QUESTIONNAIRE ZR
OUR READER AT ALL HANDS MASTER
Almost 33 thousand people answered the questions of the questionnaire (ЗР, 1996, No. 4) regarding the repair and operation of a car. The figure, of course, is impressive. Thanks to everyone who fulfilled our request and gave himself the trouble to fill out not only the front side of the coupon. Although, given the circulation of the magazine, there are not so many who answered - only 14 percent of readers. Is it possible to draw far-reaching conclusions based on the opinion of so many people? Sociologists say: it is possible, and with very great accuracy.
But still, we will not pretend to a profound study, but simply share with you the information that the processing of the questionnaires gave. The information turned out to be very interesting.
Immediately on the main thing: the vast majority of readers repair cars exclusively with their own hands - 27053 people! And only 1281 owners fix the car at service stations. So, they read “At the wheel”, mainly people who are versed in technology, who love it. Or is it just that the level of service we have so far is forcing motorists to master the profession of mechanic, locksmith, electrician?
Perhaps, only in Moscow the ratio of “self-repairmen” and service station customers is slightly shifted in favor of the latter. Of the 2188 Muscovites who answered us, 1472 repair the car on their own.
By the way, Moscow is in first place in the number of completed questionnaires. The second occupies the Tyumen region (2088), the third, with a large lag, the Moscow and Sverdlovsk regions, then Bashkiria, Krasnodar and Krasnoyarsk Territories … So the “geography” of the facts we have received is the entire territory of Russia and even some states of the former Union: 84 regions !
Therefore, it was especially curious to find out what exactly the majority of motorists reading “Drive” prefer - imported or domestic products, which engine oil, batteries, tires …
Well, that Ufalyub oil is most popular in Bashkiria, it’s understandable: they produce it right here. But it turns out that “ufalyubs” live in more than one Ufa: 7034 motorists across the country choose this particular product. NORSI oil (4056 answers), which ranks second, is far behind the Bashkir. Shell turned out to be the third (3338). It is used by every sixth of the Muscovites, Petersburgers, Tyumen residents who filled out the questionnaire. But in Kaliningrad, every third (of those who answered) uses Shell oil. Among the most popular are Mobil oils (2355 profiles), Castrol (1280) and Texaco (853).
Our readers also have much more domestic batteries than imported ones: 66.3%! True, there are areas where foreign products are preferred to Russian: Kaliningrad region and Primorsky Krai - two extreme points of the country. Apparently, these regions are closer to foreign countries than to their native state, and therefore use overseas goods. And the cars in these border areas are now mostly foreign. So everything is explainable.
Tires on the cars of our respondents, as it turned out, are again mainly domestic. Even in Kaliningrad they are almost equally divided with imported ones. By the way, in the Primorsky Territory, foreign manufacturers coolly pressed our: 94 cars with Russian tires versus 174 with foreign ones. In the Khabarovsk Territory, this ratio is 125 to 165. Quite a lot of cars “shod” in imports go to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Karelia.
To assume that the overall picture is not much different from the one that the questionnaire drew for us is probably not a sin against the truth. Indeed, despite active advertising, people still choose a well-known and well-established product. So, as a rule, it’s domestic, since the import flow has only recently surged.
The main clue to the primacy of domestic products is, of course, prices. Alas, not everyone can afford, say, though excellent, but expensive imported tires. This determines the choice in favor of Russian goods.
And finally, one more line of the questionnaire - alarm. Why finally? Because the answers to this question were surprising. Firstly, it turned out that not so many people are protecting their car from attacks, as it might seem. Apparently, because the danger of theft is not the same in Moscow and in some off-road area: the infection of car thefts has spread, thank God, not yet throughout our vast country. Therefore, 23536 (!) Machines of our respondents have no protection. And secondly, it turned out that most of our readers ’alarm systems are home-made! There are 4300 of them. The most popular - “Alarm” - costs only 329 cars. Although, how appropriate is this "total" - another question. Indeed, if so many percent of the readers who answered the questionnaire have such a number of Alarm alarms, then all 410, 000 readers already have four thousand! Even at first glance, a small number of “Sikura” - 68 people who answered the questionnaire - in the circulation of our magazine grows to an impressive figure: almost a thousand … But, nevertheless, the fact remains: our reader does not he only knows how to repair his four-wheeled treasure, but also creates security systems for him. Jack of all trades!
It was nice to once again make sure that the reader of the magazine “Behind the Wheel” is so knowledgeable and skillful. We hope that with our new polls the number of motorists collaborating with the editors will increase. Then, having made a more complete picture of them, we will be able to continue to work in their interests.