Car Prices In Pakistan Vs. Those In Neighboring Countries: Pakistani Auto Buyers Are Being Ripped-Off
Pakistan’s local automobile industry, if you wish to call it so, lags far behind the world in terms of vehicle safety, product quality, the number of available options as well as the quality control. With only three major players in the business, the limited numbers of options on sale are not the same as offered in other parts of the world. Not only this, but vehicles are placed in such a way that they don’t directly rival each other, thus safeguarding each one’s interest.
Also Read: Pakistan Auto Policy Has Started A Tug Of War Between The Japanese And The Europeans
Suzuki’s entire lineup sparing the recently launched Wagon-R is obsolete. However, Pak Suzuki’s Wagon-R misses out on safety and some features that are available in other markets. The Swift which was brought here in 2010 was actually launched in 2004 globally and was already replaced by a newer Swift in 2010. Suzuki Liana was introduced to our market in 2005 when it was already discontinued across the world. While everyone knows about Cultus, Mehran, Ravi, and Bolan, which are outdated and obsolete models on sale only in Pakistan. Honda has also been dragging the 5th generation City, which became obsolete elsewhere by 2013 as the 6th generation City replaced it. Car prices in Pakistan are mind boggling.
Related: 10 Common Features NOT Available In Pak Suzuki Bolan Carry Van And Ravi Pickup
Even if we compare the equipment and safety features with the same cars offered in other markets, Pakistan’s local cars are far behind. This thus leads us to think perhaps the price we are paying for the cars which are low in built quality and are feature-ripped, is less than what people in other parts of the world pay. But you will be surprised to know that people in Pakistan pay much higher price for rather obsolete cars as compared to neighboring countries where people pay a lesser amount of money to get newer, safer, better and sophisticated technology and feature-packed products.
Take Honda City for example, in India the price of 6th generation City starts from just 7.64 lacs INR, which equals to 11.72 lac PKR while in Pakistan the older 5th generation City starts from 15.23 lac PKR. The top of the line petrol variant of the same 6th generation City is for 11.5 lac INR, which converts into 17.6 lac PKR while the top of the line 5th gen City Aspire Prosmatec in Pakistan is available for 18.15 lac PKR. New 2016 Honda Civic is also on the horizon. Let’s see how it is priced.
Also Read: Honda Atlas Launches 2016 Honda HR-V At An Exclusive Event In Lahore
The new Maruti Swift in India starts from just 4.65 lac INR, which converts into 7.13 lac PKR and the top of the line petrol variant goes up to 6.24 lac INR, which is only 9.57 lac PKR. Not to mention here in Pakistan we are still getting the old Swift while in India the new Swift is cheaper than ours. The local Swift starts from 12.21 lac PKR and goes up to 14.33 lac PKR. Wagon-R in India costs from just 4.03 lac INR (6.18 lac PKR) to up to 5.06 lac INR (7.7 lac PKR). Many might know, we are expecting to have the Celerio in our market by the end of 2016, the price of the Celerio in India starts from 3.97 lac INR (6.09 lac PKR) to up to 5.78 lac INR (8.87 lac PKR).
The 1.8 liter Corolla Altis base model in India starts from 13.55 lac INR, which converts into 20.66 lac PKR and is slightly higher than the 1.8-liter base model Altis here, which is available for 20.44 lac PKR. However, the base Altis in India comes with Driver and Passenger Airbags, compared to the local Altis, which offers one airbag only. Indian base Altis comes with an immobilizer, whereas even the top of the line 23.19 lac PKR Altis doesn’t provide an immobilizer. In short the base model across the border offers more value features which are missing in our local assembled Toyota.
In India, if you go out to buy a car in under 5 lac budget (7.6 lac PKR), there are about 29 options available in combined 130 trim levels to choose from. In China, there are more than 55 vehicles for a buyer to choose from in similar amount of money. In this price range, however, the only option we have is Suzuki Mehran!
Also Read: Pak Suzuki…It Is Time To Bid Farewell To Mehran
These are the fruits of a competition driven market where the consumer gets to benefit from having to choose from an array of excellent products at affordable prices. Competition drives performance and encourages the adoption of innovation as companies evolve and new ideas flourish in the marketplace. The fair and open competition also means lower prices and greater choices for consumers and ensures progress of industry of a country.
Having completed about 25 years of local production, it’s high time for our government to define the automobile policy which encourages competition and discourages monopoly. The government needs to make sure that the vehicles being assembled in Pakistan are up to the standard, strict check and balance is needed on price vs. features offered, vehicle safety should be prioritized and recalls should be implemented. People also need to know what to expect against the money they pay. Perhaps few years down the road we might be able to see our industry flourishing, let us hope for the best.
I wish the new civic doesn’t get stripped of features and stays under the 2.7 million mark
“Take Honda City for example, in India the price of 6th generation City starts from just 7.64 lacs INR, which equals to 11.72 lac PKR while in Pakistan the older 5th generation City starts from 15.23 lac PKR. The top of the line petrol variant of the same 6th generation City is for 11.5 lac INR, which converts into 17.6 lac PKR while the top of the line 5th gen City Aspire Prosmatec in Pakistan is available for 18.15 lac PKR.”
There are very less govt taxes in india Usman Ansari Bro…..and the taxes make the cars so expensive in Pakistan…….If u have seen the invoice of Honda City the car price is approx 12.5 lacs and rest 4 lacs are govt taxes (that does not include the tax we pay on registration)……Govt is to blame not the car manufacturers ……..Govt takes approx 5.5 lacs in cash from us for example if we buy a Honda City……in a similar manner they take 25 rupees tax on every litre of petrol we buy……………….and i also pay tax out of my salary too…….Govt does not do anything to the land lords and mill owners who evade billions of rupees as taxes………
Govt only knows how to suffocate a middle class man………
Shame on Pak Govt (USD 21 billion reserves for corrupt politicians to loot)
i keep coming to Pakwheels site in a hope to hear the news that VW, Ford and other automobile companies are coming to Pakistan…….but what i get is shear disappointment……..
CCP should take up the case for getting the car prices lowered…..
Govt should ban all old cars of Suzuki and Honda…….There should be no car model which is more then 5 years old in Pakistan…..
They should lower the prices immediately…..
We should allow import of cars from India…..and there should be no taxes too…….we can give Most Favored Nation (MFN) status to india
Very nice write up, full of bitter truths, these things have been on surface of websites since long, but things are going to be the same , till the time users are on the roads/boycotts to these looters.
Oh man, 5 years is simply too much considering the economic status of our south asian countries. A well-maintained vehicle will fare good for atleast 15 years! But I believe cars older than 30+ years are still on road constituting to more than 30%!
I was visting India recently ,yes indian automobile industry is very large and under 5 lac they have too many option
But only differnce is we have high resale value of our cars
A very simple question: Can you define “re-sale” value? Is it about model and year of the car? Condition of the car? Brand of the car? Price effective in comparison to available new options?
How can you compare Indian and Pakistani made cars by re-sale values, if they can’t be sold in each other countries, new or old?
It looks like Zaeem wanted to say that new cars which are being sold, should not be sold for more than 5 years without a model change.
He is not talking about taking 5+ years old cars off the roads. This is completely illogical, happens nowhere in the world, fitness test governs.
“Shear” disappointment is very dangerous.
I wish you safety from the “shears”.
The tax is high to control the number of cars.
Because there are no roads and the existing ones are congested, therefore there is nowhere to go for any new cars that are bought.
The idea behind high tax is to control the number of cars and simultaneously use that additional revenue to develop the infrastructure and increase the total length of roads per sq km of the country, and to subsidize public & commercial transport.
In effect none of the money gets used for these noble causes, rather it gets consumed in corruption, VIP protocol and unaudited budget for security forces.
The title says “neighboring countries”. But the content only discusses India, India and India. A fleeting mention of China is present.
What about Iran and Afghanistan? They are also “neighboring” countries.
Iran have their own automobile industry and imports were not possible because of sanctions.
Afghanistan has no automobile manufacturing of their own but they have a very large choice of imported vehicles capable of surviving those mountains.
Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal can also be seen. They have economies similar to Pakistan and comparable in size (number of vehicles sold, currency power, land mass, terrain, weather conditions).
same tax in india, thailand , iran etc
Higher the base price of a brand new care, higher would be the resale value and vice versa.
I have a question for Usman Ansari Sab, Kindly advise me which Engine Oil is best for my Mehran 2013 Euro Model, shall be waiting for your response, wasalam, ali
Oh yeah, my bad I understood that way! @zaeem is right!!
Resale = [Selling price after X years] / [Cost when new]
Higher is better. It is a generally known formula and even Kelly’s Blue Book in USA mentions the resale value of used cars, therefore resale is a matter of worry everywhere.
In Pakistan, sometimes this ratio is greater than 1 !
I just created account down vote your comment…
Good article.
In the news I see the local industry comparing prices of local swift and city with Indian and Thai counterparts saying our prices are similar etc…they totally fail to mention the fact that both Indian/Thai City and Swift are newer models with better technology – newer more fuel efficient engines. and have safety features like airbags. Their city has airbags, immobilizer, sunroof, auto air-con, etc available which is not offered in local model.
Local swift is actually a 2004 model with VVT removed from M13A Japanese engine.
Furthermore local swift lacks the following in comparison to JDM:-
1. No Airbags
2. No Rear Wiper and Washer
3. No Protection block in bumper area.
4. No UV glass
5. No Luggage light
6. Older automatic transmission
7. Fuel economy and Temperature from clock dial have been removed in PKDM version.
7. No ISOFIX seats
8. No option of auto air-conditioner
^^ in view of the above the local swift may be of similar price but is older, less fuel efficient, less safe…
Oh god! I know all that dude, even to know more I can just “google” resale than asking in a comment. If you understand my actual question is how to compare re-sale values when the cars cannot be sold in each others countries.
In Pakistan the resale is greater because of the limited options available and companies asking high price for new cars with more or less same technology as the old one. But here the selling price for a used one is indeed low because, by the time you are selling your old car say after 3 years for Rs.X, a new car with same or even better technology and engines will be available for the same Rs.X which will force you to sell for Rs. X-1.
Awesome Sarcasm!
Actually, your first question was answered: “Can you define “re-sale” value?”
Now, other questions:
Q2. “Is it about model and year of the car? Condition of the car? Brand of
the car? Price effective in comparison to available new options?”
A: To an extent. Paksuzuki generally drops the quality and available features over time. This has been documented in previous articles on PW blog. So an older Cultus which supposedly has better build quality will retain its value for a longer time than a new Cultus which has lower quality and less features (many features from Cultus were removed when Swift was launched in 2010).
Condition is important, accidented, high mileage, rusty car will fetch less money as compared to another car of the same make and model. Brand and even trim level is important. XLi retains its value but Altis loses quickly.
Price effective? No, this clause is not true at all. People would pay much more money for a high resale specific model than a low resale better car. A low resale car would be cheaper to buy too, this has been discussed in a very old topic on the blog.
Q: “How to compare resale values when the cars cannot be sold in each other’s countries?”
A: It is nor relevant whether the cars can be sold in each others countries or not. A few cars are available in both countries. Also, comparison is a large science therefore they can compare compact car with compact car, kei car with kei car, SUV with SUV, so on.
In the end you are comparing money vs money against money vs money.
whenever I’m in the comments section I always look for your comment first..
sir aap articles likhen please!
Mail this article to Mr Ishaq Dar with a request to have mercy on his country fellows (or the article can be directed to COAS for his necessary instruction to Mr Dar to which I am sure Mr Dar would oblige) 😉
Why are you pulling COAS in this? If something in your house goes wrong, do you ask the gatekeeper to bully the family members, in hopes that the family members will “oblige”?
The purpose of COAS is to guard the borders. Let him/her do it.
The purpose of COAS is not to arrange for you good vehicles.
Not sarcasm. This is satire.
And the whose purpose it is to safeguard the public’s interests or for that matter stop thugs likes Sharifs, Zardaris, Bhuttos, Dar & Co from continuing with their looting spree? Or you think that’s acceptable as long as its in the name of democracy?
Good Article….
Honda Pakistan is making a fool of Pakistani Buyer by giving 11 year old pathetic noisy hard suspension Honda city just by changing a couple of cheap accessories which are actually selected from Thai/Taiwan Spare Market Developers.
Model needs critical update for specially Headlights & Transmission. After 80,000 km, My City is roaring like a tractor at 3000 Rpm…
Very honest guys! Accept the fact that even in 2050 we will have the option of Suzuki Mehran as the cheapest and Civic+Rolla as the expensive ones. A country rulled by fools will never prosper. I don’t have any hopes from the government in near future and you shouldn’t too. Wanna buy good cars? Move to Dubai or somewhere else. End of story!
Altis Grande 2016 has an immobilizer now
Of course we are not the most fucked up country in the region but we surely do have the potential to be…
Visionless leaders. Illiterates……..kids of these leaders are now ready to take over this great country’s economy. Shameless people who already have contegency plans by investing and money laundering corruption loot in foreign lands.
No we are not f**ked up yet and have strong urge to make few electoral reforms to get rid of courrept leaders of this great land.
When new City is comming?