Volga Cyber ​​1. OutSyber: what hopes were pinned on Volga Siber, and why it did not justify them

In 2000, the plant changed its owner: Oleg Deripaska's company acquired a controlling stake in GAZ OJSC. The new owner was not very happy with the current situation, so the enterprise underwent a large-scale restructuring, during which a number of projects and directions were curtailed. The main goal was to turn the unprofitable car factory into a profitable enterprise. As in the difficult nineties, GAZ was supposed to survive at the expense of commercial equipment, on which the main emphasis was placed.

Of course, the "Cars" division in the middle of the 2000s modernized the old Volga, but she could compete with foreign cars only in linear dimensions, completely losing to them in comfort, ergonomics, reliability and safety. It was obvious that a fundamentally new car was needed, which had nothing to do with the old platform.

Since GAZ already had experience in acquiring foreign companies to expand its model range (we are talking about the British firm LDV Group), without further ado, they decided to do the same with "cars".

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The owners of the Gorky Automobile Plant not only bought a license to produce a foreign car - in 2006, GAZ Group acquired the Sterling Heights Assembly, owned by Daimler Chrysler, for $ 150 million. It produced various models of Dodge, Chrysler and Plymouth, including the "twin brothers" Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Stratus.

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The idea was not bad: instead of the long-obsolete "Volzhanka" in Nizhny Novgorod, they were supposed to produce fairly modern mid-size cars, which, in terms of class and purpose, were analogous to the Volga. It is important that the American car, despite the front-wheel drive layout, was closer to the GAZ in general concept than the Asian and European counterparts. After all, the Russian car plant itself had overseas roots - its first products were Ford A and.

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The car with a length of over 4.8 meters was based on a Chrysler JR41 front-wheel drive platform. The car cannot be called old - Sebrings and Stratuses of this generation began to be produced in 2000, and the European version appeared a year later.

The external differences between Cyber ​​and its overseas counterparts were minimal - different bumpers, a different radiator grille and optics that met Russian standards. It is interesting that during the "Russification" the design of the American sedan was finalized by a third-party contractor - the British body shop Ultramotive.

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It is a pity that even before that, during the American restyling of 2003, the car lost an oval air intake, into which a "whale whisker" in the style of the very first Volga M-21 would fit perfectly. Instead, the Sebring received a trapezoidal grille reminiscent of the Audi front end.

Well, in the Russian version, Cyber ​​also lost the Chrysler "bird" on the grill, again evoking memories of the "twenty-first".

Technically, the Russian version, first called GAZ Siber, and then Volga Siber, practically did not differ from the "Americans", except that the 2.7-liter V6 engine was never installed on the Cybers in the Russian Federation, and a more modest two-liter version was put into production. in the end, too, did not go.

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Faced with reality, the plant decided that from the point of view of profitability, only two modifications would be sufficient, differing only in transmission - a four-speed "automatic" or a five-speed "mechanics", respectively. Cyber ​​relied on only one engine - a four-cylinder sixteen-valve with a working volume of 2.4 liters. It put out a pretty decent 143 hp. and 210 Nm of torque - comparable to the "four hundred and sixth" engine of the Volga and not God knows that by the standards of German "charged" sedans, but quite enough for a leisurely movement along the Russian "autobahns". By the way, for this purpose, the car's suspension was slightly modified, increasing the rigidity of the elastic elements, which had a positive effect on handling.

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Even in the basic configuration, the Comfort Volga Siber was equipped much better than the previous Volga: air conditioning, two airbags, ABS, traction control, electric adjustment of the driver's seat in 6 directions, an audio system, etc.

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In the "luxury" version (it was called Lux), a leather interior with wood trim was included in the package, and the driver's seat could be adjusted in as many as 10 directions.

It would seem a great option! A large, spacious and comfortable car is what the Russian consumer needs, for whom the Volga has been a symbol of prestige and belonging to the "powerful of this world" since Soviet times.

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It is not surprising that the owners of GAZ had big plans: already in the first year of production, they planned to produce 10,000 Cybers, in the next, 2009, they were going to make 45,000 cars, and in the future, the plant was supposed to produce about 65,000 cars of this model annually with the design plant capacity of 100,000 pcs. Dreams Dreams...

Alas, the car was destined to appear on the Russian market at a very unfortunate time - on the very eve of the financial crisis that broke out in the fall of 2008.

A pilot batch was released in March, serial production of Cybers started in July, the first deliveries to "corporate specialists" began at the end of August, and since October the car appeared on the free sale for everyone, of which there were very few by the end of 2008. Due to the fall in oil prices and the country's significant external debt, just in October 2008, a large-scale financial and economic crisis began in the Russian Federation. Banks suffered huge losses and sharply curtailed their lending programs, which immediately affected the ordinary consumer - the very one who was supposed to become Cyber's buyer.

The plans for the release of the new model were immediately revised: in 2008 they decided to release 3,000 copies, and in 2009 - only 10,000. Alas, with a price of over 500,000 rubles, Cyber ​​was not the most interesting offer on the suddenly collapsed market. Therefore, out of the 1,717 cars produced in 2008, only 428 Volga Siber found their buyers. In fact, it was a complete failure, and the production of new items had to be stopped already in March 2009 - by that time, less than 200 copies had been produced since the beginning of the year.

However, problems with the sale of products at the enterprise began in the fourth quarter of 2008, which is why the plant stopped several times its other conveyors, including those for the production of commercial equipment, due to which the enterprise existed.

It is not surprising that due to a sharp drop in sales of finished cars, the plant has a significant debt to suppliers and creditors - about 20 billion rubles. At that moment, the plant even decided to stop production of conventional Volgas with the possibility of restarting it if the situation improved, but this did not solve financial problems either. Therefore, the management of GAZ tried to get out of the crisis in other ways, cutting about 10,000 employees and moving to a shorter working week. In an effort to improve its own financial position, GAZ Group even quickly got rid of its British asset - the LDV Holdings plant, which produced Maxus commercial vehicles.

The state helped out: GAZ Group received an order for the supply of over 400 Cybers to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Emergencies of Russia, since the model was included in the list of domestic cars for centralized state purchases. Indeed, in February 2009, the Government of the Russian Federation made a decision to provide financial support to the GAZ Group.

True, all the same, the year for the new model turned out to be not very successful - less than three thousand Volga Siber were produced and sold. But Cyber ​​was lucky - as part of state support, he was also included in the list of cars that could be purchased under the state recycling program, which saved 50,000 rubles in this way.

In the next, 2010, the economic situation began to improve slightly, and the Russian car market began to rise a little from its knees. However, due to problems with the supply of components, production was again suspended, having released a total of about 5,000 Cybers in 2010.

Despite the increased ground clearance compared to the original, the sedan was not very adapted to Russian roads.

Its own car recycling program helped boost sales of the stillborn sedan to this level. As part of its action, the plant provided an additional discount of 70,000 rubles, which, together with the state recycling program, allowed the buyer to save up to 120,000 "wooden" ones. At the same time, neither the year of manufacture of the car, nor the period of ownership mattered, and both individuals and legal entities from any region of Russia could hand over the old car when buying Cyber. In a word, the plant went to great lengths to “cheer up” the sales of the new model.

It didn’t help: Volga Siber remained unprofitable car for the enterprise, the production of which was decided to stop in October 2010. Thus, the model lasted exactly two years on the assembly line, and did not survive the consequences of the crisis. In total, less than 9,000 cars were produced, and not all of them were sold. The cars that did not find their owners worked as a taxi "Kuban-Express" at the airports of the Krasnodar Territory. The Basel company that launched this project, as you might guess, belongs to the same Oleg Deripaska.

Practical operation of Cyber ​​revealed a lack of ground clearance and poor geometric cross-country ability. But this is not what ruined the American-Russian car - Cyber ​​simply fell victim to the crisis, becoming one of the largest epic failures of the Russian car industry. An interesting fact: a decade earlier, at an equally unfortunate time for itself, another Russian car plant, Doninvest, was opened. Its launch immediately after the default in 1998 can be safely called a false start. Alas, Cyber ​​turned out to be the same loser, becoming the last passenger car of the Gorky Automobile Plant.

Interestingly, in the pre-crisis times, the American car “shared” its “heart” with the true Volga: since the summer of 2006, the same 2.4-liter Chrysler engine made in Mexico was installed on the GAZ-31105.

This required the introduction of certain layout changes in the design of the car, and the transmission was also modified. In 2007, “golden” for the Russian automotive market, more than half of the classic Volgas were equipped with a Mexican engine, not least because GAZ and ZMZ could not always find a common language regarding the cost of Russian engines.

However, the crisis not only hit hard on the “newcomer-foreigner” Cyber, but also sent to rest ordinary “barges”, which by the end of the 2000s had ceased to be in demand even among Russian motorists loyal to this model and brand. And the owners of the enterprise, it seems, at that moment got tired of suffering losses from the production of cars, as a result of which it was discontinued. Since then, GAZ Group has completely concentrated on the production of commercial vehicles and trucks - as the experience of two decades of free floating in the market economy after the collapse of the USSR showed, from the point of view of business, they turned out to be much more successful and profitable. We can only guess how unprofitable the Russian-American sedan turned out to be, if its production was abandoned in a relatively prosperous 2010.

However, at the end of 2012, the Gorky Automobile Plant continued to produce cars! True, this has nothing to do with the Volga: at the order of Volkswagen Group Rus, a small-knot method has launched the production of Skoda and Volkswagen cars, as well as sedans and Chevrolet Aveo hatchbacks.

Do you regret that Siber appeared at such an inopportune moment?

The premiere of the Volga Siber sedan took place at the Interauto show in Moscow in 2007. The car was presented under the name GAZ Siber. The car was developed on the front-wheel drive Chrysler JR41 base, which was used in the Dodge Stratus and Chrysler Sebring. The design of the car was developed by the British studio UltraMotive. The designers were given the task of using American developments to create a car with the classic features of Russian cars. The GAZ Volga Siber differs from American models on the same platform with a radiator grille, bumpers and headlights. To adapt to Russian roads, the ground clearance and suspension stiffness were increased. Serial production of the model began in the summer of 2008. At the same time, supplies of GAZ Volga Siber to large corporate customers began. The car appeared on the free sale only in the fall. Initially, it was planned to equip the car with engines of 2 and 2.4 liters. But only cars with 2.4-liter engines were launched into mass production. The first cars were equipped with a four-speed automatic transmission. In April 2010, Volga Siber received a five-speed manual transmission.

Specifications GAZ Volga Siber

sedan

Medium car

• width 1 792mm
• length 4 858mm
• height 1 409mm
• ground clearance 140mm
• seats 5

At the Interauto automobile exhibition, held in Moscow in summer 2007, GAZ Group presented to the public a new front-wheel drive sedan GAZ Siber - a “licensed copy” of the Chrysler Sebring, which inherited both the technical component and design elements from the American “source”. Exactly one year after the debut - the car entered mass production, moreover, under the trade name Volga Siber, but it only reached individuals in October 2008.

The three-volume vehicle did not last long on the conveyor - in the fall of 2010 it completed its "career" due to too low demand and unprofitableness of the project for the "Gorky Automobile Plant".

Outside, Volga Siber has a look, albeit not the most charming, but it looks pretty pretty, although from some angles it is not quite proportional. At the front, the car flaunts cunningly squinted headlights and a trapezoidal "shield" of the radiator grille, "watered" with chrome, and at the rear - distinctive lights and a relief folded bumper.

In profile, the sedan evokes some associations with "four-door coupes" thanks to the squat bonnet and sloping roof, but the upturned stern with a long trunk "tail" adds weight to it.

Cyber ​​is a representative of the “mid-size class” (aka the “D” segment): it is 4858 mm long, 1792 mm wide, and 1409 mm high. A wheelbase with a length of 2743 mm fits between the axles of the car, and under its "belly" one can see a clearance of 140 mm. When equipped, the four-door weighs from 1525 to 1555 kg, depending on the configuration and the type of gearbox.

Inside, the Volga Siber looks old-fashioned, but does not cause rejection: the sedan has a rather nice interior with a four-spoke "steering wheel", sporty whitish dials of the instrument cluster and a laconic front panel with a modest air conditioning unit and a radio tape recorder with a small matrix display on the center console.

The build quality and materials are average: hard plastics are used in the car interior, diluted with wood and aluminum look inserts, and the seats (depending on the version) are dressed in dark fabric or leather.

The decoration of the four-door meets the driver and front passenger with massive seats with a wide back, a long cushion and a large set of electric adjustments. On the second row of seats there is a three-seater sofa with a hospitable profile and a large supply of legroom (but the sloping roof will clearly cause discomfort to tall passengers).

Cyber ​​is well suited for cargo transportation - its trunk is designed to carry 453 liters of luggage. The useful volume can be easily increased by folding the back of the "gallery" in two sections and thus obtaining a solid rectangular opening between the saloon and the "hold". In a niche under the raised floor there is a full-size spare wheel and a set of tools.

Specifications. For Volga Siber, only one gasoline unit is provided - the engine compartment is filled with an atmospheric "four" with a volume of 2.4 liters (2429 cubic centimeters) with an aluminum cylinder block, a 16-valve DOHC mechanism and a distributed "power supply" system. It develops 143 horsepower at 5200 rpm and 210 Nm of torque at 4200 rpm, and directs the entire power reserve to the front wheels through a 5-speed "mechanics" or 4-speed "automatic".

The three-volume vehicle accelerates from zero to the first "hundred" in 11.4-13.4 seconds, and reaches its maximum speed of 185-190 km / h. In the combined cycle of movement, he "drinks" from 9.1 to 10 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers, depending on the type of gearbox.

Cyber ​​stretches on the Chrysler JR41 front-wheel drive platform, which is borrowed from the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Stratus models. The car has a steel body of a load-bearing configuration, and its power plant is located transversely in the front part.
Both front and rear the sedan has independent suspensions: in the first case, these are the classic MacPherson struts, and in the second - multi-link architecture ("in a circle" - with transverse stabilizers and coil springs). The four-door "sports" rack and pinion steering with hydraulic booster and disc brakes on all wheels (ventilated on the front axle) with ABS.

Prices and equipment. You can buy Volga Siber on the secondary market of Russia in the spring of 2017 at a price of 180-190 thousand rubles.
Even the simplest equipment of a car is: two airbags, ABS, power steering, electric front seats, an audio system with six columns, power windows for all doors, air conditioning, and heated and electrically adjustable exterior mirrors. The most "sophisticated" options can additionally boast: leather interior trim, heated front seats, fog lights, illumination of the rear passengers' cup holders, light-alloy "rollers" and headlight washers.

Volga Siber is a car that was produced from 2008 to 2010 at the Gorky Automobile Plant in the Russian Federation. An interesting fact is that it was created on the basis of American classic cars of the Dodge and Chrysler brands, and the design was developed by the employees of the world-famous British company "UltraMotive".

Initially, this sedan was called GAZ Siber, but after a while it became known as the Volga Cyber. Many foreign owners mistakenly translate the name of the model as cyberspace, but in fact this word means the region of the Russian Federation - Siberia.

As much as we want it, but Volga Cyber ​​at the price of 2015 is almost impossible to buy a new one. However, not so long ago, a rumor appeared on the Internet, they say, in 2017, the production of this car will resume again. How true this is, time will tell. Taking into account its previous cost, we can easily say that it will be 200 thousand more than in 2010. Then the price for it started from 500 thousand rubles, depending on the configuration.

Volga Cyber ​​specifications

Initially, the developers planned to release many different trim levels of the new Volga, but in the end they limited themselves to only the difference in the gearbox. The base model came out with a 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine and an automatic transmission. The power unit produced 143 hp and accelerated to 100 km / h in just 11.4 seconds.

To the surprise of most buyers, this car could reach its maximum speed of up to 190 km / h. That is much more than all of its predecessors. The car has a galvanized body, front airbags, ABS and an air conditioner so necessary for all domestic cars.

Volga Cyber ​​owner reviews

In comparison with its brethren, this Volga has received many positive responses to its address. However, the disadvantages of this car were also noted. For example, its 140mm ground clearance was a bit of a challenge when driving on dirt and bumpy roads.

Also, Volga Siber was initially on sale only with automatic transmission, which greatly upset the drivers accustomed to mechanics. But thanks to such reviews, the Volga was soon released with a five-speed manual transmission. Regarding the new car, unfortunately, there is no data yet. It remains only to wait for official statements from the GAZ Group.

The mid-size sedan Volga Siber is based on the licensed front-wheel drive platform Chrysler JR41, Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Stratus of the second generation. The design was developed by the British studio UltraMotive, while the goal was to make the most of the existing American developments and give the Russian version the features of classic GAZ cars. Externally, Volga Siber differs from American donor cars in bumpers, radiator grille design and lighting technology.

Adaptation to Russian conditions was carried out. The first prototypes were assembled in 2007, a test batch was released in March 2008, and the official launch of the conveyor took place in July 2008. The model was planned to be produced with engines of 2.0 and 2.4 liters. There were plans to install a 2.7-liter V6. However, only 2.4-liter modifications with a four-speed automatic transmission went into mass production.

The buyers of the Volga Cyber ​​sedan were offered the Comfort and Lux ​​configurations. The first includes 15-inch steel rims with hubcaps, power steering and an adjustable steering column, heated electric mirrors, factory-tinted glass, fabric seat upholstery. There are illuminated cosmetic mirrors, power driver's seat adjustment, mechanical lumbar support for the driver's seat, power windows, central locking with remote control, air conditioning. The rear seat of the car is folding (60/40). The stock audio system includes an AM / FM radio, an electric antenna, a CD player, an amplifier and six speakers. More expensive equipment offered fog lights, 16-inch alloy wheels (including spare wheel), headlights with washer, leather-trimmed steering wheel and gear knob, leather seats and steering wheel buttons for audio control.

The basic modification of the Volga Siber was the performance in the Comfort configuration with a 2.4-liter (2429 cc) four-cylinder engine with a DOHC valve mechanism (143 hp, 210 Nm) and a 4-band automatic transmission. The sedan accelerated to a top speed of 185 km / h, and it took 13.4 seconds to accelerate from standstill to 100 km / h. Since the beginning of April 2010, a version of the Volga Siber has appeared with a 2.4-liter engine and a five-speed manual gearbox NV-T350 manufactured by New Venture Gear. According to the manufacturer, such a modification was created taking into account the wishes of potential buyers. To work with the manual transmission, the sedan engine was modified - in particular, the torque at low revs was increased. Despite the fact that the main engine was a 2.4-liter "four", sometimes you can find on sale a variant of the Volga Cyber ​​with a 2.0-liter unit of 141 hp, these cars were equipped with a manual transmission.

The Volga Cyber ​​sedan is distinguished by fully independent wheel suspensions: MacPherson strut front and multi-link rear. The car is adapted for operation in Russian conditions: the suspension stiffness and ground clearance are increased, handling is improved, fasteners are used only with metric, not inch, threads. When adapting the suspension, the diameter of the spring bar had to be slightly increased - it became 1.5 mm thicker, while the ground clearance increased by 20 mm and reached 155 mm. Among other things, the front stabilizer has an increased cross-section, reinforced ball joints are installed in the levers. The lower edge of the bumper has been raised. Body dimensions: length 4858 mm, width 1792 mm, height 1409 mm. The wheelbase is 2743 mm. This front-wheel drive vehicle has a turning radius of 5.6 meters. The luggage compartment is 453 liters.

The following safety equipment is included in the standard equipment of the Volga Siber sedan. These are anti-lock braking system, traction control system, driver and front passenger airbags, child seat mountings. The car also has a rear-view mirror with auto-dimming, headlight range control. The car showed a satisfactory result in the Autoreview frontal crash test carried out in 2008 according to the EuroNCAP method.

The main advantages of the Volga Cyber ​​sedan were good driving characteristics, interesting appearance and higher reliability compared to previous models of the car plant. However, many potential buyers were frightened off by the price and the fact that not the most famous model was chosen as a donor for the new Volzhanka. While the much more popular Mazda 6, Ford Mondeo, Hyundai Sonata, Nissan Primera, etc. have been introduced to the market. As a result, the demand for the car turned out to be low and the manufacturer even had to suspend the conveyor. Today, pre-owned Volga Sibers look quite interesting considering the ratio between price and equipment. Consumables and the most demanded parts are relatively affordable, which cannot be said about more specific OE parts and expensive body hardware.