The introduction of new tariffs on right hand drive cars has already sharply reduced their import into Russia. The flow of used Japanese cars has almost dried up, and in January imports fell 91.4 percent from last year. Imports of new Japanese cars also fell nearly fourfold. It seems the situation will not change soon, and used Japanese cars may become rare here.
The introduction of new duties on right-hand-drive cars imported into Russia is bearing fruit. It is likely that in the near future used Japanese cars will become something of a rarity here. Even now, their flow into our country is rapidly drying up.The statistics comparing the number of used Japanese cars imported in January 2008 and January 2009 speak for themselves: the decline amounted to 91.4%. In January, just over 2,400 Japanese cars were imported into Russia, whereas a year earlier the figure was 28,300. In other words, imports fell by almost 12 times.
The crisis, though to a lesser extent, also affected new Japanese cars. Here, the decline was fourfold. In the first month of the year, 8,877 new Japanese cars were imported into Russia, compared with 36,349 a year earlier.
Apparently, no drastic change in the situation is likely in the near future.