The cheapest foreign cars on the Russian market – Chevrolet Nexia produced in Uzbekistan, Spark, Cobalt and Lacetti. This is not an attempt to reduce the cost of cars, but a banal shortage of semiconductors that has developed in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.
If AvtoVAZ given the shortage of electronic parts, it prefers to stop the conveyor for the production of the cheaper LADA Granta in favor of the production of LADA Vesta, then the Uzbek automakers UzAuto Motors went a different way.
From January 19, 2022, Chevrolet Lacetti customers and Chevrolet Cobalt will be sold without car radios, which are supplied by the South Korean company Humax for General Motors and Chevrolet models. The Uzbek manufacturer was forced to cut the configuration.
Buyers will be offered two options. First, pick up the car without a radio, suffer a little without music, and when the manufacturer has radios, then complete your car with it. The solution is good, but one thing is not clear: when the microchip supply crisis will resolve itself. The second option is more difficult, but does not require waiting. The car is picked up from the factory without a radio, but you are compensated for the purchase and installation of a third-party device. It is important that the factory retains the warranty for the car if the installation is carried out in the company center. Garage auto repair shops when installing a radio tape recorder can deprive a new foreign car of a guarantee. And the guarantees are solid – 100 thousand kilometers or three years of operation.
With the departure of Datsun from the Russian market, Chevrolet Nexia entered the shortlist of the cheapest cars on the Russian market. Nexia, which is now not Opel Kadett, but Aveo, costs 851 thousand rubles. Spark will cost 921 thousand rubles, and the price of Cobalt starts from 924 thousand.
In a market where the average price used car has already exceeded one million rubles, no longer up to music. By the way, a number of global automakers made a similar decision to produce cars without car radios.