Vehicle import ban

[The Ascendunt]

I know nobody can say this for sure but I'd like to ask people who are likely more informed than myself for their best guesses.

How much longer do you think the vehicle import ban will last?

I'm thinking of buying a car (I don't have one right now). I don't have money to spare so I don't wanna get loans/leasing to buy a second-hand car only for the ban to lift and the resell prices to come crashing down 🥲

Do you think the ban will stay for another couple of years?

[Gummybr]

A lot people will tell you that the ban will be lifted (1. car resellers wanting to buy cars cheap for  higher resale. 2. Maybe this could happen with the elections in the horizon) Other than that the main issue Sri Lanka has is the fact that we do not have sufficient foreign reserves. Why do you think they want to extend the moratorium on debt payments till 2027? The foreign reserves of the country still stands at US$ 5.5b this is without paying any debts, imagine if the country opens up for vehicles and if history repeats itself you will have thousands of cars coming in and then you look at the outflows that 5.5b will be gone in an instant. (a small car will be approx. US$ 10-15,000 into 1000, a luxury car at US$ 40,000 into 100 these are conservative figures) Just imagine with the migrant workers permits the majority of vehicles imported are luxury cars (almost 100-150) all above Rs. 40mil and only about 20-30% lower priced mass cars below Rs. 20mil. 

 

[iRage]

The sad reality is realistically there is no end in sight for the import ban.

With an honest and educated society the government would have been able to start allowing limited imports into the country (e.g. X number of vehicles between A- B USD, etc...). However, lets be honest...honest and educated are not adjectives we can use to describe our masses.

Our guys (from politicians all the way down to the brokers) are going to cheat and lie in every possible way possible so that also will not work.

[Gummybr]

1 hour ago, iRage said:

With an honest and educated society the government would have been able to start allowing limited imports into the country (e.g. X number of vehicles between A- B USD, etc...). However, lets be honest...honest and educated are not adjectives we can use to describe our masses.

Our guys (from politicians all the way down to the brokers) are going to cheat and lie in every possible way possible so that also will not work.

Very true.

[matroska]

On 3/8/2024 at 10:57 AM, iRage said:

With an honest and educated society the government would have been able to start allowing limited imports into the country

 

On 3/8/2024 at 8:24 AM, Gummybr said:

A lot people will tell you that the ban will be lifted (1. car resellers wanting to buy cars cheap for  higher resale. 2. Maybe this could happen with the elections in the horizon) Other than that the main issue Sri Lanka has is the fact that we do not have sufficient foreign reserves. Why do you think they want to extend the moratorium on debt payments till 2027? The foreign reserves of the country still stands at US$ 5.5b this is without paying any debts, imagine if the country opens up for vehicles and if history repeats itself you will have thousands of cars coming in and then you look at the outflows that 5.5b will be gone in an instant. (a small car will be approx. US$ 10-15,000 into 1000, a luxury car at US$ 40,000 into 100 these are conservative figures) Just imagine with the migrant workers permits the majority of vehicles imported are luxury cars (almost 100-150) all above Rs. 40mil and only about 20-30% lower priced mass cars below Rs. 20mil. 

 

instead our society will exploit every possible loophole. An election gimmick aside, i don't see SL go back to importing vehicles - as for the prices of current vehicles dropping - even if they do start importing I don't think any new vehicle will be priced in a range for existing vehicle prices to drop - considering the potentially hefty taxes and exchange rates. These rumors' go in cycles - car sales, and buying and selling people first propagate a rumor that imports will open up and people sell in a panic at low prices. Then the car sale folk hoard a lot of vehicles. Then they start jacking up the price and spread a few rumors that imports will not happen for many years. Price goes up. Now they have exhausted their stock and the common folk (non-car-sale people) have also jacked up the price. Then again the imports are opening up in xxx months story goes on to drop the price. I have seen this trend for the past year or so. 

The used car market is now the car sales/brokers playground now - I   have been a  heavy critic of car-sales , brokers and buy-and-sell folk. This led to me being blocked and banned from a popular automobile group on social media(name refers to fast revs and racing) 

Edited March 10 by matroska

[Gummybr]

On 3/8/2024 at 8:59 PM, matroska said:

The used car market is now the car sales/brokers playground now - I   have been a  heavy critic of car-sales , brokers and buy-and-sell folk. This led to me being blocked and banned from a popular automobile group on social media(name refers to fast revs and racing) 

It was wonderful when it started life so it seems that its taken over by the Elamilk community and the car sales brokers I see.

[tiv]

On 3/11/2024 at 8:07 AM, Gummybr said:

It was wonderful when it started life so it seems that its taken over by the Elamilk community and the car sales brokers I see.

+1 to that, was a group for the true enthusiasts

[iRage]

On 3/11/2024 at 11:37 AM, Gummybr said:

It was wonderful when it started life so it seems that its taken over by the Elamilk community and the car sales brokers I see.

It was and always is inevitable for those types to take over these platforms. It's partly because being a true car enthusiast in SL is next to impossible now. It costs way too much to do any kind of decent builds or to actually own interesting cars (let alone run them). So with the ever-dwindling enthusiast group it is only natural that the common car users come hoping to find answers on fuel consumption of Vitzies and resale values of Premios and who else would respond to them other than the broker crowd ?