Car market quiet in high sale season

Unlike previous years, when the car market always became bustling towards the year end, the market remains very quiet now, in the high sale season.

Domestically assembled cars awaiting buyers

At the same time of the previous year, car buyers had to queue up to register car sale and wait for deliveries. Many of them even had to pay additional money in order to get deliveries soon. However, the situation is quite different now.

As all the car showrooms have few customers, car buyers these days can enjoy big price discounts of 10-25 million dong, or get free decoration accessories.

Representative from Toyota Dong Saigon showroom said the showroom is offering the big price discount of 25 million dong for Innova model, while car buyers can get deliveries right after they make payment. Meanwhile, Ford Vietnam Showroom on Cao Thang Road in District 3 is running a sale promotion programme, under which buyers of Ford Everest will be given associated accessories.

Imports selling better

It seems that import cars have been sold in a better way. According to some customers, it is easier for them to buy import cars than domestically assembled cars, because they do not have to wait too long to get deliveries, no more than 1.5 months.

The noteworthy thing is that car importers do not try to attract customers by sale promotion campaigns or price discounts. They just focus on satisfying all the requirements of customers, especially the requirements relating to models, designs and colours.

Tran Huu Lan, Head of the Business Section of Tien Phong Hyundai Company, who has 10-year experience, said that if buying domestically assembled cars, customers will have fewer choices, because the designs and colours of domestic products are less diversified than import cars. Especially, Vietnamese customers believe that imports always have better coat of paint.

“Most of the customers, who intend to buy import cars, only take care for quality and design, while they do not pay much attention to price discounts,” Lan said.

The models, which are drawing the attention from buyers, are medium class models, such as Hyundai Tucson 2010 and Hyundai Sonata 2011, or Toyota Venza and Toyota Sienna.

Market will not be bustling in the time to come

According to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA), in September 2010, the number of cars sold by VAMA’s members reached 9,141 cars, a sharp decrease of 17 percent over the same period of the last year.

According to the General Statistics Office, about 4,000 cars were imported in September, a decrease of 1,000 cars over the previous month. As such, in the first nine months of the year, Vietnam imported 36,000 cars worth $678 million, decreasing by 25 percent in terms of volume, and by 12.5 percent in terms of value in comparison with the same period of the last year.

Car dealers hope that the demand will increase sharply in the period from mid November to the end of the January 2011. It is the right time for Vietnamese people to buy cars, because they always want to have new cars to drive on Tet days.

“The demand may increase by 20-30 percent in the time to come. However, the demand will still depend on tax policies,” Lan said.

However, he thinks that there will not be big changes in the tax policies, as the Government is not encouraging to import luxury items, including cars.

Therefore, Lan, on one hand, thinks that the demand would increase in the time to come, on the other hand, believes that the purchasing power will be much lower than the previous year.