I would like to draw your attention to the demand put forward by the All Pakistan Motor Dealers Association (APMDA) to the government to allow commercial imports of used vehicle of up to 10 years of age in the forthcoming budget to provide relief to the common customers. In its budget proposals sent to the Finance Ministry, APMDA Chairman HM Shahzad has said the import of vehicles up to 10 years old would benefit the local car customers but also generate huge revenues for the government.
They are under the misconception that the import of used cars is the answer to providing affordable cars to local consumers and that this will create an environment of healthy competition and will ensure a steady supply of quality and reasonably priced cars.
It needs to be emphasised that such cars are almost at the end of their productive life, or are not compatible with Pakistani conditions. Often the odometer of such used cars is reversed, using unscrupulous techniques to give the false impression that the vehicle has done low mileage. There is also no after sales service and parts support for such vehicles and ultimately the customer suffers.
As it is, the import of five-year-old cars is already causing embarrassment to the government, as most of them are priced at the rates of brand new cars manufactured locally.
This policy is hazardous to environment as the rate of emission of carbon from used vehicles is much higher than the rate of brand new cars. If the government continues with further relaxation, it would not only harm the consumers in the long run, who will end up with high priced junk cars with no spare parts and after sale services.
SARAH MIAN
Karachi
sis do some research and then write article ….. do u exactly know the emission of suzuki clutus and suzuki mehran , are they euro 2 complainant …
do local brand new cars have safety features like ABS , SRS airbags ?
first find out the difference between and junk and new cars
stop misguiding innocent citizen
I dont think anyone is that innocent here.
If the Cultus and Mehran have emission issues than we need to work on getting the emissions of these vehicles compliant to stricter countries.
I beleive this is just a scam where APMDA and others are trying to get all these old cars and make a quick buck out of them.
What needs to happen is that the government needs to offer reduced duty on newer cars and the older junk needs to be fixed or removed. There are laws from other countries which we need to follow that make sense.
These older cars we are talking about are mostly tampered with. and at the end there are no parts available for them as they are not from the local market. To be fair to the writer and to explain "local market", it just doesnt mean locally manufactured cars. It is the vehicles imported regularly.
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