‘We have a long waiting list for Ford Focus cars manufactured in Russia, with the wait coming to two or three months. Customers wishing to buy Ford Focus Limited Edition will have to wait until September before the available cars arrive; those who are interested in Ford Fiesta or Ford Fusion will have to wait for two to four months. People also have to queue for up to six months for Mazda CX-7 and wait until September to buy Mazda BT-50. There is also some shortage of Mazda6 makes. Besides, anyone who wants to get a Mitsubishi Outlander XL make has to be put on the waiting list and come back in July; there are no Mitsubishi L200 cars in Russia at all at the moment, although these models will probably hit the market by late August or early September,’ Avtoland Holding’s Marketing & Advertising Director Svetlana Petrovykh said to the UrBC reporters.

‘These lines mainly have to do with the general decrease in car production, since the manufacturers are not sure the demand and the sales will actually go up. Vsevolozhsk-based Ford factory, for instance, operates in a two-shift mode, whereas prior to the start of the recession, the employees used to work three shifts. What is more, all the car manufacturers are planning to launch summer breaks as usual. The sales targets were set at the minimum level in the fist half of 2010, so the dealers can only expect enough cars in the fall,’ Petrovykh explained.