Did you know seat belts first appeared on our cars in 1969? Since 1970, they began to en masse on Soviet-made passenger cars to make places for fastening front belts – with plugs. In 1973, the Council of Ministers issued a decree establishing the production of seat belts in the USSR. And in the same 1973 they began to be produced – after crash tests at the Dmitrovsky car test site and approval by relevant departments, including the Ministry of Automotive Industry and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Belts were made at the Estonian company Norma, which every motorist has heard of. Because car factories hacked and threw a pack of belts in the trunk. Motorists had to fasten the seat belts themselves – according to the attached instructions. Fortunately, the straps were simple, not slow. And only in 1979 in the USSR the mandatory use of seat belts on the front seats of cars was introduced.
Do you understand? First they established a mass import-independent production of belts and only then introduced a mandatory requirement for their use.
Where’s the button?
With ERA-GLONASS, it turned out to be just the opposite. One way or another we will do it – the main thing is to enter a binding order! “Somehow” it turned out that we cannot produce a simple, in general, block in the required quantities. The end cannot be found. Manufacturers say there are buttons, installers say there are no buttons.
First, car factories begged: there is no button and there is no place to take it. Therefore, until August 1, it is allowed to produce buttonless cars – that’s how Grant and the three-door Niva are doing it now. After August 1, there must either be a working button, or the factory must install it later, through its dealers – personally inviting buyers.
And now the problem has overwhelmed motorists who brought used cars from abroad. In terms of the presence and installation of buds – a complete mess, and the degree of this mess depends on the region. Somewhere there are no buds at all, somewhere their prices have increased from 20 to 80 thousand rubles – this is for a small box – not weak, right? Somewhere installers impose additional services: we simply don’t sell a button, only with the registration of an SBCTS and an electronic TCP. And so on.
Will the temporary shutdown of ERA-GLONASS make life easier for motorists? Doubtless. Now it has come to the point that for some buyers who have brought used cars from abroad, the cars are simply put down – because without documents for a button it is impossible to get an electronic title and register a vehicle.
What about taxes?
The temporary arrangement will be introduced until February 1, 2023. What happens after this date? And it’s not clear. Emergency call system manufacturers are believed to be able to reconfigure supply chains until February 1 — and next year there will be plenty of fateful buttons. But this is just a guess. As necessary as it was to move the “X Hour” to a later time.
The national decree facilitates the registration of imported cars. It won’t affect prices much. If VAT on cars were scrapped… But such concessions can only affect essential goods – bread, sugar, salt, cereals and the list goes on. Cars are clearly in flight.
What must we do?
It would be nice to do away with customs duties on imported used cars, which I suggested in March when it became clear that everything was going to be bad with cars. Saving half a million or more is every buyer’s dream. You can even introduce restrictions: for example, there are benefits for cars not older than 5 years, environmental class not lower than fifth, with a cylinder capacity of maximum 2 liters, and so on.
This would fundamentally change the state of affairs – and the stream of relatively fresh foreign cars would pour into Russia from all sides. But the state does not need such a power. This is transferring money abroad. And encouraging local, non-Russian car manufacturers.
So take advantage of the moment and import cars. It is still possible.
- Meanwhile, cars in the nearest neighboring countries are cheaper than in our country. But not all and not always.
- “Behind the wheel” can also be read in Telegram.