All, who ever drove the world-renowned BMW car, would acknowledge this slogan. Those, who came to expo-block 7 of the Motor Show, also got a confirmation of this slogan at the presentation held by BMW.

This year was very successful for one of the global automotive market leaders. According to chief of AWT Bavaria O. Timofeyev, a BMW authorized dealer in Ukraine, the sales of BMW cars in Ukraine exceeded the figures of its traditional competitor Mercedes.

This year, BMW presented all brand news. It is, first of all, the 6 series car, having only 30 owners in Ukraine. The visitors also have a chance to appraise X5 and X3, which are very popular worldwide. For the first time, the Ukrainian public could see with own eyes the 7 series armoured car.

By the way, the BMW executives have stated a growing service level in the automotive sector. Having visited the BMW motor showrooms in Kyiv, they came to conclusion that the showrooms meet all strict European standards.

Therefore, the BMW executives have issued the main challenge to increase the sales of average cars.

Yesterday, there was a Day of Boghdan Industrial & Investment Concern at the 12th International SIA'2004 Motor Show.

The first bus of the same name came down from the conveyor of the Cherkassy Bus Works five years ago. Since then, the Holding took a stride towards development. Now, it is hard to believe that the production of small-class buses started practically from zero. Later on, the carriers realized the profitability of Boghdan vehicles.

By the way, the first models of Boghdan buses have already run about a million kilometers without serious problems, giving due to high quality of Japanese completing parts.

In addition to application of advanced manufacturing methods, there is another advantage concerning a wide model line that enables the carriers to line up a suitable bus. Thus, besides regular small buses, the company presented an extra big city bus A-231 capable to accommodate 164 passengers. However, there is no use yet to talk about their batch production. The client has not got ripe yet. In addition, the present oil crisis does not generate optimism of prospective buyers. Nevertheless, the Works plans to build 5 long-length buses this year.

Boghdan is also engaged in the production of VAZ, UAZ and LuAZ cars as well as trucks under Phoenix trademark.

As early as the last year, since the Soviet times renowned automaker was suffering from loosing former positions, downswing and decay. Today, however, the legendary giant wins back the lost positions and emerges with confidence in the world market. At the press conference, Head of AIS's Managing Board V. Polyakov; ZIL's Director I. Gorshkova; ZIL's Deputy Director for Marketing and Publicity V. Novochenko; ZIL's Spare Parts Sales Department Chief D. Balyshev told about the way the company managed to succeed.

After a long downswing, the production of cars increased by 10.8% in one year alone. During 2003, the company produced 13,274 automobiles, the 13,134 of which have been sold. Almost 7.5% of their realization was exported to Ukraine.

In spite of the fact that ZIL has managed to win back the markets of Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Egypt and South America, the company executives consider the cooperation with Ukraine as a priority trend. Such close contacts between Ukrainian and Russian automotive markets were also a reason making the executives of the company rely upon their participation in SIA'2004.

The executives of KamAZ, Inc. shared their plans and prospects of business development in Ukraine with journalists.

According to KamAZ Export Director Eugene Pronin, the company now belongs to the world ten leaders in truck production and ranks the 8th place in the production of diesel engines. Today, the number of automobiles produced by the company has amounted to 30 models and almost 300 modifications. Production capacity of the company is big enough to produce up to 75 thousand trucks, 3 thousand buses, and over 40 thousand light vehicles.

Since last two years, the Russians have invested about $ 180 mln. to upgrade the production. Thanks to up-to-date equipment and advanced technologies, they hope to get established in both the domestic and the world markets.

As Eugene Pronin stated, they do anything possible to make quality and price correlate. For this purpose, they do not compromise between "good vehicle" and "low price". Now, the KamAZ price is 30-35% less than the value of their imported analogues, but the KamAZ performance does not yield.

At SIA'2004, the Russians presented KamAZ-5480 prime mover, KamAZ-6520 dumper, truck mixer, and KamAZ-4308 delivery van.

The Izhevsk Automobile Works is another enterprise represented by AutoInvestStroy. Yesterday, the executives of the Works held a press conference chaired by company chief V. Andrianov. Suffice it to say that the majority of those, who sit beside him in presidium, were executives of the prominent Ukrainian companies, in particular, of UkrPromInvest. Thereby, the organizers of the company gave to understand that the future of any company depends on close contacts with partners. Ukraine is the company's strategic partner because our country imports the biggest part of IZH cars and commercial vehicles.

The vehicles presented at SIA'2004 have not been launched to lot production yet. However, there is no reason to be worried about their future because all 4 new models will find their admirers all over the CIS expansion and, probably, farther on.

Fabula, for example, is typical station wagon designed for our roads and pockets. The same can be said about Hunter, which apparently would be beyond comparison for a long time. Designers of the 5-door IZH Ode are inclined to consider this vehicle "a new folks wagon". The whole model line has excellent exterior design, good performance, and minimum claims. What else does a man need?

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