If a customer orders a locally assembled car today, its delivery may take up to nine months despite the constraints on auto finance, hefty registration fees, and escalating prices.
Three new Honda Civic variants were unveiled in a media campaign on 4 February, with a partial booking amount of Rs. 1.2 million and approximate prices starting from Rs. 5.099 million to Rs. 6.149 million.
Honda Atlas Cars Ltd. (HACL) will now produce Civic Turbo 1,500cc sedans only instead of 1,800cc models, as per market sources. However, the automaker is yet to release official pictures of the new Civic.
The new Civic is like any C-Class Mercedes, Audi, or BMW with the same features, according to Shabbir Alibhai of Honda Drive-In and Honda Quaideen.
Car Deliveries and Own Demands
Honda
Keeping in view the high demand for the new Civic, the automaker will take four to eight months to deliver its three variants. The ‘new’ variants that were launched last August will have a three-to-four month delivery period while the BR-V will be delivered to the owner in two to three months at the showroom.
Toyota
Corolla and SUV buyers will have to wait four to five months for deliveries, and the Yaris will be delivered to customers in two months.
The Yaris has relatively low own-money value but the Corolla and Grande variants have premiums of approximately Rs. 300,000 each.
Financing Restrictions
Besides this, Toyota and Honda’s dealers claimed their dealerships have had significant pullbacks from banks that provide car loans. This is mainly because of the increase in car prices after the Federal Excise Duty (FED), excessive registration fees on vehicles with engines bigger than 1,000cc, and financing restrictions imposed by the State Bank in Q4 2021.
Kia
Owing to a semiconductor chip shortage, Lucky Motor Corporation (LMC) halted the bookings of the Picanto AT in December 2021, and those for the manual variant ended on 2 February.
As per Kia’s commitment, Picanto will be delivered in July, followed by Sportage variants in April or May. The delivery months for the two Stonic variants are February and June, while the Sorento and Carnival are readily available due to their low demand.
Despite concerns such as exorbitant costs, hefty registration fees, and the State Bank of Pakistan’s vehicle financing restrictions, a Kia dealer stated that there is still a high demand for Sportage. According to sources, the own money on Sportage is Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 50,000, while for Stonic it is Rs. 150,000, and the own amount on the Picanto automatic is Rs. 200,000.
Suzuki
For the last four months, all models of Cultus have been unavailable for booking, although Alto is still available. Meanwhile, Cultus automatic and ABS models have own-money prices of Rs. 300,000 to Rs. 325,000.
Furthermore, Alto is expected to be delivered in three to four months. The manual and automatic variants of Alto have own money of Rs. 200,000 and Rs. 300,000 respectively, and the VX variant has a five-month delivery period. The own amount on the WagonR is about Rs. 80,000.
Changan
The automatic variant of Alsvin, which costs Rs. 2.944 million, will be delivered in four months, while the sunroof variant will take 40 days.
Huge taxes for various engine capacities have been imposed on registrations when the bookings are made by individuals and the registration is done under the names of other individuals, in order to combat the rising own-money culture.
Moreover, automakers are required to pay the Karachi Interbank Offered Rate (KIBOR) plus a three percent interest rate on deliveries that take more than 60 days after the initial deposit.
According to sources at the Engineering Development Board (EDB), automakers had paid over Rs. 3 billion to consumers for delayed delivery between 2016 and June 2021.
Source: Pro Pakistani