Buying a car at a time when prices are artificially inflated

[RoughRider]

So pathetic & unethical to see how these so called "Car sale owners" are manipulating the prices of vehicles which they have already imported. These crooks try to make super profits by creating rumors in the market. On the other hand, they use their network and contacts to buy used vehicles from private owners and resell at much higher prices with fat margins.

It's so hilarious to see cars in the likes of Toyota Allions/Premios which are older than 10 years & clocked more than 100k in mileage are being advertised at 05 million or more for sale??

Don't panic right now if you are looking to buy a vehicle & wait patiently till the speculation is over in the coming months. Don't waste your hard earned money at a time when income sources of general public are badly affected due to the pandemic. Prices will automatically come down when there's no demand for such high-priced vehicles.

Soon there will be price control mechanisms introduced by regulators to curb price hikes to protect the consumers. Hence it is wiser to be a little patient & reward yourself later with a reasonably priced vehicle? than regretting for paying an unrealistic price now??

CHEERS?

[Kavvz]

1 hour ago, fiat fan said:

Was gonna buy the wife a CHR last July. She hated it so didn’t.
 

Was offered one at 6.2 mil  “GT.led 2017.AWD.18k.unreg. No ugly kit.

Now a bloody used example with over 80k is been advertised at 7.6mil.

??

Wait a minute you're married? Huh> I must have gotten you mixed up with someone else, for I thought you were a grad student overseas or something...    

As for the CHR at 7.6 mil HooOly Moly!! I guess a lot of car sale buggers are super happy!! Good Christmas for them at least no...?! 

[Kavvz]

27 minutes ago, iRage said:

Well.. for the most part, cars in India are cheap because they are built locally. The local automobile industry is protected by the government and the market itself (it is huge...and growing....and highly competitive). Imports do get taxed relatively higher (not as much as we do but still close to 100% I believe).

This could have been us if we were not so busy destroying ourselves back in the 80s and 90s...

Hmm..True I think the Honda City is assembled in India but then Micro and now Mahindra assemble units in SL and we still can't get a car like the Honda City (which to me is a very decent car option) at 1.6 mil though...

Edited November 3, 2020 by Kavvz

[fiat fan]

19 minutes ago, Kavvz said:

Wait a minute you're married? Huh> I must have gotten you mixed up with someone else, for I thought you were a grad student overseas or something...    

As for the CHR at 7.6 mil HooOly Moly!! I guess a lot of car sale buggers are super happy!! Good Christmas for them at least no...?! 

Technically married. But I’m based in hillbilly land for now. She’s back home. Came here from green card. Hate it. 
 

7.6 is a start. Most go for 8m plus. Unreg touches 90. Facelift is 10.5m. 
 

Shudev mata wathura tkak denna shudev.

 I have no idea what to buy anymore.

[Kavvz]

1 minute ago, fiat fan said:

Technically married. But I’m based in hillbilly land for now. She’s back home. Came here from green card. Hate it. 
 

7.6 is a start. Most go for 8m plus. Unreg touches 90. Facelift is 10.5m. 
 

Shudev mata wathura tkak denna shudev.

 I have no idea what to buy anymore.

lol !! No wonder you're chomping at the bit to see the end of Corona so you can come back. ( No offence intended, just find it funny since its clear why you want to come back so quick!  ) 

[iRage]

30 minutes ago, Kavvz said:

Micro and now Mahindra assemble units in SL and we still can't get a car like the Honda City

Well...the Micro and Mahindra assembly plants in SL cannot be compared to Toyota, Honda, Suzuki assembly plants in India. True these Indian plants are pretty low tech compared to their Japanese and US plants; but they still look light years ahead compared to what we have in SL. And like I said, the policies do protect the local automobile industry there...on one hand how the components are taxed and the purchase itself is taxed favors large domestic volume sales; secondly this is also driven by the fact that these manufacturers use India as a production base for the entire region. How the taxes for local cars is used is also driven by how large the market is...right now India wants more eco friendly cars so the taxes favor that. On the other hand countries like Vietnam, who also have strong production bases want to restrict domestic sales (so even the domestic assembled cars get taxed 120%...as opposed to the 180-200% for imports).

In SL...well..we have no policy or strategy noh ? Our plan seems to be driven by keeping the govt servants happy through duty concessionary permits because the country is too bankrupt to give them a proper salary and elections.

[Kavvz]

18 minutes ago, iRage said:

In SL...well..we have no policy or strategy noh ? Our plan seems to be driven by keeping the govt servants happy through duty concessionary permits because the country is too bankrupt to give them a proper salary and elections.

Unfortunately yes. We are all over the place aren't we...And our strategy of late seems focused on merely keeping our 200 odd MP's happy (The general public be damned...Scary stuff! )

Edited November 3, 2020 by Kavvz

[fiat fan]

16 hours ago, Kavvz said:

lol !! No wonder you're chomping at the bit to see the end of Corona so you can come back. ( No offence intended, just find it funny since its clear why you want to come back so quick!  ) 

Hahaha Actually I’m more interested in seeing my wheels! *thank goodness she’s not on AL*

[DhanaRR]

Hi folks,
I just wanted to know that, if someone is having an idea of what's going to happen to government permit holders. I'm clueless and there is no hope at all. But what I definitely know is that, those money loving "salli perethayo" in parliament are eagerly waiting for their chance to have 1.2M worth permit to buy there brand new V8 with heated seats ([emoji28])... #From our tax paid money

So if someone has an idea on that, please let me know.
As far as I know non of the car dealers are willing to trade their vehicles for permits.

Thanks everyone. Stay safe [emoji123][emoji56]

Sent from my Nokia 5.1 Plus using AutoLanka.com mobile app powered by Tapatalk

[Kavvz]

8 hours ago, DhanaRR said:

Hi folks,
I just wanted to know that, if someone is having an idea of what's going to happen to government permit holders. I'm clueless and there is no hope at all. But what I definitely know is that, those money loving "salli perethayo" in parliament are eagerly waiting for their chance to have 1.2M worth permit to buy there brand new V8 with heated seats ([emoji28])... #From our tax paid money

So if someone has an idea on that, please let me know.
As far as I know non of the car dealers are willing to trade their vehicles for permits.

Thanks everyone. Stay safe [emoji123][emoji56]

Sent from my Nokia 5.1 Plus using AutoLanka.com mobile app powered by Tapatalk
 

I thought govt. permit holders were now allowed to purchase unregistered vehicles from among existing used car dealer inventories at the pre-tax cost? As long as you don't pay a hefty premium for the car, that's a pretty good option I think.

If the permit isn't at risk of expiring, then I would hold on as apparently after the budget the govt. is looking into opening up car imports again. (So then all the artificially built-up premium should disappear from the market for the most part. The currency has dropped so they may be a slight price increase based on the exchange rate etc...)

[Hasith Magage]

Just to re-initiate this conversation, will the car prices ever go down in Sri Lanka?

[iRage]

9 hours ago, Hasith Magage said:

Just to re-initiate this conversation, will the car prices ever go down in Sri Lanka?

What is your definition of down ? Back to old pre-covid prices ? Nope... If that was ever a possibility then we would have the ruppee as strong as the 80s and still be buying Corollas/Sunnae for 400,000Rs on average.

Will it go down a from its current level ? Yes...because people do not have money to buy them at these prices; so there will be an oversupply of cars at these prices, which in turn will make the prices to drop. But however, looking forward people are going ot have enven less money that even at a reduced price they will not have the purchasing power. Because of this, most people will realise it is better to hold on to the car than to try sell it (which they themselves might be doingin need of money).

Then, if and when importation IS allowed, I feel there will be huge taxes on them so new cars coming in to the country is not necessarily going to bring the price down either.

Having said all these things....I have to admit...all this is nothing but day dreams and speculations. No one knows what the heck is going ot happen or where the country is going to be in a few months time. There is no proper economic recovery plan except what seems to be nothing more than our politicians going around begging for more loans.

SIDE NOTE: The government likes you to think that the IMF, World Bank and countries like Japan are just doing the paper work/negotiations to give billions of dollars to SL. The thing is most of that will not be in terms of actual money. E.g. Japan told the government that it will give millions to SL which the govt. touted about...however, Japan gave 3mil USD to WHO/Unicef to provide the necessary medicines, services, etc....to SL.

[matroska]

9 hours ago, iRage said:

The government likes you to think that the IMF, World Bank and countries like Japan are just doing the paper work/negotiations to give billions of dollars to SL. The thing is most of that will not be in terms of actual money. E.g. Japan told the government that it will give millions to SL which the govt. touted about...however, Japan gave 3mil USD to WHO/Unicef to provide the necessary medicines, services

and rightly so - any gov't wouldn't give out money to these jacka$$es to rob  further - it's more like someone giving a recovering drug addict who just got fired food, and clothes until that person can find a job and start to stand back on their feet again - if you gave them money they'll spend it on drugs again. I can just imagine IMF/donors dishing out money - Kaputa's, Mynahs and all other birds will start flying and hitting planes again.