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When Chevrolet Ruled Uzbekistan (2019)

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Re: When Chevrolet Ruled Uzbekistan (2019)

#11
post #5

This is final assembly only, an absolute minimum required by law to qualify out of heavily tariffed foreign made car category (the countries of former USSR, except for Baltic ones, like to highly tax foreign import in order to supposedly protect "domestic manufacturer" - as result nobody has good car building industry). There have been several such Daewoo/Chevrolet plants across the former USSR. Russia for example al…

Russia used to have few car manufacturers and produced almost every car part rather than importing it. After USSR collapse those cars were not very competitive, especially with used cars from Japan and Europe, unfortunately, so those factories either died or optimized (like VAZ which is part of Renault-Nissan now and is moving to just build western Renault designs rather than develop and improve their LADA cars). Tha…

>Russia used to have few car manufacturers and produced almost every car part rather than importing it.

yes and no. Significant share (seems most) of major USSR car manufacturers started as a transfer of technology deal and improvement on its own has been pretty small and incremental since then. VAZ - Fiat (196x), GAZ - Ford (193x), AZLK/Moskvich was "refreshed" by the complete factory transfer of the Opel's one right after the WWII, ZIL - original 1917 and total re-equipment in 193x - to build Italian and American cars under license (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZiL#History), UAZ models naturally trace back to the GAZ, and its most known and widely used - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAZ-469 - hasn't changed much in 50 years. KAMAZ though doesn't look like an outright transfer and is kind of local success story, yet also not much improvements in 50 years (probably for the same reason of absence of any real competition as the USSR planned economy basically segmented manufacturers into their own quasi-monopoly segments) .

Re: When Chevrolet Ruled Uzbekistan (2019)

#14

I am from this country and what is written there is exactly as it is. It is very hard or impossible to come to a car store to buy a car and go back with that car home in one day. You must first make an order and wait for months(usually 4-6) while your car be ready. Moreover, if you want to buy a car from foreign manufacturers (Mersedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, etc) you have to pay 2X of its original price.

I visited the country a couple of years ago, and a thing that puzzled me was why almost all the cars were white. Do you know why this is?

Some said it was because it is better at keeping the cars cool, but this doesn't explain why surrounding Kazakhstan/Tajikistan/etc had different color cars.

The best explanation I heard was the president liked white cars, so only allowed white cars to get made. This seems most plausible to me, and seems like similar things happened in Turkmenistan: https://www.motor1.com/news/226932/turkmenistan-president-ba...

Re: When Chevrolet Ruled Uzbekistan (2019)

#15
post #14

I am from this country and what is written there is exactly as it is. It is very hard or impossible to come to a car store to buy a car and go back with that car home in one day. You must first make an order and wait for months(usually 4-6) while your car be ready. Moreover, if you want to buy a car from foreign manufacturers (Mersedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, etc) you have to pay 2X of its original price.

I visited the country a couple of years ago, and a thing that puzzled me was why almost all the cars were white. Do you know why this is? Some said it was because it is better at keeping the cars cool, but this doesn't explain why surrounding Kazakhstan/Tajikistan/etc had different color cars. The best explanation I heard was the president liked white cars, so only allowed white cars to get made. This seems most plau…

You're right, 90% of cars are white coloured. Honestly I have no idea why it is that. Prabably this worth some research.

But usually when my friends wanted to buy a car, they chose the white color by the following criteria: it does not heat much like other colors on the sun. If we take into account that there are not much parking lots and garages with a roof, white colored car is the best choice.

Re: When Chevrolet Ruled Uzbekistan (2019)

#16
post #14

I am from this country and what is written there is exactly as it is. It is very hard or impossible to come to a car store to buy a car and go back with that car home in one day. You must first make an order and wait for months(usually 4-6) while your car be ready. Moreover, if you want to buy a car from foreign manufacturers (Mersedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, etc) you have to pay 2X of its original price.

I visited the country a couple of years ago, and a thing that puzzled me was why almost all the cars were white. Do you know why this is? Some said it was because it is better at keeping the cars cool, but this doesn't explain why surrounding Kazakhstan/Tajikistan/etc had different color cars. The best explanation I heard was the president liked white cars, so only allowed white cars to get made. This seems most plau…

White cars are very popular in hot, dry climates (like Uzbekistan) because they don't absorb as much heat in the desert run. For another example of this in a much freer car market, see Israel, where I'd guess a solid 80-90% of cars on the road are white.

Re: When Chevrolet Ruled Uzbekistan (2019)

#17
post #5

This is final assembly only, an absolute minimum required by law to qualify out of heavily tariffed foreign made car category (the countries of former USSR, except for Baltic ones, like to highly tax foreign import in order to supposedly protect "domestic manufacturer" - as result nobody has good car building industry). There have been several such Daewoo/Chevrolet plants across the former USSR. Russia for example al…

The generic term for this is SKD/CKD Semi knock down/Complete knock down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knock-down_kit

I'm sure parent comment knows this, but context for others.

Manufacturing is so efficient these days that you can't really afford to have local manufacturing. There's no vehicle assembly in Australia, for instance. There's much less in Britain. There used to be vehicle assembly plants in almost every state in the US, not so many now.

Re: When Chevrolet Ruled Uzbekistan (2019)

#18
post #14

I am from this country and what is written there is exactly as it is. It is very hard or impossible to come to a car store to buy a car and go back with that car home in one day. You must first make an order and wait for months(usually 4-6) while your car be ready. Moreover, if you want to buy a car from foreign manufacturers (Mersedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, etc) you have to pay 2X of its original price.

I visited the country a couple of years ago, and a thing that puzzled me was why almost all the cars were white. Do you know why this is? Some said it was because it is better at keeping the cars cool, but this doesn't explain why surrounding Kazakhstan/Tajikistan/etc had different color cars. The best explanation I heard was the president liked white cars, so only allowed white cars to get made. This seems most plau…

It’s pretty much the same in SEA. Because it’s hot. White cars heat up much less.

Re: When Chevrolet Ruled Uzbekistan (2019)

#19

I am from this country and what is written there is exactly as it is. It is very hard or impossible to come to a car store to buy a car and go back with that car home in one day. You must first make an order and wait for months(usually 4-6) while your car be ready. Moreover, if you want to buy a car from foreign manufacturers (Mersedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, etc) you have to pay 2X of its original price.

Israel is the same. (at least it was when I lived there, pre-2012).

Re: When Chevrolet Ruled Uzbekistan (2019)

#20
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I visited the country a couple of years ago, and a thing that puzzled me was why almost all the cars were white. Do you know why this is? Some said it was because it is better at keeping the cars cool, but this doesn't explain why surrounding Kazakhstan/Tajikistan/etc had different color cars. The best explanation I heard was the president liked white cars, so only allowed white cars to get made. This seems most plau…

You're right, 90% of cars are white coloured. Honestly I have no idea why it is that. Prabably this worth some research. But usually when my friends wanted to buy a car, they chose the white color by the following criteria: it does not heat much like other colors on the sun. If we take into account that there are not much parking lots and garages with a roof, white colored car is the best choice.

In Israel, people say it's "easier to sell a white car".
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