Drivers On Minsk MAZ Trucks: One Winter Makes Them Rusty Enough To Fail Motor Vehicle Test

Why do consumers reject Minsk trucks?

The production of Minsk Automobile Plant, according to the data of the “Autostat” analytical agency, still hits the top-5 of the most popular freight brands in Russia. Although, it seems to be getting harder for the Minsk automobile giant to compete with KAMAZ, GAZ, Ural and MAN: the market is shrinking, but MAZ sales are dropping faster than the competitors’. The KAMAZ share at the market is growing, the share of the MAZ production falls. Things seem bad — why do consumers reject Minsk trucks?

The portal tut.by met with the drivers who own MAZ trucks, and talked to an expert to find out their opinions about the production of Minsk Automobile Plant.

The entrepreneurs’ opinion

The catalogue on selling used automobiles has become the starting point of our research of private and honest opinions about the home-produced trucks.

Andrei used to own a small company but now the business doesn’t go well so he has decided to sell his park of freight vehicles. He has displayed the truck on which he worked himself for sale as well – it was MAZ -5516, produced in 2014, with only 36 thousand kilometers of the running distance. Judging from the description in the ad, the truck “in the condition of a new vehicle” is sold for $ 24 900. And this is what the owner says:

— MAZ can compete with other trucks only with respect to the price. I realized by my own experience that a miser pays twice. The quality of painting of both the cabin and the body looks horrible – there is even no ground coat under the paint, just naked metal. Moreover, I can’t even count how many times I visited the service center and repaired the truck for the last two years.

To give you an example – the owner repaired the reduction unit of the intermediate axle under warranty three times!

— The agreement prescribes that the truck may stay under repair for up to three weeks . However, they don’t even approach the vehicle earlier than this. As I work as my own boss, one day of standby unattended time costs me a lot.

Still, Andrei says, he had learned about the attitude to clients long before he repaired the reducing unit — when he bought the truck.

— I needed a conditioner in the vehicle, as I planned to work on it myself. However, it turned out they did not mount conditioners in the dump trucks’ cabins at the plant. Can you imagine this – it’s the 21st century! They said such option was prescribed only in the freight trucks, and the drivers of dump trucks were not humans, in their opinion, as it seems. It would do them good to try and drive around dusty construction sites in summer heat with the windows closed…

Dzmitry, another Minsk entrepreneur, works on the own 10-tons MAZ-5551−02. His vehicle was produced in 2014, he bought it for $ 37 000. The odometer shows 48 thousand kilometer of the running distance. He seems more loyal to the production of MAZ. He says he has no illusions and doesn’t plan to work on this truck for more than 4 years — selling it “with benefit” in time remains the most important thing. However, it seems difficult to do it in today’s reality as the prices for truck reduced.

— This is my second MAZ, the first dump truck was absolutely horrible, I had to repair it constantly. Why did I buy a MAZ again? What else could I buy for such money? Scania, KAMAZ and even the Chinese trucks are much more expensive. However, it would be honest to note the cost of service is the same everywhere.

Speaking about the sore spots, the man bends his fingers:

— The forward axle rubber totally deteriorates by the 15 000 kilometers of the running distance. Nothing can be done with this – this is manufacturing defect of the crossmember cast. I replaced it with the Polish tubeless rubber, it survives for a longer period. Actually, it would have been better if they used such rubber at the plant from the very start. The second moment is “Zubr” energy storage device. One survived for half a year, the second one “died” in a year. It is no good to try and repair it under warranty, they will find countless reasons not to replace it. I bought the Russian energy storage devices and the problem was solved.

Dzmitry also noticed constant he4adlights weeping in the process of exploitation. He even dismountled the optical components and re-pressurized the headlights, but it didn’t help for long. Meanwhile, it is impossible to pass the motor vehicle inspection with weeping headlights.

— I have to drive with headlights on for several hours before the motor vehicle test, then they get dry from the inside, and no one gives any reprimands during the test. I also have to tighten the steering gear connection all the time. Besides, even the traffic police inspectors know about this problem so they start checking this part under the cabin right after they stop the car. I heard radiators often go wrongly, a friend of mine replaced ten fittings under warranty in a year. I haven’t come across such problem so far. There are also many questions regarding painting – I re-painted the body four times in two years, and I covered the cabin with movil right after I had bought it, but now I see it is time to paint it as well.

Dzmitry cancelled the warranty service after the first motor vehicle test — it was Br 7 million after the first 1 thousand kilometers of the running distance. According to the entrepreneur, this was considerable money, and he is confident he provides a better and more qualitative service to his truck than the warranty “servicemen”. According to Dzmitry, if one takes care of the truck, MAZ-5551−02 will serve for 4 years with no problem, while the new three-axle dump trucks seem a failure. However, it has become harder to sell MAZ trucks — one cannot buy a truck for $ 60−65 thousand and sell it for $ 40 thousand in 4 years, as it was several years ago.

War of the opinions: MAZ or ZIL?

Sanitation trucks and dump trucks with MAZ chassis can often be met near Minsk graveyards. We are heading their to find out the drivers’ opinions about their vehicles.

Valiantsin Viktaravich, the driver of MAZ-5902А2, first got behind the wheel of this truck back in 20009. Before this, he used to drive an old ZIL. The odometer of his MAZ now shows 205 thousand kilometers of running distance.

— I see no point comparing MAZ with ZIL or “gazon” — there is an abyss between them, — the man looks confident. — MAZ remains more comfortable and economically reasonable. I like it better! Still, there exists an unsaid war of opinions with regard to MAZ vs ZIL at our enterprise, ZIL drivers against the MAZ ones. Some say they would never get behind a MAZ wheel, as for me, I would never get into a ZIL cabin, I like my truck better. First, it is more comfortable, secondly, it is easier to steer, being more flexible, with a powerful steering booster. It makes a person less tired when driving.

Apart from this, Valiantsin Viktaravich doesn’t hide his MAZ also has many problems.

— Regarding the technical part, I have no complaints, these MAZ trucks keep going until they rot here. As for the ability to withstand corrosion, there are problems, I won’t deny this. We paint and weld them ourselves, trying to prolong the trucks’ lives as much as we can. There have been cases in our experience when new MAZ trucks didn’t pass the state motor vehicle tests after the first winter due to the problems with cabins. Can you imagine this? One winter makes a cabin so rusty so that the test can’t be passed. No one knows what metal they make it of.

As for serious vehicle breakdowns, Valiantsin recalls only replacing the engine clutch under warranty after 40 thousand kilometers of the running distance. However, this could have happened due to the conditions of exploitation, as sanitation trucks mostly drive in the yaards. As for other problems, like leaky radiator (the driver has to pour hermetic liquid into it all the time) and the fast deteriorating rubber at the front axle, the driver considers them insignificant.

— Also, most vehicles have broken preheater. There have been cases when the trucks came from the plant with the defective parts and fittings. Still, it’s no good to trifle with preheaters – their failure may lead to inflammation of the vehicle.

Valiantsin’s colleague substitutes a driver on a sick leave, driving an identical MAZ. Usually he drives a ZIL. He doesn’t say anything bad about MAZ, “this is an ordinary truck, just the arbor support seems jolty”. Besides, the man had an opportunity to drive a MAN. “That was a truck! All the others are actually pretty much the same”.

Are there any competitive specimens?

There was a time the plant relied on "Perestroyka" — a new trailer with a modular layout, which was supposed to compete with foreign-made trucks. However, they included an ordinary MAZ-643019−1420−020 into the range. Is it capable of competing with the foreign trucks?

A driver of a gasoline tanker, belonging to a well-known network of gas stations, remains certain that even the freight truck is far from ideal. His vehicle was produced in 2014 and drove a little more than 50 thousand kilometers on the Belarusian roads.

— There are the German-made engine, body and radiator mounted in the vehicle. These are the only parts and fittings that work with no breakdowns, — the guy says. — All the rest started falling apart right during the movement after 50 thousand kilometers of the running distance. Once a cardan fell off right on the road. Which European quality can we talk about after this? Of course, many sore spots have been withdrawn, but still this truck has a long way to come to catch up with the competitors. No one buys these trucks because of this. Even the “Chinese” vehicles seem better.

For the expert opinion regarding the operating experience of the Minsk Automobile Plant products, we addressed to the PA "Gorremavtodor" park. Head of the department of repair of machines and mechanisms Mikhail Baranouski said that their enterprise had been working with the plant for a long time, and the percentage of home-produced trucks at the municipal vehicles park amounts to 35%. However, Mikhail Mikhailavich admits there are enough problems.

— Still, every year the improvements in relations between the plant and the service are getting more obvious. They study all our reclamations and enquiries thoroughly and we notice that new vehicles arrive without numerous flaws. There have been cases when the plant redesigned vehicles in accordance with our requirements.

Mikhail Baranouski gives an example of redesign of many MAZ vehicles on MAZ chassis for the road cleaning from the left side.

— Unlike the blades, which move in different directions, the brooms cannot be mo0ved left or right. Still, the city must be cleaned from both sides. The plant listened to us and released a limited batch of vehicles that we need. On the whole, progress can be seen in the relationship – previously, the service was trying all possible ways to deny in addressing, now the situation is much better, and such cases have become rarer. The transfer to home-produced machinery should be mandatory for all state-owned enterprises, it is logical. As for the quality, I hope they will improve it to the European level.

Besides, Gorremavtodor of Minsk City Executive Committee will be the first organization to receive the new vacuum sweeping vehicle MAZ-5917А2-Z10 with the Chinese equipment on the chassis of the home-produced truck, for testing. In the opinion of the head of the department of repair of machines and mechanisms, this specimen is competitive, but the price issue remains actual.

So, what is the result of our survey? All consumers unanimously agreed that the main advantage of our trucks was low price. The main problem is the low quality of the trucks. Especially it concerns the ability to withstand to corrosion, MAZ trucks get rusty very quickly.