Grupo Salinas sold around 5,000 units under this scheme in the first year. But the economic crisis of 2009 brought down the house of cards. The company discontinued the sale of FAW cars, so the plant project was cancelled, the promise of jobs vanished, and the deal with Speedy ended.
In less than a week, the FAW logos disappeared from the Elektra chain of stores, leaving 5,000 buyers of the cars without parts or workshops that could service the units.
And the spare parts?
Erick Sosa was one of the customers who bought FAW models a decade ago. He, a civil engineer, used to make repairs to his models, “but when I saw the shortage of parts I sold my FAWs myself,” he says.
Some neighbors, mainly taxi drivers, who knew that Sosa fixed his own cars, constantly asked him where they could buy the parts. “I saw it as an opportunity,” she says. So he contacted FAW corporate in China to get spare parts. “After about 1,000 emails I sent, they answered me,” she says.
It started receiving a container from China every three weeks, and although most of the models have been looted to be sold for parts, Sosa estimates that there are still around 1,000 FAW models rolling in Guerrero, Veracruz, Mexico State and Mexico City. Mexico, mainly.
Many of their customers use them as “low profile cars”. “We have gone to fix them at residences on Las Palmas Avenue or in Reforma (CDMX). Customers put 10,000 pesos into a car that is worth 20,000 and they are happy,” he says. “Even if they fail, no one steals them.”