GAZ Siber Is the New Sebring

MOSCOW

GAZ Group, one of the biggest automobile producers in Russia, unveiled its new Siber at the Interavto auto show in Moscow this week. The car is a slightly face-lifted version of the previous-generation Chrysler Sebring. GAZ bought that car's production line last year and will make the Russian version starting next spring at its factory in Nizhny Novgorod.

This is not GAZ's first attempt to compete with Western-made executive sedans on its own turf, but the self-designed 3111 badly flopped a few years ago, causing a tremendous loss for the company. Buying a foreign design was a wise choice, and bringing in Canadian company Magna to help with the local development process was an even better move. GAZ also purchased British design consulting firm UltraMotive last year and used it to help adapt the Sebring to Russian conditions, including raising the ground clearance and retuning the suspension.

The Siber — pronounced like "cyber" — will get 2.0-, 2.4- and 2.7-liter gasoline engines from Chrysler. Even the base version will have air-conditioning ABS, halogen headlights, power steering, adjustable steering wheel, an adjustable driver seat and other amenities.

GAZ hopes to produce 20,000 Siber cars in 2008 and to double that amount in 2009. The Siber will retail for just $18,000.