Dealers of the Chinese brand Geely in Belarus refused to sell their cars to Russians. An Autonews.ru correspondent encountered such a problem when trying to purchase a Geely car in Minsk.
Crossovers Coolray or Atlas Pro were considered as a purchase. However, the manager of one of the major dealerships refused to draw up a purchase and sale agreement for a Russian passport. The manager offered the only, in his words, way out: to find a person with a Belarusian document and, for a start, register a car for him.
The seller might not explain the reasons for such restrictions. In another Geely dealership, where the correspondent contacted by phone, they said that the car would be sold to the Russian, but for this you need to come in person in order to “resolve the issue with registration on the spot.”
The official representative of the Chinese company in Russia, who was contacted by the correspondent of Autonews.ru, might not comment on this situation.
In the dealer center of Minsk, prices for the Geely Coolray crossover now start at 62,815 BYN (1,576,028 rubles at today’s exchange rate). For this money, you can buy a Chinese crossover in the initial configuration Standard. The car is offered with air conditioning, rear view camera, LED optics, cruise control and parking sensors. Under the hood of the car, a two-liter turbo engine is installed, which works in conjunction with a robotic gearbox with two clutches.
In Moscow, prices for this model are much higher. So from domestic dealers Coolray can be bought in the initial configuration Comfort for 1,880,000 – 1,920,000 rubles.
In the initial version of Comfort, you can also buy the Atlas Pro crossover in Minsk. Such a car is equipped with a 1.5-liter gasoline three-cylinder turbo engine with direct fuel injection. 177 hp engine operates in conjunction with a six-speed hydromechanical automatic transmission. The price is 73,950 BYN (1,855,405 rubles).
In a large Moscow dealership, we were offered to buy a similar crossover for 2.3 million rubles. On the official website of the Russian representative office of the brand, the cost of the car is 2,208,990 rubles.
At the same time, the correspondent of Autonews.ru did not have any problems with the acquisition of Lada, Renault and Kia cars in Belarus.
In 2021, an Autonews.ru correspondent also encountered problems when buying a car in Belarus. Then in some dealerships of popular brands managers also refused to sell cars with a Russian passport: Lada, Renault, Volkswagen, Kia were among such dealers.
Then the FAS became interested in the issue, but there was no reaction on the situation.
As Ruslan Krivonos, an expert on buying and driving cars from Belarus and other countries, explained to Autonews.ru, from the point of view of the importer’s policy, dealers are trying to preserve the region where goods are sold. That is, do not interrupt demand in Russia by selling cars from Belarus to Russians.
Belarusian lawyers interviewed by Autonews.ru, who specialize in consumer protection, explained: according to the local law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights”, there are no restrictions on the circle of persons when selling any goods, including cars.
Autonews.ru sent a second request to the FAS.
