Russia 2002: Lava Riva, Samara and 2110 on top, foreigners above 100.000 units

The Lada Riva remains the best-seller but drops 21%.

* See the Top 45 All-brands and Top 230 All-models by clicking on the title *

New light vehicle sales in Russia drop 2.5% year-on-year in 2002 to 1.136.379. Local carmakers resist very well this year given the influx of new imported brands on the market: down 4% to a still overwhelming 90.2% share. Foreigners gain 40% to 9.8% share vs. 6.8% a year ago, cracking the 100.000 annual unit-mark for the first time in history. Lada (-5%) continues to obliterate its home market at 65.5% share, followed like last year by GAZ (+6%), UAZ (-12%) and IZH (+1%). Daewoo (+14%) is back on track after a ghastly fall in 2001 to hold onto the title of best-selling imported brand in Russia, ahead of Skoda (+9%) while the next 12 best-selling marques (all imports) all post double-digit year-on-year gains! Renault (+50%), Mitsubishi (+36%), Toyota (+108%) and Nissan (+52%) complete the Top 10 while further down Jeep (+233%), Suzuki (+140%), Hyundai (+139%), Citroen (+126%), Lexus (+113%), Land Rover (+106%), Opel (+97%), Kia (+90%) and Subaru (+82%) stand out.

Over in the models ranking, the Top 4 is unchanged on last year, but the gaps between the best-sellers are reducing: the Lada Riva (-21%) freefalls to 20.7% share, the Lada Samara (+3%) remains at 17.5% and the Lada 2110 (+13%) improves to 16.5% while the GAZ Gazelle (+20%) is getting closer to the symbolic 10% share mark. The GAZ Volga 3110 (-8%) is back up one spot on 2001 despite a drop, overtaking the Lada Niva (-11%). The top of the Russian sales charts remains overwhelmingly Russian with no foreigner before the #14 spot held by the Daewoo Nexia (-28%) ahead of the Skoda Octavia (+2%), Renault Clio (+34%), Mitsubishi Carisma (+58%) and Daewoo Matiz (new). Notice also the Ford Focus up 51% to break into the Top 20.

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Full Year 2002 Top 45 All-brands and Top 230 All-models below.