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Volga Display Of Prana: Russian Automaker GAZ Seeks Partners In India

Apparently this has been out there for a while, but before we discussed the news that Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod, manufacturers of the Volga line of hulking vehicular tragicomic props, was looking for partners on the Indian subcontinent, we needed to find press releases with the right sort of Moose-Und-Sqvirrel feel.

The actual hard news, of course, is that GAZ is most likely trying for a piece of the commercial vehicle market in auto-ascendant India, where Tata recently made headlines by unveiling the $2500 Nano and buying a couple venerable British marques off Ford. Unfortunately, it's unclear exactly which Indian firm would partner with Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod, as while their name may be fun to say, they'd be up against current native truckmaker Mahindra, among others. What we can tell you as an absolute press-release certainty, though, is that

"success of cars launched by all global players in India is driving force behind Russia to think over entering Indian auto market."

Or, as one GAZ senior official evidently said,

"As auto is one of the key areas of the India-Russia Forum on Trade and Investment we are looking at business partnership in future."

Industry implications aside, it's lots of fun to imagine Russian heavy vehicles operating in the nation with the world's largest population of stray cows. Probably even more fun than coming up with silly "In Soviet Russia..." jokes.

10:00 AM on Mon Apr 7 2008
By John Krewson
457 views
10 comments

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$Image of Dr.Danger\'s got it all$ Dr.Danger's got it all at 10:09 AM on 04/07/08
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Gaz?
Ash78 at 10:17 AM on 04/07/08
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Connectedness Index: 195
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Loved the headline.
Stoatmaster at 10:21 AM on 04/07/08
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Bambi's mother attacked by malignant boomerang; Thunderbirds to the rescue.
Novaload at 10:30 AM on 04/07/08
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@Stoatmaster: Thunderbirds are Go!!
danio3834 at 10:39 AM on 04/07/08
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(Deer) divided by (rA3)
boosted-lego-wagon at 10:39 AM on 04/07/08
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Bhangra BPUs for all!
OldeEnglishD at 10:55 AM on 04/07/08
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@danio3834: I got dibbs on the tenderloins when that deer gets divided!
DoggieDaddy at 11:22 AM on 04/07/08
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Suddenly it's 1949
PeteJayhawk at 11:58 AM on 04/07/08
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I love Krewson already. Let me count the ways:

1) "Volga Display of Prana"
2) "Volga line of hulking vehicular tragicomic props"
3) "Moose-Und-Sqvirrel"

I never knew just how much my Jalopnik needed an Onion infusion. Welcome, Nights & Weekends overlord.
ranwhenparked at 11:58 AM on 04/07/08
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I highly doubt GAZ will even attempt to interest Indians in their Volga passenger cars- India has already moved well on from the old Hindustan Contessa and Premier Padmini.

GAZ is first and foremost a truck and commercial vehicle manufacturer, and by all accounts, their Sobol, Gazelle, and Valdai van and truck ranges are pretty competitive for the price, however, the real jewel in the crown for foreign joint ventures comes with GAZ owning the British van maker LDV Group.

The LDV Maxus really is top of the line as far as commercial vans are concerned, and production is already scheduled to start at GAZ's own plant for the Russian market, and setting up in India might be the next logical step.