At the end of the USSR, the cost of a used Japanese foreign car in good condition was approximately equal to the cost of a two-room apartment in any district of Vladivostok. Vasily Avchenko, a journalist and author of the book Right Rudder, told about this within the framework of the special project “Russian Fast and Furious”.
He made such conclusions on the basis of newspaper ads in 1990. In addition to exchanging for a two-room apartment in Vladivostok, three-room apartments were also offered, but further away. “A three-room apartment in the village of Tiksi, YaASSR (benefits of the Far North, improved planning, in the center) for a comfortable apartment in Vladivostok, a suburb or a foreign country. a car of the “Volga” type, a telephone … “- said in one of these announcements.
According to Avchenko, Primorye residents did not experience any difficulties when switching from left to right steering wheel, since they considered it an insignificant price to pay for the comfort and reliability of Japanese cars. In addition, he assured that this transition was and remains absolutely safe. “The Far Easterner, who first drove on the left wheel, and then switched to the right one, of course, will say that there is nothing dangerous in the right-hand drive car, which (…) is confirmed by the accident rate statistics of the Far East and Primorye,” Avchenko concluded.
The special project “Russian Fast and Furious” is dedicated to the life of motorists in the Far East and the unusual automotive culture that began to form in the region back in Soviet times. Already in the 1980s, the first Japanese cars began to be delivered to Primorye. Over time, a huge car market emerged in Vladivostok, which flourished in the 1990s. The active development of the automotive culture influenced the formation of the interests of young Russians and contributed to the appearance of the first Russian drifters in the region.
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