The Soviet Union's car market was a mystery wrapped in an enigma. It was full of paradoxes, and even now it is difficult to solve its many puzzles. For example, how was it possible for Soviet people to buy 2 million locally produced cars every year, each costing as much as 70 months in average wages? On top of that, there were waiting lists, and it normally took three years from the time a person was listed before he could buy a car. This led to the now-inconceivable situation in which used cars, traded through the so-called commission stores, could be two or three times as expensive as new ones.

The Soviet Union did not import cars, except for the negligible number bought by high-ranking diplomats and other privileged individuals on trips abroad.

Today, cars are much more accessible and affordable. Just ask someone lucky (or unlucky) enough to own one. These are people whose pastime is griping about traffic jams that rob them of two hours a day, gasoline price hikes, bribe-hungry traffic cops, flat tires, costly repairs and so on. But the current car glut has little to do with domestic production, which, following a sharp decline in the wake of economic reform, is recovering slowly.

Alas, Russian-made cars have not improved, except perhaps in terms of updated design. Poor assembly still plagues the domestic auto 0industry. I recall a story written by an industry insider who had conducted an experiment. He bought 10 brand-new "desyatkas," the most popular VAZ model, from the company store in the city of Tolyatti, where the VAZ plant is located, and hired 10 people to drive the cars to Moscow, about 1,600 km away. The sad result: Only three cars finished the trip.

Secondhand foreign cars, whose prices start from $4,000, are popular among the Russian middle class (families with income of at least $200 per member per year – about 20 percent of the population). The less affluent must choose a domestic car. A used, working and moderately presentable Zhiguli, made by VAZ, can be had for as little as $500, but this wouldn't be a sensible purchase unless the would-be owner has some basic mechanical skills. New foreign cars have become a status symbol for New Russians, the very rich.