Dear all,
I'm outlining a scenario about Mr. X who is a Pakistani and plans to buy a car in Pakistan after getting out of bed one good morning. He says to himself, "I want to buy a car and let's look at the various options I have today." Here is what he will find out.
1. Locally manufactured brand-new PKDM (Pakistan Domestic Market): He finds out that the cars are of poor quality with a very high price-tag which keeps on going up because of the falling rupee. He also finds out that these cars have a good resale value.
2. Used PKDM (Pakistan Domestic Market): Mr. X now explores buying a used PKDM car. He finds out that if the car is low-priced then it is of low quality too; roughly used and not properly looked after and not worth buying. He also comes across some very well looked after cars but finds out that the owner is asking a very high price. He walks out of this option too.
3. Fraudulent dealer-imported JDM (Japan Domestic Market) Imports: Now he looks at this option. He goes to the market looks at the cars and finds out that all are used, with forged auction sheets, odometers rolled back, damage-repaired and repainted, tsumani water-damaged and subsequently repaired. He calculates that he won't get what he is paying for and decides not to fall prey to the JDM Import Mafia which is dishonest and passing old, abused and damaged cars as almost brand new ones. So he walks out of this option too.
4. Self-imported, authentic JDM (Japan Domestic Market) car from Japan: After eliminating the above two options, Mr. X explores this third option of importing an authentic JDM picked directly from an auction house in Japan. He sits down on a table and does his math, calculating and adding up the auction price, freight, custom-duty and taxes. After his calculator blips the total, he is amazed at the figure. It is very high. The total keeps him away from this option too. He finds out that although the car is very good, scratchless, grade 5 with A interior with no PKDM (Pakistan Domestic Market) car even able to eat its dust when it comes to quality and reliability, it is way too high in price. He asks himself, "Which part of the total price (auction price, freight, custom duty and taxes) is unfairly high and should have been reasonable?" Mr. X finds out that it is the custom duty and taxes which have not only been recently increased but are charged in dollars. He is told that because the custom-duty is charged in dollars it has increased because of the falling rupee. Mr. X fails to understand why the Pakistani government is charging the custom-duty in dollars when the transaction is done within the boundary of the state of Pakistan. He is further told by the custom clearing agent that the government has increased the taxes too because it has gone broke and very hungry for money and therefore she (the government) has decided to rip off her people. She (the government) is already doing so by indirect taxation, increased fuel and utility bills which has hit her people hard in the shape of traumatic and unbearable inflation. Mr. X walks out of this option because of the high price-tag as the cost of this option is beyond his budget.
Mr. X's final two options: Mr. X is very worried now and finds out that all of his options are distasteful. He narrows down his option to two, number 1 (brand new PKDM) and number 4 (self-imported good grade JDM bought directly from an auction house in Japan). He looks at the two options very carefully:
Option number 1: If he goes for option number 1 (brand new PKDM) he gets a relatively less expensive brand-new stuff with a fabulous resale value but a car of very low quality.
Option number 4: He examines his other option, option number 4 (self-imported, good grade JDM bought directly from an auction house). If he goes for this option, he gets fabulous quality but a car with a very high price-tag and a relatively low resale value. It is beyond his budget too. Price keeps him away from this option.
Mr. X's final pick: Option number 1 (brand-new PKDM car). He has reluctantly picked this option because the purchase price is low as compared to option number 4 (self-import JDM). Low price has forced him to pick this option.
My conclusion: The government has allowed the import of good grade, used JDMs from Japan with fabulous quality but has made the price-tag beyond the reach of a common user. She has increased the duty and taxes so much that it is keeping the end-user away from this option. Therefore a common Pakistani is forced to buy low-priced, low quality vehicles made by the local manufacturers. All of this is being done on purpose. I don't know why? Why are we forced to go to the local manufacturers? Why we have to spend our hard-earned money to get low-quality vehicles from the local manufacturers? Why is this local manufacturer Mafia ruling all the way?
I've written this thread to highlight the various options a car-buyer has today. I've concluded that we the car-buyers don't have any option but to go to the local manufacturers to buy their sub-standard crap which is not at par with the international standard. These local manufacturers are ripping off the car-buyers since 1983 when the first Pakistani manufactured Suzuki SS80FR (800 cc) came into the market. The sad part is that the government is allowing them to do so. Is she (the government) getting any kickbacks? Probably yes!
Regards.