That's an eye opener! Most likely our local manufacturers ensured that they are kicked out so that their monopoly can be maintained

No cars are ever manufactured in Pakistan. All are Assembled. We cannot even make an engine of Suzuki Mehran and they are imported from abroad. Since government gives some tax rebates so many automakers import CKD ( Complete Knock Down ) kits from abroad to just put it together here. Suzuki, Kia, Toyota and Honda spend Billions in their home countries on Research and development. Suzuki alone gives more than 200 Million US Dollars to Japanese Universities on Research and development. While these same companies invest nothing in R&D in Pakistan. They are selfish players and Pakistan is just a dumping ground for Japanese.

So much oppertunity in this country. I wish i was a billionaire.

I'm surprised to see the price of Chevrolet Optra 2015 is only PKR 950000/- that means only $ 13000/- NZ dollars !! Damn cheap in Pakistan. This car 2015 model in New Zealand will cost over NZ Dollar $ 75,000/-

@Author: Your price for Huundai Accent is wrong. In Saudi Arabia its price is 42000 SR, Means 1134000 in PKR. So please make correction.

Yes, please come back to Pakistan and very are hoping to get new entrants in Pakistan like VW, Nissan, Mazda, GM, Peugeot, Volvo, Merg, BMW etc

Manufacturing does not mean assembly.

very nice article mr.jawad pakistan automobile industry and parts manufacture industry should be more competitive rather than just the big 3 i.e toyota, suzuki and honda. people of pakistan deserve more options at more realistic rates. govt should device a policy in favour of the people/consumers instead .

Govt. Protects this local powerful auto mafia in Pakistan. Our government and business sector joined to rip off people by making a monopoly of few assemblers who assemble cheaper copies of Toyota and Honda cars with bear minimum efforts. This mafia dont let new companies into market by any means. May God save Pakistan.

Unfortunately their local partners were not stable enough.

Our car industry is replicating our film industry. After 65 war, Indian movies were banned and afterwards our film guys made it sure that it wont return resulting in the loss of competition and ultimate death of the industry itself. The history will repeat definitely here as well.

the writer has not covered the most innovative of jap. makers. Nissan and Subaru then comes others, i.e. Koreans who are no longer behind in product range or quality and servicing.

actually if these manufacturers remained in Pakistan they would still have been offering the old models in 2016 at new model prices.

If you see in China the quality of auto is best or equivalent to EU or USA the prices is comparable less with world. But here in Pakistan only three Japanese auto manufacture produces vehicle whose quality is so bad even the body make with very thin metal sheet and safety is compromise I do not understand the govt agencies whose working just make bribe and do negative things.

Author failed in quoting prices correctly and these cars are not so hot as Japanese or European make.

The author missed Adam Motor Company Ltd, Revo car. It was the first car to be designed and made in Pakistan with Chinese engine. Its production stopped by September 2006. Also in the 1970's Nishan (not Nissan) Jeep was introduced mainly for the army. Again it's production was stopped.

India has a thriving auto industry. Request Pakistan to open the market for, Tata, Mahindra, Force and Leyland motors. All make good vehicles in India l. Help them to set up full fledged manufacturing base in Pakistan it will be good for Pakistan and India.

Pakistan bureaucracy is responsible in corruption for debacle of automotive industry, they didn't let 'deletion' progressive manufacturing programs a success by allowing several makes and split volume. On the other hand India selected just a few instead of several makes, and developed indigenous Auto - manufacturers with the help of local Ancillary Industries. I was involved in progressive manufacturing programs back in 1973-77 at Awami Autos.

The reality is that Pakistan is not a large enough market for any of the mass market automotive manufacturers. The benefit of having local assembly is lost when there is no foresight or sensible planning in place. With the deletion program we got minimal benefits and the quality of locally produced parts remains sub-par. The local assemblers did not invest in developing chemical or any related technologies but just focused on churning out sub-standard vehicles. Wonder how many of these big assemblers have a viable program at our engineering universities or provide decent R&D type opportunities to young graduates.

Since when KIA is an international car manufacturer ? If Pak has lost it production factories no issues PAk should focus on manufacturing its spare parts.

All thanks to our corrupt politicians, we do not need any enemies.

India manufacturs all most all top class brands.pkistian should xplore tieup with them to manufacture cars in pakistan.

We need india's help

@Ordinary Indian "Request Pakistan to open the market for, Tata, Mahindra, Force and Leyland motors" Pakistan offered them to manufacture cars their country but after Mumbai attacks all of them refused to make cars in Pakistan especially Ratan TATA who is the owner of Taj Hotel that was attcked

@Being Indian KIA motors is now south Korea's second biggest car manufacturer after Hyndai, producing 3.00 million cars in 2014. The company has re-emerged after the bad patches in 97-98 period when it went bankrupt. Check the Kia Rio and Sportage models...

General Motors, USA had established a Chevrolet assembly plant at Karachi in 1955. It was the first plant in Asia and cars were even exported to various Asian countries. Then, sons of President Ayub Khan purchased the plant at throw-away price of Rs.5.6 million, turned it into Gandhara Motors and rest is our painful history of greed eating every development and progress in Pakistan.

Pakistan should at least learn good things from India. See there development in Cars manufacturing. Now even Audi and merc is planing for a manufacturing hub here. This will lead not only good export but also employment to lakhs of people

Pakistan's tense relations with India is killing Pakistan economy. The above article is an excellent example. As Pakistani market is not big enough for western and Japanese car industries to invest in manufacturing cars, India could have done so because of the geographical location. BTW, car manufacturing and car assembly from kits are not the same thing.

In smaller cars the deletion(locally produced parts) are close to 75% and in larger 1300 C.C and above the deletion level is 65%. The local vendor Industry that supplies parts to these car assemblers is worth more than 200 billon Rs. in Pakistan. Investment in vendor industry exceed 1.5 billion USD. In bikes , two wheelers the deletion is as high a 100 percent, all locally produced parts. More than 2 million bikes produced in Pakistan last year. http://www.dawn.com/news/1175545 http://www.paapam.com/about-us/

@Naeem .... It doesn't work like that, price of a car depends on more than just the msrp. Did you factor in local taxes? In USA, the price for SE model suggested by manufacturer is $14,745 (https://www.hyundaiusa.com/accent/index.aspx). In Pakistan Corolla comes with a smaller engine 1.3 liter, however in USA it comes with a bigger engine 1.8, not only that they have to treat the under carriage to avoid premature rusting from salt and chemical used to melt snow during winter season, can you compare both markets? Please do some research before commenting.

Thanks to the Mafia and Corrupt people. The cost effective and better feature cars are not allowed here !!!

Meanwhile in India we have just launched our very first Indian sports car propelling India into an indigenous sports car club. It's called the DC Avanti.

I bought Kia Rio in Oman in 2009 , It costs me about 8 lakh pak. Rupees. I cannot find same luxury in Pakistan by driving a 2013 corolla and its price is 16 lakh pak. Rupees. It is a fact that korean cars are extremely good as compared to pathetic suzuki cars , and even for Toyota they launch a separate low quality car for Pakistani market.

When did Chevrolet had a plant in Pakistan? Losing Kia and Hyundai is a big loss for Pakistan. Really? These two Korean cars might not be very popular. Did Author investigate the reasons behind their exit from Pakistan market? I did not notice any research. It took Kia and Hyundai more than 20 years to capture a tiny market share in USA. Why we expected them to be so popular in Pakistan in a short time? What about Suzuki, Honda and others who continue to operate and assemble cars in Pakistan for a long time now?

@Hamid Shafiq why China see at India all top motor companies are manufacturing in India not assebmbling

In other markets such as Gulf and Middle east, Kia and Hyndai has entered very strongly and Toyota and Honda starts struggling. It is just like Nokia was outclassed by other cell phone companies such as Samsung etc

Except Kia there are all these brands in India. I have at different times owned Hyundai's Santro and now Accent. My dad had a desi Premier Auto's Padmini. But I must say there must be 100 at least models and trims available since we opened up in 1991 to the world.

@Dr. Kent B Huzen It is mentioned wrongly. I checked even the price of old models such as 2011 is above 1.4 million

@Naeem Author has converted from USD not from Riyal. The prices are estimates and the point of the post is to show what we don't have anymore.

@Being Indian Don't be ridiculous. They are a global manufacturer 'since a while'. If you know how to Google...

Dear readers, I would also recommend Mazda and Nissan to enter with vast models in Pak. If VW can beat-in with low-cost models, it will be great quality for the owners.

You forgot to add the local taxes I guess~

You are discussing various make and model of cars, weather to import them or assemble them locally. Do you know that Pakistan has almost 5.5 million children that are out of school, the second highest number in the world only after Nigeria. 60.3% of Pakistan's population lives on under $2 a day. Most don’t have proper shelter. A little less than half the population is estimated to be food insecure. 16 m people in don't have access to safe water; they are compelled to drink water from the same source from where animals drink. 50 percent of the population has little or no access to clean toilets, in adequate health care that renders them vulnerable to infectious diseases. Terrorism on all fronts has still not been fully addressed. It is time to set our priorities right.

@rahul ... First of all the subject of the article is Pakistan and not India, second, just producing sheet metal part locally doesn't consider manufacturing, stop living in lala land. India doesn't have the skills to produce neither engine nor transmission locally. I do not have time neither desire to do a research on Indian auto industry.

I miss my dads favorite Toyota CRESSIDA (the best car ever build)

Way back in the late 1959 we were assembling Opel Record a German brand by General Motors in their assembly line in Karachi this car was locally assembled till 1968. In 1964 an American brand Dodge Dart was assembled in Pakistan by Haroon Motors till 1968. Both the brands were of premium quality and the price was Rs.12000 and Rs.18000 respectively. You cannot even buy a decent bicycle for that price now. Both the brands were highly popular, they packed up and left Pakistan because of Government policies. Very shameful indeed.

I wish i had the resources to produce a complete Made in Pakistan car at affordable prices. I know if we put our minds to it we can have an incredible piece of machinery locally made and sold all over Pakistan. nothing big, just a decent car with warranty and after sales service at an affordable price. Why NOT?

Neither our corrupt ruling class, nor the 1 generation above want the youth to be empowered and improve their standard of life, hence no innovation and competition in the car scene.

All these cars can be made available in pakistan with "Made in India" tag. Just dial indian dealers of respective companies near to your border.

@Haroon Foreign Direct investment will only happen when the country is politically stable and secure. However, this is not the situation in Pakistan. Currently, Mexico is becoming the hub of automotive industry. Unless we make our country secure and suitable for the FDI, no one will come to Pakistan.

Are Pakistani industrialists, entrepreneurs, engineers incapable of producing Automobiles in competition with global players? No. Definitely not. Then why is it there is no indigeonous Automobile manufacturing company in Pakistan? Simply because our ruling classes have fallen prey to the machinations of neo-colonialists.Kick backs are the order of the day. Ask any bank in Pakistan to support a budding entrepreneur and most likely the request will be snubbed. Ask the same bank to support leasing of a foriegn car (assembled in Pakistan) and the request will be duly processed favorably. And by the way I really appreciate India's new slogan "make in India"

I came back to Pakistan after 13 years. All I see is Honda, Toyota and Suzuki along with few Mercs and Bimmers. So far this all I have seen on the road. Its a shame. Pakistan has been rolling backwards in time. Our society's materialistic greed has grown phenomenally and morals sunk to a new low. There seems to be a status quo in our country. A lot has to do with our sad political corruption, people want to change but are scared to change. I remember when Chinese manufacture sent their lot to Pakistan, these cars were off loaded on the dock as well but the Minister of transport back then took heavy kickbacks and those cars were returned. I am pretty sure the same is still happening.

@Dr. Kent B Huzen Are you serious? Then how much would you pay for Mercedes, BMW or Audi?

@ahsan Get rid of corrupt politicians and the world will be at your doorstep.

While the Govt is probably holding back on new auto policy because of ill advice by some bureaucrat who drives an imported car, I am waiting to see what vision is given in the policy finally, my take is if you are making cars elsewhere in the world please "Make in Pakistan" too. But for that willingly or unwillingly you will have to make existing car makers happy or probably extra happy, so that they attract those who are not attracted. As for the above piece I guess some mistake is made in calculating the price of Optra, it cant be under a million I guess you should be more realistic about it, seemingly these prices are taken without taking rupee depreciation into account. But Yes I would certainly want all of them to come back and offer more choices but of made in Pakistan cars.

@Sarwat is it all that simple? and who gets rid of them, you have to do it guys.

@Aijaz - India has the skill to produce engines and transmission locally. What it doesn't have is the know-how to produce sports car engines. But it's only a matter of time. The engine for DC Avanti is sourced from Renault but everything else is manufactured locally. India has a huge manufacturing base for automobiles both local and international.

@Haroon we can manufacture every thing provided one essential ingredient is available; HONESTY.

What about Suzuki cars. Specially the Potohar Jeep which was such a nice jeep and was so popular.

we need Chinese cars here manufactured and sold they will be cheap and affordable

Daihatsu Charade - anyone?

@Haroon Investing in Pakistani Research is not the responsibility of Japanese or foreign firms. It is the responsibility of Pakistani firms and Govt. of Pakistan.

@M.Saeed Very rightly reported and these goons are the pioneers of corruption in Pakistan under the banner of our national institutions. Individuals have brought bad name to national institutions and it is time to condemn and punish them,otherwise,we will continue repeating the mistakes.

These are all not the latest technology cars and are not value for money cars. Top cars area Japanese (value for money) and then higher up the ladder with good American cars (GM FORD and CHRYSLER) and then further up the ladder with European esp German cars, i.e Audi, BMW and Mercedes . The cars shown in photographs should be able to be manufactured locally.

@Rahul No point arguing with anyone, not many know that India believes in complete transfer of technology due to economies of scale & volume unlike Pakistan which has less population and hence even if Pakistan were to insist on full transfer of technology before allowing any international car manufacturer, it would be uneconomical & hence have to rely on assembling imported kits. Pakistan should actually leverage on the volume base of India which will help both countries. Look at recent competition of manufacturing Bullet trains in India with full transfer of technology where last week Japan edged out China with full transfer of technology in manufacturing Bullet train in India & by providing $ 18 billion soft loan on a project of $60 billion by Narendra Modi. In 2017 India would have acquired full technology to build bullet trains. Auto industry is almost coming to par with international standards & all manufacturers in India with ancillary auto industries developing fast.

Sky is the limit, only for those, who do not dare to see any farther - what about the cars, which were never available for marketing in this country, and but some people still import them ?

@Truth If you see opportunities, then why can't you use them to become a billionaire.

@Dr. Kent B Huzen The new prices are just put up by some kind of conversion, as they are not available anymore in PK.

@fawad khan 100% agreed

Very nice topic. thanks.

Pakistani consumers pay roughly Rs 100 billion over international markets for the cars that we buy every year. Even accounting for 20-30% in taxes, this is extortionary profits maintained through government supported monopolies. No woner Pakistani car "manufacturers" are among the most profitable in the world. Some years ago Dawn reported that the margin of profit for Toyota Pakistan was 105%, the highest of any Toyota country operations and well above the next profitable (Malaysia 35%) country or Toyota worldwide (25%).

@Aijaz In India we do actual manufacture and not sheet metal parts. Awake to reality.

@mirza Ofcourse.....Chinese are the best for Pakistan