KARACHI: If a consumer is afraid of further price increases and chooses to buy locally assembled vehicles, he/she has the option of Korean and Chinese-assembled vehicles. Among the Japanese brands, Honda is the only choice in view of the booking closure of Toyota and Suzuki vehicles from May 18 and July 1, respectively.

Booking is now open for Honda City, Civic, and BR-V models, but getting the keys to the Honda Civic by May 2023 will undoubtedly be a test of the buyer’s patience.

According to a dealer, the Honda Civic, Civic Oriel, and Turbo RS models will be delivered in May 2023, while the BR-V will be delivered in September or October if ordered today.

He also stated that the Honda City Aspire, City MT, and PT models will be delivered in October/November of this year.

In Kia vehicles, the Picanto Manual Transmission is ready for sale on a full payment option, while a consumer needs to pay full payment to get ready delivery of the Stonic EX and EX plus models. However, Picanto Automatic’s booking is on hold.

The Kia Sportage Alpha is being delivered in one month with full payment, while the delivery schedule of the Sportage FWD model is two months with partial payment. A buyer would get the Sportage AWD model in October after booking the vehicle on partial payment.

On full payment, the Sorento 2.4 FWD, 2.4 AWD, and 3.5 AWD will be ready for delivery in 10-15 days.

Dealers of Hyundai Nishat in Lahore and Karachi said that all the vehicles, including the most popular Tucson, are ready for delivery in the current month on full payment.

An official at Master Changan Motors said that barring Oshan vehicles, the company is taking orders for Alsvin and Karavan vehicles. The delivery time of Alsvin is approximately two months, followed by three months for Karavaan.

According to a Regal Automobile Industries Limited (RAIL) official, booking for Prince Pearl cars and DSFK Glory SUVs on partial payment is now open, and customers will receive the vehicles in 30-45 days.

Due to restrictions imposed by the State Bank of Pakistan on opening LCs for CKD imports, which resulted in parts shortages, Indus Motor Company (IMC) closed advance bookings on May 18, 2022, and Pak Suzuki Motor Company Limited (PSMCL) followed suit on July 1, 2022.As a result, IMC has started observing non-production days from August 1–13, 2022, while Pak Suzuki has hinted at production shutting down due to problems in clearing parts from the port.

Pak Suzuki increased vehicle prices by Rs314,000-661,000 beginning August 1, 2022.

Master Changan Motors Limited has also surged the prices by 400,000 to Rs1.399m, while RAIL surged the rates of Prince Pearl cars 800cc to Rs 1.920m on August 1, 2022, from 1.586m. The new prices of the Glory Pro, Glory 1.5T and 1.8 models are Rs 6.550m, Rs6.105m and Rs6.256m as compared to Rs5.400m, Rs5.009m and Rs5.160m.

In July, Kia Lucky Motor Limited and Hyundai Nishat Motors pushed up prices by up to Rs1.1m on various models, followed by Rs590,000 to Rs3.12m by IMC and Rs785,000 to Rs1.450m by Honda Atlas Cars Limited.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2022