inexpensive, affordable ones. However, even the inexpensive cars’ sales are still 30% to 40% lower this year against the before-the-recession years,’ she explained.

‘The market still hasn’t gone back to the earlier loan schemes and interest rates. A lot of customers are scared off by the sky-high loan interest, so few of them are actually prepared to take out a risky loan. At the same time, nearly all the market players survived, with only some changes made to the brands they specialize in,’ Ms Petrovikh observed.

‘As for our holding, the sales went up by 50% to 100% this year compared with those at the height of the recession, but these figures are actually comparable with those for 2005 and 2006. The most popular makes such as Ford Focus and Ford Mondeo are available, but everything depends on the options a customer wants. A customized Ford usually means a maximum wait of two and a half months. The same applies to Mazda3 and Mazda6: these best-selling makes are usually in stock, but the inexpensively stocked models take three to six months to arrive. And this is true of Mitsubishi ASX and Mitsubishi Lancer as well,’ the manager added.

‘All in all, we expect our sales to reach the level of 2007 next year. This means a 30% to 60% growth depending on the brand. In case quotas are expanded, our sales might even double in some cases, provided no negative factors (exchange rate fluctuations or legislative changes) come into play from the outside,’ she noted.