“It doesn’t matter the name, it’s important that the car is of high quality”

Vyacheslav Zhigalov, Executive Director of the Russian Automobile Dealers Association:

“Business should revive brands or invent new ones and develop technologies. The task of the authorities is to create conditions for this. The massive distribution of money from the budget in exchange for localization and investment is not development, but a masking of problems.

From the point of view of the news background – yes, it is interesting to discuss. But if we talk about the development of the industry, then there will be no benefit. We do not know what will be produced under these brands. You can still recreate Pobeda, the legendary brand. The pursuit of any beautiful ideas always ends in failure. You can’t constantly reform and hunt for fairy tales, who will work? You need to understand how this magic wand works.

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Igor Morzharetto, partner of the analytical agency “AUTOSTAT”:

– The question is debatable. Soviet brands are mostly remembered by the 40+ generation. The Oka brand speaks to few of the younger ones, although Volga, Pobeda and Moskvich still evoke something. But the Moskvich and Oka versions in the last years of their existence were marked by very poor quality, I saw a couple of accidents involving the Oka, which was simply smeared on the asphalt.

In Germany, the United States, it was also not possible to revive the old brands. Yes, there was a wonderful memory, but we decided to leave it in museums and move forward. So in Russia it is necessary to clearly calculate what attitude in different strata of society towards a particular brand. This is a very serious job for marketers, especially given the opinion of the younger generation of Russians, for whom these symbols mean little.

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Dmitry Shugorev, author of the documentary “Car No. 1”:

— The brand is the soul of the car. Old proven brands are liked by people all over the world, they are not abandoned, and this marketing strategy is becoming a global trend.

On the one hand, there are practically no unique cars left. Since the middle of the last century, technologies and achievements of competitors have been introduced everywhere. On the other hand, without skills, it was impossible to create not just an instance, but an entire platform under the Aurus brand.

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Viktor Travin, auto expert, president of the Board of Legal Protection of Car Owners:

– It is possible to revive, but the question is what will be produced under this brand. If something interesting comes off the assembly line under the Volga brand and at the level of Maybach, then it’s good, but if there is a cart with a horse, then it’s a shame for the brand. It is impossible to restore what we once had.

I had a Zhiguli and a UAZ, and I don’t mind if good cars were produced with such Russian names as Volga, Zhiguli or Moskvich, albeit with Chinese stuffing. The name is not so important to me, it is important that it be a high-quality car, as they say, at least call it a pot, just don’t put it in the oven.

At one time, “Victory” and “Seagull”, as well as the cargo ZIL, were made at the level of world standards. These were real brands that have not lost credibility over the years. But the Volga and Zhiguli, which left the assembly line for decades without changes, dishonored themselves a little.

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Oleg Osipov, autoexpert:

Some people need it, some don’t, I don’t care. There was nothing good in those cars, and especially in the Oka. And I don’t see any point in calling some other Chinese masterpiece our brand. This is a show game. We do not have a Russian car industry and real models. We cannot make our own, which means that there will be a Chinese under the old Soviet brand.

All those machines were mechanisms of their time, and now they cannot be in demand. If only because the world has gone far ahead. If anyone needs the 21st Volga, he will buy it at an auction. What they propose to revive has already died. And it seems to me that the main reason why they are going to do this is money. Someone wants to make money on it.

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Maxim Kadakov, editor-in-chief of the magazine “Behind the wheel”:

– It is not entirely clear why we are always digging into the past, instead of moving forward. Now we do not have our own, as it seems to many, developments put in the far corner, from which we will shake off the dust and release an updated Oka or Volga. There is only one way out – to take a Chinese car, stick our emblem on it. Will this make the Chinese car “Okoy”? Hardly. And what difference does it make what the name of the car is? The question is quality. Patriotism is doing good, quality things.

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Pavel Sadchikov, professor of MSTU MAMI, autotraveller:

— It doesn’t matter to me what brand my car has and in what country it is made. Its functionality, reliability, quality and price are important. Now I have three cars that I have converted into a motor home. And all three are representatives of our brands, but five times cheaper than Western ones. This is LADA Largus Cross, although it is, of course, not entirely Russian, UAZ Patriot Cargo and Gazelle Next. I did not change anything from the technical stuffing in them.

Recently, my son and a friend and I drove these three cars from Moscow through the whole of Mongolia and back without breakdowns and repairs. Undoubtedly, we can make good cars, I am for the revival of brands. There would be hands. We must educate the working class and strictly monitor quality. In China, at first they assembled disgusting cars, but look now …

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Sergey Lesnevsky, car blogger:

— The older generation has bought a Land Cruiser and is planting tomatoes in the country. “Moskvich” and “Volga” they do not even need for the sake of nostalgia. If they want to buy a Volga, they will buy a classic in good condition. It is necessary to revive all these brands in the form of Chinese cars solely so that people do not lose their jobs in the factories where these cars are produced. No one will seriously buy them, especially since the Moskvich is more expensive than the Chinese original.

In general, it is not clear why invent something if we do not know how to make machines. They came up with “Yo-mobile” and Marussia, and where are they now? If we want to collect Chinese cars, let’s. But reinventing the wheel when the whole world is flying into space is stupid.

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Alina Raspopova, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Avtonews.ru portal:

– My grandfather took me to school on Pobeda, and vivid memories of this remained. Therefore, the idea to revive those distant brands sounds good, but, on the other hand, there is a trap in this. It is clear that the authors of the idea are on the wave of import substitution: look, here it is, OURS! But that brand is history, a veil that is associated with the past, with what pulls us back. And the modern auto industry is something that stretches into the future, I want a new, bright, not reeking of mold from the Soviet closet.

This means that brands need to be modernized as much as possible, perhaps even in partnership with foreign colleagues, for example from China. But this does not mean that it is enough to stick the Oka nameplate or someone else on a finished car, the revival of the brand should keep pace with the restoration of domestic production, the scientific and technical base, and the involvement of our specialists in the process of creating a modern car.

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Oleg Petrikov, vice-champion of Russia in automobile circuit racing, head of the Russian motorsport development program SMP Racing:

– The older generation of “Lada”, “Moskvich” and “Volga” evoke nostalgic feelings. Young people are also interested in our automotive history – for many, the classic Zhiguli becomes not only the first car, but also the first sports car in which they participate in amateur competitions.

The recognition of Soviet brands should play into the hands of their popularity, especially if at the first stage these models will be based on modern foreign models from friendly countries. There is no need to be skeptical about this: the Soviet auto industry was born almost a hundred years ago with Ford models that were assembled at GAZ. VAZ in Tolyatti was also built under license from Fiat. However, then these enterprises had their own strong engineering school, original models that were in demand all over the world and were successful in motorsport. I am sure we will repeat this path.

It will be nice to see the revived “Zaporozhets” – it was in the capital of the Zaporozhye region, which recently became part of Russia, that the famous small cars were produced. Many “humpbacked” and “eared” brought a smile, but they fully met the requirements of their time and became the first personal cars for our parents and grandfathers.

Group “Direct speech”