Ford transit
Ford Transit Ford Transit Ford Transit
Since January 2012, Ford Transit cars officially sold in Russia have been produced in Yelabuga (Tatarstan). While in the mode of the so-called coarse-grained assembly SCD (semi knocked down). The main operation is attaching the marking plate to the body pillar. Recall that for the personnel of the Yelabuga plant, such procedures are well known and familiar, because the first Fast Screwdriver artel appeared in Russia here, and not in Kaliningrad, as many people think, six months before the launch of the SCD giant Avtotor. However, Chevrolet Blaser and Opel Vectra, produced in small series in Elabuga from 1996 to 2000, should not be remembered, but the real conveyor production CKD (complete knock down - fully collapsible) of old FIAT Ducato, organized in the same workshops by the current the owner of the plant, Sollers, was a really serious and very profitable project of 2008-2011, giving reason to believe the current promises of the company to master the welding-painting of now Ford bodies. Moreover, the tough conditions set by the Government of the Russian Federation for preferential industrial assembly do not suggest otherwise.
And representatives of the new joint venture voiced bold plans to build a motor production as well, so that they could assemble Transit engines right here, behind the wall. The latter, given the huge costs for the purchase of robotic equipment, is apparently a distant prospect, because even “cars” like the Moscow Avtoframos (and the same Ford Sollers with its Vsevolozhsk plant) with production volumes an order of magnitude larger than commercial vans, until they run the risk of burying such an impressive capital in Russian land. Who will do this first - time will tell.
Opinion
Andrey Koveza, transport division of Megafon OJSC, Moscow
- In the regional Moscow fleet we have about 480 cars. Commercial models are represented by Ford and Volkswagen. Of these, 30 front-wheel-drive Ford Transit, mainly short-body all-metal vans with a low roof, are used to transport communications equipment and as mobile technical workshops. There are several passenger modifications. Most cars are in the most inexpensive configuration with 100-horsepower 2.2-liter diesel engines. We only buy new cars, we service them only at technical centers of authorized dealers - until the write-off.
We keep them in the open parking lot - there are no problems with starting the engines in winter. The park is regularly updated - as a rule, we replace the car with a new one when reaching the age of 4 years or a mileage of 150 thousand km. In practice, the mileage of our Ford Transit cars can reach 170 thousand km or more - if the car worked mainly on suburban roads and the wear rate of its main units was low. With regular flights around Moscow, mileage is much slower, and the car can be written off for mileage of up to 120 thousand km. Considering that our work is not related to the delivery of any goods, that is, overloads are excluded, and the service life is relatively short, the cars are sold, usually in good condition. Most of them have a “native” clutch, not all of them had to replace the “consumables” of the chassis (ball bearings, steering rod joints, etc.), there are no signs of wear of expensive units. Thus, Ford Transit completely suits us both at a relatively low price and moderate operating costs.
Modifications and car prices *
Ford Transit is the most widespread foreign-made commercial vehicle in Russia. Formally prevailing in the number of cars Volkswagen Transporter does not count - its statistics are largely formed by gasoline copies of the 1990s, massively bought up in German “commissions” by our thrifty summer residents. And among the models that really make money, Transit leads, with a wide margin - the rest is far from its almost hundreds of thousands of registered machines. According to the Avtostat analytical agency (see table), the most intensive growth in demand for Ford small tonnage was in the four-year pre-crisis period - then sales doubled annually, exceeding nine thousand in 2008. Then the “blue oval” sharply raised prices, explaining this by the growth of the euro and the richer basic equipment of machines than before.
As a result, some potential customers have tied their fortunes to FIAT Ducato, Peugeot Boxer and Citroen Jumper low-toned cars - perhaps forever. Nevertheless, in the second half of 2012, Transit reached a pre-crisis level of sales, despite the fact that it has already become more difficult to attract new customers from among overgrown GAZelle. Indeed, some of them, having studied all the offers on the small-tonnage market, inevitably asks the question: “Why is Transit made in Turkey and exempted from customs duties in Elabuga worth 200 thousand rubles more than the Jumper assembled in Italy?” Equal in size of the van and carrying capacity, and with the same Puma engine, and not Turkish, but English (!) assembly …
