According to a survey, the Faisalabad automobile market is flooded with used imported cars with low price tags. Dealers, customers and showroom owners told The Express Tribune that high prices of locally manufactured cars and undesired delay in delivery had mainly contributed to boosting the demand for second hand imported cars.
According to them, almost all local auto manufacturers release the booked cars after two to three months and the long wait has driven customers towards imported cars which are readily available at all times in the market.
The imported cars most in demand are Vitz, Corolla, Duet and other brands. “Prices of local cars have surged up to 70 per cent in the past three years. Suzuki Swift is sold for Rs1.13 million compared to a three to five-year-old Vitz which is priced between Rs700,000 and Rs900,000,” said Asad Butt, proprietor of Zaib Motors.
Locally manufactured Suzuki Alto was sold for Rs776,000 excluding Rs15,500 in transportation charges while an imported three to five-year-old Suzuki Alto was offered at Rs600,000 to Rs650,000, he added.
A new Corolla XLI was available at Rs1.44 million excluding transportation charges while three to five-year-old imported Corolla was being sold for around Rs1 million to Rs1.1 million, he said.
“Sensible customers are choosing used cars with low prices and high parts quality. Car parts for imported cars are easily available in the market,” said Afzal Hameed, an imported car dealer.
Hameed said auto manufacturers had failed to provide cheap cars to the customers even after the government allowed imports of up to five-year-old used cars to control prices.
Some customers stressed that car assemblers should provide vehicles at low rates and the government should take action to bring the prices down.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 4th, 2012.
COMMENTS (5)
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I think Dealers are making lot of money custom off are geting under hand as well who cares what govt get grow up people dont be so naive
But, 3-5years old japanese cars are not that cheap if compared to new pakistani brands. the difference we read here in this story is around 10-20 percent. Since, the imported old cars are 3-5years old, they must be available in at least 30-40 percent of the price of a new car. It must be investigated who is making money, the government with high duties or car importers?
IND & Rupee parity is 1.65=1. This means 4 years used Alto price is Rs.264000 and for corolla Rs.825000. Roads in India are mostly teared down and deprecation of used vehicles are double then the Japan's cars. The best part is there is no red tapism in Japan. I think this make sense to purchase from Japan.
sunil vohra: There is no profit to be made in importing from India. Import duty is very high in Pakistan and the only reason we get imported cars here is because the Japanese let them go for a low price. Because labour is expensive in Japan its cheaper for the Japanese to sell off older vehicles at a huge discount than to try and maintain them. So that is why imports from Japan are viable and not imports from India.
In India,a 4 year old Alto LXI is available for 160000/=INR and a 2006 model Corolla for 500000/=INR,so why dont dealers push for purchase from India??