Friday, February 1, 2008

Volga road trip: A dying industry



This article is a bit different. It is about a road trip that a BBC news reporter, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, takes through Russia in an old Russian car to a Volga factory. He reports on the conditions of Russia’s car industry.


"I am going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction. Russia's indigenous car industry is finished. It may take many more years to finally die, but die it will.

The reason is simple - Russian cars are awful."

He goes on to say:

I have now taken delivery of an eight-year-old 1.5-tonne black monster. A day of driving it around the snowbound streets of Nizhny Novgorod, and I think I can safely say it has gone straight in at No.2 in my all time worst car list. The Volga was, possibly, an OK car when it first came out. But that was in 1970. My Volga was made 30 years later, and it is essentially exactly the same car. And they are still making them today! Its the equivalent of Ford still building Cortinas, or Vauxhall still making Vivas!

Click Here

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This gives insight into Russia's economy. The car industry in Russia seems to be finished. The company that makes the Volgas is, however, privately owned and operated, which is better than some of Russia's other industries and companies. So I guess that any attempt at capitalism is better than no capitalism.

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