zareche.nnov.ru was the site of the Nizhny Novgorod car dealership "Zareche", which sold cars from the Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ) and VAZ. Its Nizhny Novgorod affiliation was visible right on the home page: the dealership listed outlets in Shcherbinki, on Novikova Priboya Street and on Komsomolskaya Square, and phone numbers with the area code 8312[2]. Surviving web archive snapshots span the period from August 2000[1] to January 2003[2]. Throughout this time the site remained a single-page business card: it had no price list, no catalog of cars in stock, and no order form[1][2].

What the dealership offered

The core of the offering did not change from snapshot to snapshot: a "wide selection of GAZ and VAZ cars," low prices, fast paperwork processing, pre-sale preparation, and a guarantee of the deal's safety, as the home page stated[1]. It was separately emphasized that choosing a car and completing the paperwork happened in one place, and in the 2000 version, that the dealership charged "no extra fees 'for paperwork,' 'for color,' 'for upgraded tires'"[1].

The second half of the offering was fitting out a car already purchased. In 2000 the list included an alarm system, audio equipment, air conditioning, window tinting, soundproofing, a "multi-lock" lock and a power package, with discounts promised on fitting out a car bought at the dealership itself[1]. By 2003 the list had grown: rustproofing, replacement of stock glass with tinted glass, the "Garant" mechanical immobilizer, power windows and xenon headlights were added[2]. At the same time two new services appeared — maintenance service for VAZ cars and, as the home page put it, "the ability to insure your car without leaving the dealership, with a leading auto insurance company" (the insurer was not named)[2].

Addresses and contacts

In 2000 the dealership operated at two locations: Shcherbinki-2, building 82, on the grounds of "Shcherbinkiavtoservis" (phones 63-32-30, 63-58-77, 63-58-79), and 3 Novikova Priboya Street (phone 58-90-74)[1]. By January 2003 the page listed three addresses: to the previous two was added a site on Komsomolskaya Square with phones 42-28-46, 42-60-83 and 49-92-94, and the Novikova Priboya location gained a second number — 58-92-78[2]. All numbers were given with the area code 8312[1][2].

The email address also changed: in 2000 the contact address given was a mailbox in the site's own zone, avto@zareche.nnov.ru[1], while in 2003 it was auto@zareche.ru, that is, on a second-level domain[2]. There are no snapshots in our material of a site at that second address, so whether the site itself moved there cannot be judged from the surviving data.

How the page was built

A notable feature of zareche.nnov.ru was a huge list of keywords placed right at the top of the page and visible to visitors alongside the text. In the 2000 snapshot it takes up more space than the entire substantive description of the dealership, and consists of a listing of models and index codes: "Volga," "Sobol," "Sadko," "Gazelle," dozens of factory designations such as GAZ-2705, GAZ-3110 and GAZ-33081, as well as ZMZ, the Zavolzhye Engine Plant, the gearbox plant and "manufacturers of GAZ spare parts"[1]. This is followed by an equally detailed list of fitting-out options — the "Fouetté," "Pirouette" and "Krylya" leather interiors, velour headliner upholstery, an on-board computer, a built-in Unicla air conditioner, a bar-refrigerator, a Whistler radar detector, a genuine-leather steering wheel wrap, a branded handbag, and a driver's license cover[1]. In the 2003 version this list is cut short around the tenth line, mid-word, at "GAZ-2705 — combi GA"[2].

The site was made by an outside team: in 2000 a credit line at the bottom of the page read "Created by INFORIS"[1], and in 2003 — "© design studio 'INFORIS'"[2].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The "Zareche" dealership belonged to the most numerous and least conspicuous layer of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet at the turn of the century — corporate business-card sites set up for the sake of having an address on the letterhead and barely developed further. In our data the site is known from the nn.ru catalog directory; it does not appear in the surviving samples of the Counter.nn.ru counter that the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating is built on, and no votes for it are recorded in our data. In the published results table of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day for 2004 (more than a thousand cells with participants' names and descriptions), neither the domain zareche.nnov.ru nor the name "Zareche" appears, whereas a competitor in the same field — the "GAZ Center" dealership — is present in that table[3]. However, by the time of the vote the site, judging by the snapshots, had already gone almost two years without an update[2].

How it closed

The last web archive snapshot of the home page is dated January 23, 2003[2]. No later versions of the site have survived; as of the census the address zareche.nnov.ru does not respond. The circumstances of the dealership itself ceasing operation are unknown from the available material: the page reported neither a change of ownership nor a closure, and the last thing that remained of it was three outlet addresses and a promise to complete a car purchase without leaving the dealership[2].

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2000 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Voting results of Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day, 2004 (archive)