Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: Trans-Siberian Series Part 2: Moscow, Russia

Matt Gasnier
by Matt Gasnier

Over the next few weeks I will be taking you on a trip through Trans-Siberian railway, stopping along the way in various Russia, Mongolian and Chinese cities to observe the vastly different car landscapes each time. The first stop was St Petersburg in Russia, we are now off to Moscow!

Russia, Mongolia and China not your thing? That’s fine, you can check out 174 other car markets on my blog.

Back to the Trans-Siberian and Moscow. Jump in!

If you can’t wait for the next report, you can follow my trip in real time here.

The Moscow police are big fans of the Renault Logan.

After St Petersburg we are now travelling 700 km South-East to Moscow, the capital of Russia and home to 11.5 million inhabitants. The first observation when arriving in Moscow is the age of the car park: much older than in St Petersburg at 7-8 years old on average. So whereas the St Petersburg car landscape was like removing all Ladas from the 2013 sales charts, for Moscow think of the most popular foreign models in the country in 2005-2006 (Ford Focus, Chevrolet Optra, Mitsubishi Lancer) and you won’t be far from the mark.

Chevrolet Niva

There are more Ladas than in St Petersburg with the Samara, Priora and 110 most frequent, but still way below the national sales levels. I saw my first Lada 4×4 pick-up here though! In Moscow I had the privilege to meet with Vladimir Soloviev from the #1 car magazine in Russia, Za Rulem. Vladimir told me that half the cars sold in the entire country are sold in Moscow, which is a huge percentage and means the rest of Russia is filled with Ladas!

Lada Classic

Another way to describe the Moscow car landscape is extreme: more luxury cars and more bruised and battered cars but not much in between. Loud is also a good word: like in St Petersburg, there doesn’t seem to be any speed limits in town, and drivers gauge each other by the sound their engine does, sometimes unwittingly: I saw a 1992 VW Golf fly past at a speed I had not thought it capable, making an excruciating sound.

Hyundai Solaris

Last time I published an article about Moscow car sales in November 2011 the Ford Focus and Renault Logan were very strong. This is pretty much still valid, with the addition of the Hyundai Solaris and Kia Rio which have now clearly made their mark on Moscow traffic. I will venture an estimate on the Moscow sales charts and say the Hyundai Solaris should lead the pack followed by the Ford Focus, Kia Rio and Renault Logan, very successful with the local police, with the Kia Cee’d, Chevrolet Cruze, Kia Sportage and new generation Toyota RAV4 also very popular.

Toyota Highlander

Moscovites push the SUV trend we saw in St Petersburg even further which I didn’t think was possible… Volvo does particularly well in this segment, with two XC60 sitting next to each other at a traffic light a rather common sight. Lots of SsangYong Kyron as well, which is a refreshing if not entertaining trend, and lots and lots of new generation Range Rover. Like in St Petersburg, it looks like more Moscovites have bought one in the last 3 months the model has been on sale than they have Lada Grantas which is supposed to lead the Russian national sales charts! That couldn’t be further from the truth in Moscow…

Kia Forte

Other models I was surprised to see often here are the new generation Kia Forte, Ford Mondeo, Chevrolet Spark and Honda Pilot, but the reward for the most over-represented model in Moscow, after the Nissan Juke in St Petersburg, goes to the Nissan Murano. Granted, it’s not a flood of them, but the current generation of the model appeared regularly enough in the time I was in Russia’s capital to grab my attention.

The new generation Range Rover is already everywhere in Moscow!

Estimated Top 10 best-selling models in September 2013 – Moscow:

PosModel1Hyundai Solaris2Ford Focus3Kia Rio4Renault Logan5Kia Cee’d6Chevrolet Cruze7Kia Sportage8Toyota RAV49Kia Forte10Nissan Murano
Lada Oka
Ford Mondeo, Chevrolet Spark and Renault Logan
Honda Pilot
Kia Rio
JAC Rein
Toyota RAV4 (and Mercedes G Class, also popular in Moscow)
Toyota Camry and GAZ Volga
Lada Samara
Toyota Prado
Lada Priora

Hordes of Skoda Superb are constantly parked across the road from the Kremlin…

Chevrolet Orlando
Kia Rio

That was Moscow! I hope it was entertaining enough. Next stop: Kazan in Tatarstan (that’s still in Russia though!)…

Matt Gasnier, based in Sydney, Australia, runs a blog named Best Selling Cars Blog, dedicated to counting cars all over the world.

Matt Gasnier
Matt Gasnier

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  • Sjalabais Sjalabais on Oct 11, 2013

    Now...why are half of all cars in Russia sold in Moscow? Lack of dealerships elsewhere? Do people physically come to Moscow to take delivery, or are cars shipped from Moscow?

  • Stanczyk Stanczyk on Jan 08, 2014

    .. wild capitalismus society ! .. there’s a lot of crappy cars and a lot of luxury, nouveau-riche stuff .. you can look at this place as a guest-tourist , but to live in that jungle-mess would be impossible .. let’s make a contest: which one is worst: chinesse , arab or russian .. nouveau-riche .. ?!? .. (..ohhh I’m sorry: now you should call them suckcesssfull busssinesssman :)

  • Joe This is called a man in the middle attack and has been around for years. You can fall for this in a Starbucks as easily as when you’re charging your car. Nothing new here…
  • AZFelix Hilux technical, preferably with a swivel mount.
  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
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