ST. PETERSBURG – DaimlerChrysler Automobiles Rus has opened a $3 million servicing/retailing center here while announcing that four more centers will be opened in Russia in 2000, with a total investment of $25 million in the country.

"The money will be used in the course of this year to extend our dealership network in Saratov, Sochi, Krasnodar and Volgograd as well as to expand operations at the Moscow headquarters," said Gerhard Hilgert, DaimlerChrysler Automobiles Rus general director, at an opening ceremony for the new St. Petersburg center.

He added that in 1999, the company's 25 Russian dealers sold 1,650 cars, bringing in some $70 million in revenues. Hilgert said that 900 cars have already been sold in Russia during the first half of this year.

Diter Aminov, regional director of the German-American company, said that the opening of the new center will have little impact on the company's pricing policy, as long as all automobile parts continue to be shipped "just as they used to be, from Moscow."

Meanwhile, the firm presented a new model – the Chrysler PT Cruiser – in Moscow late last month.

The family car, mass production of which began earlier this year, was presented simultaneously in Russia and Europe.

DaimlerChrysler expects to sell about 300 PT Cruisers in Russia this year, which would account for about 25 percent of the company's total sales in this country, Hilgert added. "The situation in the market is very positive at the moment," he said.

The price of the new car will be between $17,000 and $21,000, plus customs clearance.

(Vladimir Kozlov contributed to this report.)