Foreigners grab foreign cars from Russia: here they are thousands of euros cheaper, and some luxury - at times

The falling ruble again, as a year ago - in the first wave of devaluation, made an extremely attractive for foreigners to buy new and used cars in Russia, especially the premium segment. Their cost in Russia and, for example, in Belarus can vary in several thousand euros, Kommersant writes.

In January, the number of views on the sale of cars on the Portal of Auto.ru owned by Yandex doubled compared to December, the company said. According to the schedule, starting on January 10, the number of suits to the site from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Armenia increased.

It has become more profitable for the resellers to purchase cars in Russia and can be distilled to neighboring countries, they explain to Auto.ru. According to the portal, the average cost of the 2011 BMW X5 in Russia is 20 thousand euros, in Belarus - 26 thousand euros, and in Germany - already 29 thousand euros. The cars sold through Auto.ru appear on sites for the sale of cars in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Germany (Av.by, Kolesa.kz and Mobile.de), the company found out, comparing VIN and descriptions of cars.

At the same time, the most popular brands for export of Russia were the BMW X5, Audi A6, Mercedes-Benz E-Klasse, Kia Sportage and Volvo XC90. Oleg Golubtsov, director of the Rambler & Co automobile projects, also notes about 50 percent growth of consumer activity from Belarus and Ukraine.

With current currencies in Russia, prices for used cars, especially luxury class, are really attractive, said Vagif Bikulov, operating director for sales of Lux an Avilon AG luxury. “Ferrari with mileage were sold the fastest, there were vintage 308th and 430th cars in Russia. They cost for 10-20 thousand euros, and in Europe they were not cheaper than 60-80 thousand euros,” he said.

Auto -dealers record the interest of foreigners in new cars from Russia. “Since 2014, the dollar exchange rate has grown 2.5 times, and the cost of cars is 25-30%. And if you look at the cost of cars in currency now, then the Russian market is one of the cheapest in the world,” said Alexander Zinoviev, director of Sales of Avtopocenter Group of Companies.

At the end of January, 17 automakers raised prices in Russia

In Russia, at the end of January of this year, 17 automobile companies decided to change prices for one or more of their models, LiveCars reports citing the Avtostat analytical agency.

The price tag for their cars changed Audi, Citroen, Ford, Hawtai, Hyundai, Infiniti, Kia, Lexus, Lifan, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Opel, Porsche, Subaru, Suzuki, Volkswagen and UAZ.

The American Automobile Producer Ford raised prices for cars in 2016. In total, the cost of eight models of the American brand has changed. Hyundai increased the prices for the Solaris sedan and hatchback (by 1.8-2.9%).

Suzuki changed the price of Jimny SUV (1.9-2.1%). Porsche raised the prices for the Macan crossover (3.0%). Nissan increased the cost of the Almera sedan with an automatic gearbox (by 0.7-0.8%) and Qashqai crossover (1.3-6.1%). Subaru rewrote the price tag to the Forester crossover (3.6-4.2%).

The Japanese automaker Infiniti increased the cost of Q50 and QX60. At the same time, the company reduced the prices for the Q70 sedan (by 1.9-7.8%) and the QX50 crossover (by 5.7-6.2%) and QX80 (by 8.8-9.2%).