Dawn
(2008-03-01)
KARACHI, June 30: Rising import of used cars, jeeps, and sports utility vehicles (SUVs) has started making impact on the advance booking of locally assembled cars as industry people say that they are facing tremendous drop in advance booking in the last few months.
The 2005-06 financial year ended with import of used cars, jeeps, and SUVs touching 41,875 units as compared to 11,877 units in 2004-2005 under gift, transfer of residence and baggage schemes, figures compiled by the Customs Appraisement Collectorate revealed.
Sources in the marketing department of Indus Motors Company (IMC), makers of Toyota Corolla and Daihatsu cars, said that advance booking orders of Toyota Altis had dropped by 60 per cent as compared to last year, while D-saloon version booking has plunged by 100 per cent from last year.
They said that the company had witnessed a drop in orders of diesel version by 30-40 per cent as compared to last year. However, Toyota Corolla petrol version has not been hit hard in terms of advance booking but there is a slight drop as compared to the last year.
Sources said that the delivery of petrol car was now being made within 60 days, while diesel versions are being delivered in just one month.
They added that the company was now producing 200 cars a day as compared to 140 per day last year owing to which the delivery timing has reduced.
Sources in IMC said that customers, who want to show ostentation, now prefer to buy Toyota Land Cruiser, Premo, Rav 4, Honda Accord, Toyota Surf, Mini Pajero, Toyota Prado, Toyota Platz etc instead of locally made Toyota Diesel and Altis.
It is surprising on the part of consumers who appear highly passionate now for purchasing costly used imported vehicles despite knowing the fact that higher engine capacity vehicles consume petrol and diesel in higher quantities and many models have no option of installing CNG kits.
These kinds of buyers, who have perhaps stock exchange earnings of golden days or having good amount of rising home remittances, are not bothered over the rising petrol and diesel prices because they do not have cash problem. They are more interested in showing off their status on the roads.
Meanwhile, market sources said that Toyota Altis had failed to click the mind of buyers because of its 1,800cc engine and the company had maintained the design and specifications of Toyota Corolla. The only change was the name of the car while everything was same, which caused the drawback in plunging its demand. Besides, Altis is costlier by Rs200,000 as compared to Toyota Corolla.
They said that the diesel version was losing battle against the petrol version of Corolla as people are installing CNG kit in petrol version instead of buying diesel version.
An official of Pak Suzuki Motor Company Limited said that the Cultus had been feeling a slight pinch in advance booking for the last few months as used Toyota Vitz is now virtually giving a tough time. “I can’t give you the exact percentage of decline in booking but new bookings are very negligible in numbers as compared to six months back,” he added.
He said Liana was also facing a drop in advance booking orders as some higher engine capacity used cars and jeeps are making inroads.
He claimed that Cultus petrol version was being released by the company to the customers in just few days, while the CNG version was not taking more than two months as compared to three to four months earlier.
An executive in Dewan Farooqui Motors Limited, who asked not to be named, said that the advance booking of Hyundai Santro had dropped by 50 per cent in the last few months and most Santro variants were available in ex-stocks in the factory.
He said as per government’s instruction the company had raised the production by 100 per cent but the liberal imports have plunged the car industry in crisis as Dewan Motors has a sizable idle production in hand these days. He added that the imported Toyota Vitz has created problems for the company. Previously, the company used to deliver Santro in 45 days but currently cars are being delivered much ahead owing to idle production activity.
Market sources said that Hyundai Santro had faced problems as people had to wait for more than 45 days in getting delivery few months back due to delivery constraints in CKD kits arriving from Korea.
Honda Civic has also lost its charm with the prospective buyers and even Honda City is facing tough time in presence of huge varieties of used vehicles coupled with the presence of CNG version of Suzuki Liana. Market sources said that Honda Civic, whose new model is expected in the next two months, has also lost its market to Toyota Corolla.
Irrespective of arrivals of used cars in huge numbers – there is very limited availability of their spare parts and only few shops at M.A. Jinnah Road are selling their parts at very costly rates. Besides, market sources said that imported used cars had low re-sale value as compared to locally assembled cars.