KARACHI, DEC 12: Despite rising imports of new and used cars after the 2005-06 budget, a large number of consumers continue to prefer locally assembled cars, which witnessed 50 per cent surge in sales in November, 2005 to 11,749 units, from 7,831 units in the same month last year.

Car sales, during July-November 2005, rose by 28 per cent, to 58,859 units, from 46,047 units in the same period of 2004, industry sources revealed.

A major jump was seen in sales of Indus Motors (makers of Toyota Corolla and Daihatsu Cuore) in November 2005, rising by 100 per cent, to 3,600 units from 1,790 units, in 2004, followed by 62 per cent increase in sales of Honda Atlas cars, to 2,230 units from 1,380 units, in November 2004.

Sales of Dewan Farooqui Motors and Pak Suzuki increased to 1,392 and 6,776 units, respectively, in November 2004, from 1,012 and 5,127 units, in November 2004.

A 79 per cent increase was recorded in sales of Honda Atlas cars, during July-November 2005, to 12,317 units from 6,886 units, in the same period of 2004, while Pak Suzuki sales registered a growth of 31 per cent to 36,423 units from 27,894 units. Indus Motors Sales rose to 14,932 units from 13,640 units, while five per cent increase was witnessed in Dewan Farooqui Motors to 5,864 units from 5,589 units in July November 2004.

The sales figures, clearly, reveal that the consumers still prefer to buy locally assembled cars because of easy availability of their spare parts and their re-sale value. Many prospective buyers appear quite confused in selecting the imported cars despite having a wide variety of choice. The re-sale factor and non-availability of spare parts, perhaps, are the two factors that keep the new buyers at bay from the imported cars.

However, many consumers appear quite satisfied in paying 100 per cent down-payment on cash booking and 10-15 per cent advance payment on booking through leasing and bank financing schemes. By doing this, they wait for a delivery period of one to six months depending on the cars. Many on-the-spot buyers are ready to pay the premium on locally assembled cars, which hover between Rs 25,000 and Rs150,000 depending on the models.

Market analysts said that car assemblers are expected to do a booming business in 2006 in view of the rising demand of cars and their failure in meeting the demand and supply gap. Besides, positive economic indicators and rising per capita income of a particular class augur well for the local car industry as corporate buying has been continuously picking up.