The Pakistan Automobile Manufacturers Association (PAMA) has a spokesman, surprise surprise, who says that the import of 5 year old cars would make Pakistan…wait for it...a dumping ground for the global market. They would throw away their 5 year old Accords, Mercedes and Audis into Pakistan, what a shame!
In a recent article I read somewhere in the back pages of The News (Lahore section), the association has expressed dismay that the facility for allow 5 year old cars would retard the gradual growth the Pakistani auto sector has witnessed. Yes, the growth was because the import of cars was not allowed. That, my friends, is called a monopoly. Also note, that to revive economies, governments do sometimes ban imports, as they should. My only problem is that given the chance, this PAMA did not capitalize on the opportunity to give us, the consumers, better cars. They simply started increasing prices, along with ‘owns’, till their pockets exploded. They had a long-enough chance to correct this, but greed is greed is greed.
For example, in 2007, you could get a 2002 Honda Accord for less than the price of a new Honda City. Yes, a face-turning luxury sedan, all 1.8 liters of it, for less than the price of a brand new 1.3 liter engine car. The Accord was 5 years old, but you couldn’t tell it from the drive, or the look. The concept of 5 year old cars being ‘clunkers’ don’t apply if you are careful in your car selection. The cars they make now can easily face 5 years of normal ware and tare.
By the way, the only imported car that has done truly well in Pakistan is the Toyota Vitz. You know why? Because Indus Motors (God bless their souls) made car parts of the Vitz available in market. That is what needs to be done for other ‘economy’ cars, as well as a select luxury sedans, and this should give enough competition to our auto industry to get their act together.
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