What will Happen to all These Imported Cars After 10 to 15 Years?

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More than 53000 units of used cars were imported in the 12 months of last fiscal year. Pakistanis spent astonishing 75 billion rupees on importing these cars. That is a mega number by any standard. Mashood Ali Khan, the Senior Vice Chairman of Paapam, said in a statement that Pakistan could’ve opened its own plant in USD 600-700 million instead of importing used cars. The fact that importing used cars is killing the revenue streams for the local automakers and vendors is worrying on its own, but it is also directly negatively impacting Pakistan’s foreign reserves.

Also Read: Pakistan Spent Rs75bn on Imported Cars During FY2015-16 – A New High!

But for a moment, let’s forget and talk about something else. Many know a used imported Suzuki Wagon R is a better choice than the locally made Suzuki WagonR. But still, they prefer the local. Imported Wagon R is arguably a better package than the local version. But people still prefer a less equipped local car. And the first thing when you ask them why they bought a low-spec’d local car instead of a used imported one, they point towards after sales service.

Suzuki Wagon R

Suzuki-Wagon-R-(6)

And one cannot blame them. After sales service is a make or break thing for many auto consumers. Even locally made cars like Kia Spectra had the same issue. People were already wary of a new carmaker in town. And the moment there were rumors that Hyundai/Kia is packing their bags, it immediately killed the prospective future sales of the brand. Same is a case here as well. There is a whole load of different types of cars that are being imported to Pakistan nowadays. Yes, there are a few popular models like Toyota Vitz whose parts are easily available in the scrap markets. But here are a lot of cars, like Mitsubishi Mirage or Honda N-One, etc. And I don’t think their parts are going to be easy to find.

Mitsubishi Mirage (11)

This is my point here. What will happen to all these flashy and different imported cars that we see on our roads in next decade or so? Even now, you cannot find brake shoes of many of these cars from an auto parts shop next to your garage/workshop. And even parts of popular cars are hard to find in smaller cities/rural areas. What will happen when auto parts importers have lost interest in such cars?

Some people think if Daewoo Racer survived, these cars would be fine as well. But people who give an example of Daewoo Racer forget Hyundai Excel. It got lost in the dust soon after. So one can say that by their logic, one, or maybe two, of all these cars will be fine after a decade or two. That is not a gamble I think many would like to play. And even if you find a specific part, it’s going to quite expensive.

Also Read: Spy Shots – Is This The New Suzuki Alto That Will Be Replacing Suzuki Mehran In Pakistan?

Also, these relaxations on imports are only temporary. Sooner or later, this government or the next will cut the import of used cars completely. What then?

Yes, our local cars are not that great. But they do have long term benefits. Just because what happened to Hyundai/Kia, and what Nissan does after every decade or so, a company like FAW has to work really hard to make people trust them. But on the other hand, people are fine with spending something like 1.5 million on a car that has zero after sales support. Pakistani auto industry is strange, to say the least.

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20 Comments
  1. Waleed Ahmed says

    Dear Aref Saab!
    It would be Really Nice if you’ve pointed out the Greed of the BiG-3 that how much they Provide whether in form of a Car & or Super EXPENSIVE after sale services that had drove them to these Used cars, & The key is to buy Common Imported cars like Vitz, Belta, Prius & why would the scrap dealers would want to go out of business? They will continue to provide the parts.

    I & man others too have preferred local cars If they had Provided us Quality Built like India, Indonesia or other neighboring countries, Just go & check the Auto Websites of Bangladesh, I literally wanted to Cry when I saw a Lower nation than us had more Wide Range of Local cars than us.

    People Prefer to go to an Expert Mechanic rather than Depend on these Greedy Jerks@ Big-3 Service Shop (Jo Sirf Apki Chill Utartay hain, Or gari theek honay ki koi GUarantee nai hoti :/)

  2. Waleed Ahmed says

    After Sale Services of them??? My Foot!! They Just see you as Wallets Filled with Money, They Miss the most important Factor that every Company should have is “To Care & to Provide High Quality Products & Services at Affordable Price” Just take a Recent Example of Atlas Providing Civic @ PKR.3000,000+, Have they Lost all of their Shame & Diginity????

    I can bet If we have Quality cars & Wide range like our Neighboring countries people would be much more reluctant to buy Imported cars, & If they wouldn’t be Soo Greedy for the Market Share & the Cartel they’ve Established for many Decades!! :'(

  3. Ahmed Hembel says

    Nice to see someone thinking like this and reflecting it in an article. All I see nowadays here is crap otherwise.

  4. Ahsan Haroon says

    While you’re at it, please start licking b*lls of Big-3 as well.

  5. Sanjay Natarajan says

    Can someone share what happened to Adam Motors and its Revo model?
    I tried searching in wikipedia/internet, but not much info is there.

  6. Ali says

    I would have put it mildly but still the crux of my comment would have been same

  7. Ali says

    still better than the toxic load of shit crap the Big-3 are selling you here right ?

  8. Tahir says

    Well there is no hard and fast rules but only basic thing when there is no competition in market then you can expect these things, little example when only Mobilink or Paktel were exist in Telecom market how they manipulated and loot the nation, this kind of monopoly results high prices, lack of quality and service. What is after sales service or what is quality or what is competition these 3 might not be knowing. I don’t know either they pay bribe to government or government itself lack of interest these 3 are being benefited and they will never want some other auto company to come. Even African countries have better auto industry than us. In this era we are using most obsolete cars in Pakistan and more over no options available. Suzuki don’t have quality products thus claims cheaper cars, Toyota & Honda don’t manufacture more models only competing with City Civic and Corolla. In this scenario what will you expect? You are paying 2.5 million for corolla or civic? This is ridiculous, either people have lots of money to waste or people just want to buy car at any cost !

  9. Guest says

    Adam Motors and its Revo model were lousy at marketing. Therefore you can find nothing.
    We also know nil about it, but if you have questions about it, we would try to answer.

    PW blog has published something on it. 2 failures of indigenous automobiles are famous in Pakistan, one is Proficient (pre-historic) and the other is Revo.

  10. Shiraz Maqbool says

    Lousy marketing was just one aspect. The other was the car itself – I remember it quite vividly. Went to see it when a friend wanted something other than a Suzuki. Build quality was cheap, suspension was prehistoric. Seats were lousy. The appearance was – well, ugly, to put it kindly. It was quite spacious, though and for the asking price, it was reasonable at 2 lac something.

    Debts killed the company. Banks and financiers barely got their capital back and local vendors were unwilling to supply the spares (apparently pressure from Pak Suzuki as they saw it as a threat to their Mehran) to the company – or so I read in an Interview by its owner.

  11. Guest again says

    What will happen to all these cars?

    What happened to the umpteen Pajero Mini and Pajero Junior?
    What happened to all the Probox, Succeed and ADVan?

    Eventually all these cars will be altered the hell out of them because they are orphans without any spare parts. Therefore they will be limited as town cars because long trips will be impossible on them because of all the alterations.

  12. Guest again says

    Yes, Revo was a child only the mom could love.

    Even if the debts etc. problems were not there and the (disgustng act) PakSuzuki did not threaten the parts suppliers, Revo would not have been successful despite the lower price. Reason being build quality of rickshaw and market positioning as a car, and ugliest possible shape, whereas for Pakistani consumer the visual appeal is one of the main factors of decision-making, cue failure of Liana and the likes.

    Some of the days I secretly thank God that Revo failed, otherwise we would just have another eyesore on the road.

  13. Zulfiqar Ali Soomro says

    imported cars are way better no matter what kind of opinion about the Big 3 you try to indulge us in. period.

  14. Zulfiqar Ali Soomro says

    I wish there was an option to vote down an article. I’d vote this one down at least a 100 times.

  15. David Blaine says

    Sir, instead of mocking this article, please share your feedback so the writer can improve in future!

    For example writer mentioned about “Foreign Exchange” as he is totally clueless that local 3 are also foreign manufacturers with parent companies in Japan and ultimately their profits of billions of dollars as well as cost of their imported parts went out of Pakistan every year. So whether imported or locally manufactured foreign cars, Pakistanis have been paying through foreign exchange reserves one way or another!

  16. David Blaine says

    Totally agree. Government should limit use of any car foreign or domestic to 20 years and after that It shouldn’t be street/road legal. One can keep it as a collector car in the garage only!

  17. Zulfiqar Ali Soomro says

    correct. but the point I wanted to convey here was that most of the imported (jdm or any) cars we have on our streets presently are already 5-10 years old but still their drive, feel and quality is far superior than those locally manufactured in our country. i have experienced it personally and if I have the kind of money to buy a car in a certain price range i’d definitely not go with the local ones.

  18. Dr Ammar says

    A lot of speculations,ifs, Whats
    Talk about ground reality
    Bad bad article

  19. Saleem says

    My question is what will happen to cultus or mehran when it will not be manufactured by suzuki?? Will owners of these cars should start worrying that they will have no parts for that?? Are you getting enough spare parts for baleno and margalla?? If yes then there will be no scarcity of spare parts of imported cars. Becoz if car is in the market then spare parts dealers will have to import parts thats my point

  20. Muhammad Zubair says

    Somebody should tell PAAPAM that why they are treating Pakistan market as some 3rd class market. Who stopped them to introduce new shape in Mehran since 90’s?? Why they are most lethargic when it comes to offering new models. Why they are hell bent in offering old generation car for decades? Why there is huge difference between Indian and Pakistan market? Why there is least innovation and value addition in Pakistan local auto manufacturing..

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