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Open Letter to the ADR company and the Nissan Motor RUS company. |
From: Moskvitch car owners and the entire automobile community of the RuNet.
Dear Sirs,
This is to refer to the article published on the Internet site of the ADR company, a Nissan car dealer (http://www.adr.ru/), on September 22, 2007.
" For all those fond of cross-country driving an amazing day out was organized by ADR, a Nissan official dealer, last Saturday, September 15 – the first 4x4 extreme test drive. “Welcome to the first ever NATURAL SELECTION 4x4 test drive”, that was the note to be seen at the entrance of the event.
The entire 4x4 Nissan range, which is rightly considered to be one of the best in its market segment, was represented at the test drive: Patrol, Pathfinder, Murano, X-Trail, Navara and Qashqai. Nissan X-TRAIL, that has only just entered the Russian market, became the bestseller and the most in-demand car of the test drive.
Anyone could pick a car to his own taste and try it in action – drive it along spiral highways. If you needed help with overcoming an obstacle, there always were experienced coaches to help, rally team professional racers. At the end of the day they showed they indeed were driving virtuosos – in no time their sport Patrols covered a difficult off-road route.
At the entrance each guest received a bandanna with Nissan and ADR logos on it – a pass to a club of those who appreciate outdoor activities and SUVs.
Fairy tale characters, such as space monsters, genuine Japanese samurai and the hilarious Ice Age squirrel, made sure the guests were in high spirits. There was even more to see, for example, the rally team show and ride of motor-show stuntmen.
The ADR company had prepared a very special surprise for all the attendees – prize drawing. The prizes were genuine Nissan souvenirs, the host of the show was Dan Shouvalov, a well-know showman in St-Petersburg. The guests were very excited about the Nissan poem contest. Everyone was pleased with the Retro disco and outdoor lunch
The highlight of the show was a crash of a Russian car industry “representative”, which is already traditional of the ADR company. While chanting “Let’s smash the Russian automobile industry” the participants mercilessly crashed an ordinary Moskvitch. It serves the car right! Get of the off-road route! For only the fittest can survive there, only the one whom the natural selection favours!! i.e. Nissan…
It is widely known that as a car manufacturer Nissan has seen better days. The markets of the Russian Federation and former Soviet states are becoming top priority markets for the company. Being on the brink of bankruptcy Nissan merged with Renault SA, the Renault/Nissan alliance was therefore made up. Taking into account that one of the most numerous as well as one of the most “Russian” car models of the alliance is manufactured at the Moskitch plant in Moscow, it becomes clear that such contempt and lack of foresight (considering today’s freedom of speech) expose to significant risks both the prestige of Nissan, as part of the alliance, and business qualities of its partners at the given markets. Let us not forget that many of the premium segment car consumers (the alliance promotes such cars in Russia as well) still cherish warm memories of Moskvitch being a family car, to buy which they had to queue for a while and sometimes even spent nights by the fire.
It is instructive to recall that ALL the Mosktitch-412 cars taking part in the London-Sydney (16,000 km) and London-Mexico (26,000 km) marathon rallies made it to the finish. While Nissan has nothing at all to boast of as to the Dakar rally, the genuine “natural selection”.
The PR department was indeed short of money to afford a Gelendewagen (the model is just 22 year old – too young to be a competitor, and it lacks charisma badly, doesn’t it?) and short of imagination as well. Consequently, the best match was found – a forty year old economy sedan – the best SUV specimen… No comments here. Let us remark, that the Renault/Nissan alliance should be more careful in picking its dealers as well as in conducting promotion actions.
The undersigned Moskvitch car owners find the given article insulting. It provoked a storm of indignation, resentment and objections. Judging by the article published on the site and other relevant information that appeared in the media, at the “Natural Selection” event, that was conducted by the ADR company on September 15, 2007, an “ordinary” M-412 Moskvitch was crashed as part of the show. Here we quote the author of the article and the site administrator “Mr. Edit”
The following points are totally unclear to us:
1. The name of the event was “natural selection”, why was the Moskvitch crashed then, but not a single Nissan car?
2. Why a 1967 car (as a “representative” of the Russian car industry) was chosen to be compared to the high tech and state of the art Nissan cars? The Moskvitch was forty years old, it (and more than five million its siblings) was manufactured at the plant that no longer exists. But the number of the cars produced could make any car manufacturer in the world jealous.
3. What does Moskvitch have to do with Volkswagen Touareg? Why wasn’t a single car of the German manufacturer crashed then?
4. We consider it to be against any moral absolutes that children and teenagers were involved into the act of vandalism against the car. For it is them who will grow up to be hooligans deforming cars in our yards without making any difference between a Moskvitch and a Nissan. The fact that children took part in destroying the car contradicts all the notions of patriotic education as well as education in general
The number of Moskvitch clubs in Russia amounts to several dozens. The love and devotion of Moskvitch car owners to their cars probably equals that of Nissan owners to their brand new automobiles.
We request that:
1.The head of the ADR company should make an official public apology to Moskvitch car owners, collectors of the cars, restorers and all those using the car in their everyday life
2.Such so called promotion actions should be prohibited in the future.
3.We should be informed about all the measures taken regarding the above mentioned issues
We consider it appropriate to raise a question of professional competence of the PR-managers organizing the event and making up news story to cover it. The alliance management will undoubtedly be informed about the act of vandalism and the promotion action details promptly.
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