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Volga Siber comes into view at Moscow Show - PHOTOSESSÄ°ON

Volga Siber comes into view at Moscow Show - <font color=red>PHOTOSESSÄ°ON</font>

29 August 2008 10:50 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Nijat Mustafayev â€“ APA-Economics. GAZ Group showed Volga Siber, a new Chrysler Sebring-based car model at Moscow Auto Show.
The Volga brand, made by Russiaâ€™s second-largest carmaker, GAZ Group, was once a status symbol for high-ranking Soviet officials and bureaucrats.
It had only one passenger car on display, the Volga Siber, which is built on the same platform as the Chrysler Sebring. Three Sibers stood alongside two black Volga mini-vans beneath a sign that ran "Made for Professionals."
Volga Siber is 70% assembled from foreign spare parts made by Magna, Bosch, TRW, Valeo, ZF, etc. GAZ Group accounts on further localization of production, providing the quality of Russian-made components improves.
The Siber has been under development for two years and is a modified version of the former US-built Chrysler Cirrus. That model was replaced by the Sebring/Cirrus sedan (US & Canada/Mexico) for North Americaâ€™s 2007 model year.
The then DaimlerChrysler shipped the production line to Russia, having sold it to GAZ in April 2006. Engines are provided by Chrysler LLC, these being sourced from Mexico. Earlier this year, GAZ stated that it eventually plans to build up to 65,000 units of what is now known to be the Volga Siber from 2010. The car itself debuted at the Moscow motor show in August 2007.
Returning to powertrains, to start with, only a manual transmission/2.0-litre version is available but automatics plus 2.4 litre cars will go on sale in late 2008. GAZ plans to build 20,000 units in 2008 and 40,000 in 2009. The plantâ€™s capacity is 100,000 units per annum.