volgascan.ru was the website of the Nizhny Novgorod company OOO "VolgaSCAN," which sold and serviced trucks and buses of the Swedish brand Scania. The firm's office was located at 603105, Russia, Nizhny Novgorod, Osharskaya Street, 95, phone numbers (8312) 31-73-40 and 31-73-41[1]. The nn.ru directory described the site in a short line as "Nizhny Novgorod dealer of Scania"[6]. Surviving snapshots of the home page span 2001-2004[1][3].

First version: "History of the SCANIA firm"

In the snapshot from 26 July 2001, the site opened with the heading "VolgaSKAN" and a section titled "History of the 'SCANIA' firm." As the home page stated, "Scania was founded in 1891," and "since the company's founding about 900 00 heavy trucks and buses have been produced" — the number and word are reproduced with the typos present in the saved text. The same page set out the brand's positioning: "Unlike our competitors, we have purposefully concentrated our resources in the heavy transport sector"[1].

The menu consisted of five sections, each with an explanatory line: news — "official announcements from the Scania company, press information"; equipment — "information on new and used vehicles, purchase terms, financing terms"; service — "information on maintenance, repair, and their cost," where visitors were also invited to "order the necessary spare parts and get the necessary consultation on ordering"; transport — "everything about international and domestic Russian shipping, our fleet, rates"; and a section about the firm itself. Feedback was directed to info@volgascan.ru[1].

The 2003-2004 version

By the time of the snapshot of 23 March 2003, the heading had changed to "VolgaSKAN: 'Scania' in Nizhny Novgorod," and the top of the home page was occupied by a technical news item: starting in April 2003 all "Scania Griffin" trucks with a 9-liter engine — models P94GA4X2NA 310 and P94LA4X2LA 310, as well as the P94CB6X4HZ 310 dump truck with an 11-cubic-meter body — would be fitted as standard with a glow-plug engine starting system "with no change in prices"[2].

The menu was restructured around sales and service: the transport section disappeared, and "Trucks and Buses" appeared, covering semi-trailers and financing terms, along with an expanded "Service" section that separately mentioned semi-trailer spare parts and SAF and BPW axles. Contacts became two: the office on Osharskaya, 95 with new phone numbers (8312) 16-81-36 and 16-81-37, and a service station on Raketnaya Street, 9A, phone numbers (8312) 77-84-88 and 77-84-87[2]. The snapshot from 4 June 2004 repeats this page word for word, including the year-old news item: for over a year the home page had not changed[3].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

In the nn.ru directory the site was listed under four automotive categories at once: "Automobile Trade"[4], "Trade in Parts, Components, Accessories"[5], "Vehicle Maintenance and Auto Service"[6], and "Taxis and Road Haulage"[7]. In July 2002 "Scania - VolgaSkan" also appeared in the directory's list of new resources[8].

Next to the name, the directory displayed a Counter.nn.ru counter reading, under which the site was registered as number 3265. In the June 2002 snapshots it read "Rating: 62"[4][6], in the July list of new resources — 49[8], and in the August snapshots — 46[5][7]. These are modest figures for the Nizhny Novgorod Internet of the time: a neighboring company in the same category, "TekhnoVolga," had 68[4], while the "SMI-NN.Ru" agency had 177 in the new-resources list[8]. The overall order of magnitude across the corpus is discussed in the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating. In the published results of the 2004 Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, volgascan.ru does not appear[9].

How it closed

No closure announcement ever appeared on the home page: the last saved version is the same 2003 page[3]. In total the web archive preserved around two and a half dozen captures of the address, the last dated 16 January 2006, with no later snapshots of the site[10]. At the time of our check, the domain volgascan.ru is not in service. Of the Nizhny Novgorod Scania dealership, only these three pages remain: the address on Osharskaya, the service station on Raketnaya, and the news item about the glow-plug starting system.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2004 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, category «Automobile Trade», 2002 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, category «Trade in Parts, Components, Accessories», 2002 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, category «Vehicle Maintenance and Auto Service», 2002 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, category «Taxis and Road Haulage», 2002 (archive)
  8. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, new resources, July 2002 (archive)
  9. web.archive.org — Results of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, 2004 (archive)
  10. web.archive.org — List of saved snapshots of volgascan.ru in the web archive (archive)