Import Tax Slashed By 50%

[Chris0628]

Common sense ?

Well if everyone thinks like that, I dont think we would see so many Marutis on the road. Again please please be practical. It is not you in the whole Sri Lanka. There are 2+M different people! Otherwise we would only see Peugeots around right?

Is that why so many resellers / small time importers crashed in the last few years? Because the buyers came running after the vehicles they were selling??? Are you living in Sri Lanka or any other country? Please help me to stop laughing!

For most of us a market crash means a price crash and NOT "people crushing or throwing vehicles off, dismantle". I dont think in Sri Lanka anyone would do that despite any price reduction. I was refering to a drastic sales price reduction and I believe for most of the other readers too it meant a price reduction . For you if a "Market Crash" would mean "people crushing or throwing vehicles off, dismantle" well I am sorry for you

With a misunderstanding of the definition itself, there is no point in continuing this conversation (I better explain things to someone who understands what a market crash means in this country. Otherwise when I say property market crash, you would think I am talking about a situation where people distroy their houses because it is more economical to do that rather than maintaining it).

Lets reopen the thread after 3 months to see whether the "Second hand vehicle market prices have come down" ya?

[L board]

QUOTE (Killer-B @ Jun 7 2010, 03:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In fact there is people who hate indian cars like myself....... Just try to think...... you always have better options than a trad sunny for .8mil for example take a toyota corolla AE96 you get power steering (i think you get P/S in a trad sunny too) which you wouldn't in a b.new maruti so smart people always tend to go for a japanese or a european car rather than a indian car.

Again please be practical. See not all may be smart in your definition. Otherwise, how would you see so many Marutis on the road. For a Maruti buyer, it may be a "smarter choice" to buy a brand new Maruti which has better fuel economy rather than dumping money in a 25 year old vehicle (Be it Toyota, Nissan on any thing) and wasting many more rupees on maintaing the damn thing. Look around man. Be practical. Dont make yourself the yard stick to measure 2M population.

[harshansenadhir]

Well if everyone thinks like that, I dont think we would see so many Marutis on the road. Again please please be practical. It is not you in the whole Sri Lanka. There are 2+M different people! Otherwise we would only see Peugeots around right?

there are maruti's, yes lots of them but most personal buyers do prefer pay over 1.0 million and buy an AE100 than going for brand new maruti with warranty. Still the majority wants to stay away from maruti's, i mean not companies, rent-a-car fleets but personal buyers.

Is that why so many resellers / small time importers crashed in the last few years? Because the buyers came running after the vehicles they were selling??? Are you living in Sri Lanka or any other country? Please help me to stop laughing!

this market crash was due to the global financial crisis and vehicle market came down due to the fact that financial institutions refrained from giving out loans and that resulted small time importers and car sellers went busted.

For most of us a market crash means a price crash and NOT "people crushing or throwing vehicles off, dismantle". I dont think in Sri Lanka anyone would do that despite any price reduction. I was refering to a drastic sales price reduction and I believe for most of the other readers too it meant a price reduction . For you if a "Market Crash" would mean "people crushing or throwing vehicles off, dismantle" well I am sorry for you

With a misunderstanding of the definition itself, there is no point in continuing this conversation (I better explain things to someone who understands what a market crash means in this country. Otherwise when I say property market crash, you would think I am talking about a situation where people distroy their houses because it is more economical to do that rather than maintaining it).

Lets reopen the thread after 3 months to see whether the "Second hand vehicle market prices have come down" ya?

market crash means drastic nose dive price reduction, yes but there won't be drastic price reduction and that's why I said the market will not crash

[charitha19]

hmmmm.. interesting.... there is no doubt A*W will sell over 1000 indian crap a month again... as a bracket there are people who dont mind driving anything on 4 wheels as long as its brand new...

but for the rest of us.. hulan thamai.... we will never go for an indian crap.. i rather keep my old JAP... but then again even with the new reduction there is no hope for getting anythineg decent below 2M as someone pointed out..

so 2nd hand thamai....

[VWvortex]

you boys also need to consider the small japanese vehicles that fall within 3 years of manufacture...

these should fall under 2 million tax paid.

[Ripper]

you boys also need to consider the small japanese vehicles that fall within 3 years of manufacture...

these should fall under 2 million tax paid.

no offense intended...and what would these cars be machang?

if there are new or "recon" jap cars under 2 mill after taxes...things would be different me thinks...

but so far with all the math i've done...can't seem to find any cars that fall in

[Pericles]

I understand what you mean.

But many ppl talk about this rumor. The AL members also have mentioned abt this. However, certain big time importers and agents had v.little stock during tax slashing. There could be a certain link in gov that may have leaked the news. Anyways the guys i spoke to are by no means any big, or even medium. But this rumor is spreading...

I maybe true that importers had little stock, but there are more ways to explain that than foreknowledge of the tax situ. There were very little vehicles getting sold. Did you see those numbers posted? Private car new registrations down to 5000 for 2009 from 20,000 the year before? The importers didn't want to keep large amounts of invested capital tied up that would take time to move. Also, they bought in foreign exchange rules concerning the letters of credit and stuff (which I didn't pay attention to properly) that meant you needed large sums of cash to import vehicles, so importers simply stopped brining them in. So small stocks is not a surprise and was a known fact long before the tax structure change was even a rumor.

[harshansenadhir]

I maybe true that importers had little stock, but there are more ways to explain that than foreknowledge of the tax situ. There were very little vehicles getting sold. Did you see those numbers posted? Private car new registrations down to 5000 for 2009 from 20,000 the year before? The importers didn't want to keep large amounts of invested capital tied up that would take time to move. Also, they bought in foreign exchange rules concerning the letters of credit and stuff (which I didn't pay attention to properly) that meant you needed large sums of cash to import vehicles, so importers simply stopped brining them in. So small stocks is not a surprise and was a known fact long before the tax structure change was even a rumor.

yeah, true for all other importers except A*W where even with economic downturn they had the best selling brand at some 70 vehicles a month(?). They too didn't have stock means something more than the factors you just mentioned, yeah?

[L board]

there are maruti's, yes lots of them but most personal buyers do prefer pay over 1.0 million and buy an AE100 than going for brand new maruti with warranty. Still the majority wants to stay away from maruti's, i mean not companies, rent-a-car fleets but personal buyers.

this market crash was due to the global financial crisis and vehicle market came down due to the fact that financial institutions refrained from giving out loans and that resulted small time importers and car sellers went busted.

market crash means drastic nose dive price reduction, yes but there won't be drastic price reduction and that's why I said the market will not crash

Its a matter of three months!

[harshansenadhir]

Its a matter of three months!

no comments, let's wait and see , as you said we always can bump this thread up and see.

[Killer-B]

Again please be practical. See not all may be smart in your definition. Otherwise, how would you see so many Marutis on the road. For a Maruti buyer, it may be a "smarter choice" to buy a brand new Maruti which has better fuel economy rather than dumping money in a 25 year old vehicle (Be it Toyota, Nissan on any thing) and wasting many more rupees on maintaing the damn thing. Look around man. Be practical. Dont make yourself the yard stick to measure 2M population.

Look son, ARE you telling me that Japanese cars are expensive to maintain? well......most of them are not..... wake up! Yes maruti does have better fuel economy maybe that is why I see many PENSIONERS driving around in marutis and the other lot are company cars....

Think about safety,comfort and forget about the fuel economy (I dont say that you should drive a 5kmpl car but 10-14kmpl is very reasonable dont you think?)

If you are so damn worried about fuel economy.....why buy a car? there is something called PUBLIC TRANSPORT, maybe you could try and catch a bus home!

Accidents DO happen that is reality...(like I saw in some advert.)

[bart simpson]

Hey Guys,

I have been a long time visitor, but this is the first time posting. The full John Keells Stock Brokers (Pvt) Limited article is below in case you are interested.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B1GvZS...yNTE2&hl=en

Cheers

[L board]

QUOTE (Killer-B @ Jun 7 2010, 05:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Look son, ARE you telling me that Japanese cars are expensive to maintain? well......most of them are not..... wake up! Yes maruti does have better fuel economy maybe that is why I see many PENSIONERS driving around in marutis and the other lot are company cars....

Think about safety,comfort and forget about the fuel economy (I dont say that you should drive a 5kmpl car but 10-14kmpl is very reasonable dont you think?)

If you are so damn worried about fuel economy.....why buy a car? there is something called PUBLIC TRANSPORT, maybe you could try and catch a bus home!

Accidents DO happen that is reality...(like I saw in some advert.)

Look dad. You are going out of context . This is not about whether buying a Maruti is prudent or not. With your level of maturity dad you should have understood the context of this discussion. This is about the market reality dad. Not all the kids in Sri Lanka are as mature as you dad and that is why you see so many Marutis on the road. And dad I am sorry you cant change that. If everyone prefered Jap over Indian, dad please explain to your children how you see so many Marutis on the road. Please dad, this is not about why people should or should not buy Marutis. We are discussing the market reality dad. Are you having catract dad and unable to see?

Edited June 7, 2010 by L board

[mistaken_ID]

hmmmm.. interesting.... there is no doubt A*W will sell over 1000 indian crap a month again... as a bracket there are people who dont mind driving anything on 4 wheels as long as its brand new...

but for the rest of us.. hulan thamai.... we will never go for an indian crap.. i rather keep my old JAP... but then again even with the new reduction there is no hope for getting anythineg decent below 2M as someone pointed out..

so 2nd hand thamai....

SO TRUE...

[Watchman]

L Board, see that the others are trying to say is the only reason people buy maruti's is cos they are cheap. Not because they are true maruti lovers. For most of them if not all, their thinking is "its a new car, so it wont give me trouble, and thats what i want because I dont know how to fix it if it breaks".. but the truth is though new they end up in worse conditino in a shorter period of time.

Since you like taking polls of cars on the street. Of all the marutis you see on the road, how many of them are NON-english plate? its been ages since i saw one of them 100s of 300-XXXX or 301-XXXX mariti's those have all more or less rotteed into the ground by now. And do you even see the old model maruti anymore? have you seen a 16- or 17- lately? even remember what it looks like? but take a nissan sunny of similar vintage. You get enough corollas sunnys and civics and all still running around, not that worse from their original condition. And one of those cars would still give you a lot more comfort, joy, space and safety....

the final truth is that simply going for a maruti cos its 'brand new' is not the smartest thing you can say.

[Watchman]

Since we were on the topic i did a quick AL classifie search. It just maybe that a clearcut sample of the sellers advertised on AL, but the oldest maruti on sale is from 2004, while there are quite a few pre 1990 nissans selling...

And given the choice between these two i's surely go for the nissan

The maruti

http://www.autolanka.com/ad.asp?ID=27081

The Nissan

http://www.autolanka.com/ad.asp?ID=26582

[JAFF]

Hm, I love the fact that the prices went down... I spoke to one car importer (individual) and another broker..., They all told me that this reduction is gonna there for only few months. One of them said two months , other also said few months. This rumor seems to be spreading now. Do u guys think this has any truth???

IMO this tax reduction is permanent since the govt has lost their income during the past few years from vehicle imports due to sky rocket priced taxes. these temporary tax reduction rumors are spread all over by the second hand car dealers. then people would think that the prices of the second hand market would not go down, so they tend to buy second hand vehicles for the same old prices and dealers will be able to clear their current stocks without making any loss...

[JAFF]

the funniest part is that you can buy a brand new imported Indian maruti for 1mil and you have to pay more for a brand new locally assembled micro car

[Devinda_Z]

Shaa..Mr. Z all toyotas?

i was expecting someone to say something!

but for what its worth, i do get classified as a Toyota driver with the AT192!

decided to keep it to the most common as each of those can be used as a yard stick to gauge the prices in each of thier respective categories

[VWvortex]

no offense intended...and what would these cars be machang?

if there are new or "recon" jap cars under 2 mill after taxes...things would be different me thinks...

but so far with all the math i've done...can't seem to find any cars that fall in

http://www.########.com/cars/japan_used_ca...le=%7CHatchback

http://www.########.com/cars/japan_used_ca...rs+upto+1500+cc

(replace the ##### with r a m a d b k)

Just a few here...Any car around the price tag of USD 7000-8000 should be a tad under 2million. below the 1000cc category, most defineatly! and im sure these would be preferred over indian makes.

Give it some time and our car importers would have some good offerings

Edited June 7, 2010 by VWvortex

[mistaken_ID]

Since we were on the topic i did a quick AL classifie search. It just maybe that a clearcut sample of the sellers advertised on AL, but the oldest maruti on sale is from 2004, while there are quite a few pre 1990 nissans selling...

And given the choice between these two i's surely go for the nissan

The maruti

http://www.autolanka.com/ad.asp?ID=27081

The Nissan

http://www.autolanka.com/ad.asp?ID=26582

Just went through the link of the maruti, she has mention some automatic headlight leveler.... Can somebody pllease explain what it is?

[L board]

L Board, see that the others are trying to say is the only reason people buy maruti's is cos they are cheap. Not because they are true maruti lovers. For most of them if not all, their thinking is "its a new car, so it wont give me trouble, and thats what i want because I dont know how to fix it if it breaks".. but the truth is though new they end up in worse conditino in a shorter period of time.

Since you like taking polls of cars on the street. Of all the marutis you see on the road, how many of them are NON-english plate? its been ages since i saw one of them 100s of 300-XXXX or 301-XXXX mariti's those have all more or less rotteed into the ground by now. And do you even see the old model maruti anymore? have you seen a 16- or 17- lately? even remember what it looks like? but take a nissan sunny of similar vintage. You get enough corollas sunnys and civics and all still running around, not that worse from their original condition. And one of those cars would still give you a lot more comfort, joy, space and safety....

the final truth is that simply going for a maruti cos its 'brand new' is not the smartest thing you can say.

You seriously have an understanding problem friend. Well what you are trying to justify is NOT news to me. They are facts and I am not disputing you. But the fact remains that people still buy Marutis (with all the stated disadvantages you have pointed out). If you want to, please get the stats from A*W. I was only taking an example to show an aspect of the market behavior. I am well aware that most of the Sri Lankans are highly uneducated and lack common sense at large, but to this extent. Jesus!

[Watchman]

You seriously have an understanding problem friend. Well what you are trying to justify is NOT news to me. They are facts and I am not disputing you. But the fact remains that people still buy Marutis (with all the stated disadvantages you have pointed out). If you want to, please get the stats from A*W. I was only taking an example to show an aspect of the market behavior. I am well aware that most of the Sri Lankans are highly uneducated and lack common sense at large, but to this extent. Jesus!

its ok buddy, i understood.

You few posts ago said you'd buy a BN maruti than a 20 year old trad-sunny. Then you said most people buy the brand new maruti. And then you just said most people are highly uneducated and lack common sense. So by transitivity you are........

And just because the 'market' behaves that doesnt mean we have to dance to that drum-roll. And as a group of people more knowledgeable than the average person about automobiles, mabe we should try help guide the market in the proper direction.

OK, i hope I dont want this turning into another sylvi scene. but the matter of fact is the premium a person would pay for the 'brand new' factor of a maruti isnt justifiable; and thats a notion most of us in the forum hold. And in a financial aspect too it is the most sensible. And we will continue take that stand until maruti does some drastic design changes or non-maruti's come down in price by a great extent.

[harshansenadhir]

You seriously have an understanding problem friend. Well what you are trying to justify is NOT news to me. They are facts and I am not disputing you. But the fact remains that people still buy Marutis (with all the stated disadvantages you have pointed out). If you want to, please get the stats from A*W. I was only taking an example to show an aspect of the market behavior. I am well aware that most of the Sri Lankans are highly uneducated and lack common sense at large, but to this extent. Jesus!

so all who buy an old jap considering better options, comfort, safety, better resale, less wear and tear are uneducated and you're the only or among handful of educated guys who go and buys a mighty maruti. Dude, wake up, you call lot about being practical but you yourself missing some points and may be lack of experience about sri lankan vehicle market and how it behaves. I don't wanna turn this into some maruti bashing thread. As i previously said maybe some fleets buy marutis but now that trend too has far gone. This claim is backed by the company rented out one of largest fleets in island. Recently another multinational bought helluva lot japanese altos from the same company refusing safety less 800. So the decision makers of those companies are of the majority of uneducated fools i guess. Hmmm.

[Killer-B]

Look dad. You are going out of context . This is not about whether buying a Maruti is prudent or not. With your level of maturity dad you should have understood the context of this discussion. This is about the market reality dad. Not all the kids in Sri Lanka are as mature as you dad and that is why you see so many Marutis on the road. And dad I am sorry you cant change that. If everyone prefered Jap over Indian, dad please explain to your children how you see so many Marutis on the road. Please dad, this is not about why people should or should not buy Marutis. We are discussing the market reality dad. Are you having catract dad and unable to see?

Your "dad" thingy makes it incredibly annoying to read..... first thing I would say to you is PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO BE ANOTHER SYLVI for god's sake

Like Dilesh said, you just mentioned that given the choice of a jap and a indian car, you would go for a maruti. Either you have amnesia or you have cataracts being unable to see your previous post or you have just forgotten that you posted such a thing...

Now you come here and talk about some "Market reality" and you blame me for going out of context.... what a dick!

And you don't stop there;

I am well aware that most of the Sri Lankans are highly uneducated and lack common sense at large, but to this extent. Jesus!

You know what....... I'M PROUD TO BE A SRILANKAN