KARACHI: Some dealers are charging “premium or on money” on spot sale of newly launched locally assembled Japanese bike as buyers cannot buy it at company’s fixed price.

The new Yamaha 125cc was introduced in the last week of April, but some authorised dealers at Akbar Road, Karachi’s main motorbike market, after running out of stocks were insisting buyers to book the bike which would be delivered either after 12 days or in the first week of June.

However other dealers having stocks were demanding Rs135,000 for on spot sale as against the company’s price of Rs129,400 and another Rs4,000 for registration and lifetime tax.

It is not clear whether the assembler has deliberately cut down the production to check the buyers’ response or it couldn’t able to meet the unprecedented demand.

Dealers said despite higher bike snatching/stealing cases in Karachi the response was good.

Buyers usually go wild whenever new bikes find way into the market. The demand and supply gap becomes more alarming when impatient consumers from the rural areas also throng the authorised showrooms in large numbers to lift the bike at any price.

Such phenomenon of “on money or premium” is well-known for the new models of locally assembled cars.

Bike dealers said that people had actually become sick of using decades-old models of 70cc bikes and were now trying to shift their focus towards over 100cc bikes due to better comfort level, fuel efficient engines and impressive designs.

They said it is too early to predict future sales scenario of Honda and Suzuki but some dealers were of the view that Yamaha may give tough time to its rivals.

Meanwhile, sales of Honda bikes during July-April 2014-15 slightly fell to 526,327 units from 535,078 units in same period last fiscal year. However Honda sales in April 2015 went up to 61,488 units from 53,030 units in March 2015, figures of Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) stated.

Suzuki motorcycle sales plunged to 18,743 units in the first 10 months of this fiscal year as compared to 20,176 units in the same period last fiscal year. Suzuki’s sales in April 2015 crawled up to 2,075 units from 2,007 units in March 2015.

Import of completely knocked down kits and semi knocked down kits (CKDs/SKDs) for assembly of overall bikes rose by 22 per cent to $64 million in July-March 2014-15 from $52.5 million in same period last fiscal year.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2015

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