2022 is forecasted to be a booming year for the Vietnamese car market when social distancing measures are completely relaxed, and people’s travel demand increases. However, there is one big hurdle to this year’s sales targets: a sharp increase in the price of cars – including motorbikes and cars.
Most recently, Toyota has increased the price of a series of its models from May 1 with an increase of 5-40 million VND, depending on the model. Specifically, the models that are considered “national” to Vietnamese consumers such as Vios increased by 5 million, Innova increased by 5-6 million, Corolla Cross increased in price by 16 million and the new small high-rise model sold is Raize increase in price by 20 million dong. Along with that, the Lexus brand also increased the price of a series of cars, an increase of 40-70 million VND.
Previously, Ford announced to increase the price of two main models including Ranger pickup and Everest SUV with an increase of 12-13 million VND. Not only increasing the price, customers who buy Ford Ranger also have to pay “lost” 20-50 million VND if they want to receive the car early.
Meanwhile, Kia also increased the price of 3 hottest models including Seltos, Sonet and K3, an increase of 5-10 million dong, and Suzuki announced a price increase of 4 models including Ciaz, Swift, Ertiga and XL7.
And yet, although the manufacturer has not announced a price increase, customers who buy Hyundai models such as Santa Fe or Tucson have to pay a difference of 70 to more than 100 million VND if they want to receive the car soon.
In the 2-wheeler group, almost the entire product range of Honda – the best-selling motorcycle brand in Vietnam (accounting for 80% of the market share) has price channel phenomenon. Specifically, the Wave line is being sold by many dealers at about 3 million VND, Lead, Air Blade, Vision models are 7-15 million VND higher than the suggested price, SH is 17-25 million VND, the highest is SH 350i with a channel level of 40 million VND.
Honda models increased sharply in price. Photo: ICT News.
Users struggle to buy a car
The reason given by most of the companies and dealers for the increase in car prices is the lack of components and shortages, leading to insufficient supply and demand.
According to research, currently the capacity of most assembly plants in Vietnam has decreased compared to the previous period. Many models have been pre-assembled, waiting in line to wait for a few missing parts to ship but no parts. Meanwhile, some imported car models also encountered a situation of dripping goods, not enough to meet demand.
However, what makes customers angry is that many agents are ambiguous in how to deal with customers. Many people said that they ordered a car from the beginning of the year, sold out many times but still did not give a specific delivery time. However, when reporting the deposit, it is very likely that the car they ordered will almost immediately be delivered to another person – who is willing to spend extra money “lost” to receive the car soon.
Besides, some dealers also ask customers to pay a large difference, instead of buying accessories. This difference, of course, is not included in the sales contract between the two parties.
On automobile groups in Vietnam, there have been many posts expressing the frustration of car buyers during this period.
Buyers are having a hard time choosing the right car models. Photo: Investment newspaper.
With cars like that, motorbike buyers face even more difficulties. If cars costing hundreds of millions of dollars bear a difference of a few million dong, which makes users angry, when buying motorbikes, the difference is no less competitive. Thus, when spending money to buy a car, users will have to spend up to 20-30% more of the car value to have a car to travel. At the current stage, the listed price of the company cannot even be used as a reference because it is very different from the actual selling price at the dealer.
In fact, the fact that car models – both motorbikes and cars are sold at price channels, “beer with peanuts” has existed for many years. However, in the past, this phenomenon usually only took place in the peak season like before Tet and only appeared on certain car models, not “collective demonstrations” as in the current period.
Some manufacturers have also spoken about this issue. However, most of them explained that the listed price of the company is for reference only, while the agent will be proactive in doing business to ensure the harmonized interests of the parties. Between the agency and the agent are independent business entities, so it is difficult to interfere deeply in each other’s business activities.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: autopro.com.vn – Read the original article here
