When one decides to purchase a vehicle, there are two ways to go about it, either doing it by heart or by head. In Pakistan where the income sources are scarce, cars are considered investment rather a tool or purveyor of joy. Most of the people than do it by heads rather than using their hearts. When deciding on purchasing a certain vehicle they look at the price, running cost, the maintenance, availability of spare parts and most importantly the resale value. Oddly though, no mention of safety is ever heard from Pakistani buyers although it is one option that sells car around the world like hot cakes.
If we look at the current market we will find that there are certain vehicles which are preferred by the customers solely for their resale value, most of these preferred vehicles are available in basic trim with bare minimum options but since they are very economical in use, people go for them giving the available options only a secondary importance. Suzuki is the most loved option, followed by Toyota and in a smaller degree by Honda.
Imported cars are also gaining favor in middle and upper middle classes as these have all the options as standard that our locally made cars use for marketing, such as Toyota Corolla had an SR badge and we couldn’t stop laughing when we learned that it wasn’t some sport feature rather SR only stood for ‘Sun Roof”. Than the imported ofcourse are very comfortable, easy to drive, instantly available, and variety of cars is great, so great that you can compare it with women’s shoe shop on a big busy shopping street. You have so many choices to buy from that we, who have been kept deprived of such diversity, begin to think with more than just our head.
The prices and maintenance are at the higher side for these vehicle, furthermore since these are normally available in petrol it is cumbersome and usually fruitless to try convert them to CNG or LPG and when you try to sale them, the price offered is much less then what is spent on acquiring them. Despite all the problems more and more people are turning to imported ones for their style, power and drive and as a result number of these cars on Pakistani roads are rising, the major factor in this phenomena is the monopoly by the local producers who are charging much more then the original value of their substandard vehicles and Pakistanis as a nation are getting tired and frustrated by these cars.
Having said above I would like to categorized the vehicle basis on their resale value as under:
1. Suzuki Mehran
Price : 575,000 to 632,000
Resale value after rough use of atleast 2 years : 500,000
2. Suzuki Bolan
Price : 654,000
Resale value after rough use of atleast 2 years : 550,000
3. Suzuki Cultus
Price : 985,000
Resale value after rough use of atleast 2 years : 800,000
4. Suzuki Swift
Price : 1,151,000 to 1,366,000
Resale value after rough use of atleast 2 years : 900,000 to 1,000,000
Toyota Corolla XLI and GLI will also give you a solid resale value after fair use.
Honda City and Civic are chosen a lot by upper level executives and is normally able to return back good part of your money if kept in good shape.
Its good to see that the new generation is started using their hearts when deciding on which vehicle to buy because to me, it is very important for an owner to not just keep a car for his/her daily commute but their cars should be the mirrors of their personality having powerful engines, shocking colors, nice rims and fancy options. Hopefully in near future all Pakistanis, after having better financial options will use their heart when deciding on a car.
“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.” – Sun Tzu
