Car Prices Jump, Consumers Hesitant to Buy

Many dealers are willing to reduce prices by hundreds of millions of dong but still have no customers. Photo: Hoang Pham.

From the beginning of the year until now, the Vietnamese automobile market has not seen any positive signals as purchasing power has been decreasing month by month. Many car makers and dealers have quickly implemented a series of incentives in order to stimulate sales, but have not achieved the expected results.

Mr. Hoang Vuong (Hanoi) shared that he intended to buy a new car after the Lunar New Year, but due to the continuous price reductions, Mr. Vuong decided to wait in order to get a further discount.

Customers hesitate to buy at the moment

“Actually, my family had planned to buy a new SUV for work and travel purposes, but with the prices continuously decreasing, I’m worried that I will suffer losses if I buy now,” added Mr. Vuong.

According to a survey conducted by reporters, the prices of many popular car models have dropped significantly by several hundred million dong over the past 2-4 months. A series of promotions such as exemption of registration fees, free accessory packages, or cash discounts offered by dealers have made many customers hesitant and waiting for further price reductions.

Many customers are waiting and not buying cars during this time, hoping for higher discounts.

On social media groups about cars, customers continuously post “forcing prices down” in order to further decrease the prices of many car models. Some posts explicitly request discounts of 100-300 million dong for certain models.

In the comments section, many accounts also suggest that customers should wait to enjoy higher incentives.

Mr. Nguyen Lan (Ho Chi Minh City), a consultant at a Suzuki dealer, said that even though car prices have been reduced, the number of customers has not increased, causing him and many colleagues to sacrifice their commissions in order to attract customers. Meanwhile, many customers are willing to negotiate prices to reduce the prices of certain car models by tens to hundreds of million dong, causing difficulties for consultants.

“Customers want to buy at the lowest price possible, and if I don’t reduce the price, I will lose customers, so I have to sacrifice my commission to offer incentives to customers. Prices have hit rock bottom this season and yet the number of purchases still hasn’t increased, with customers constantly negotiating prices, causing many consultants to face difficulties,” shared Mr. Lan.

Price reductions don’t lead to increased sales

In reality, despite the efforts of car makers and dealers to implement various programs, overall market demand has not achieved the expected results. Some previously popular car models have experienced significant price reductions but sales performance has still decreased.

Prior to this, Mr. Van Cuong (Hanoi), a consultant at a car dealership, also shared that at this time, consultants have had to sacrifice their commissions and bear losses in order to reduce prices, but customers still haven’t shown significant interest.

“Customers tend to compare prices, so consultants have to lower their commissions to get sales. There have been weeks where consultants had to spend money on advertising and still couldn’t sell any cars,” shared Mr. Cuong.

Hyundai Santa Fe, a popular 7-seater SUV from Hyundai, used to be subject to discounts of up to 200 million dong, but now it is experiencing a decrease of about 180 million dong. However, according to statistics from TC Group, Hyundai Santa Fe has only sold 1,712 units since the beginning of the year, ranking behind its direct competitor Ford Everest with 3,263 units in the same period. Meanwhile, the Honda Accord sedan, despite being offered discounts of up to 100% of the registration fee by many dealers for several months, still has average monthly sales of less than 10 units.

The Honda Accord is still considered a slow-selling model despite being offered discounts for many consecutive months. Photo: Thuong Thuong.

According to a report from the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA), the Honda Accord has sold 26 units since the beginning of the year, which is lower than the sales performance achieved in May 2022 alone.

Recently, during a National Assembly meeting on June 1, Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc stated that the government had agreed to reduce the registration fee by 50% for domestically produced cars.

However, many car salespeople and customers believe that this solution may not revive the Vietnamese automobile market. In reality, some incentive programs offered by car makers and dealers have already surpassed 200 million dong, but have not created significant attraction. If a 50% registration fee reduction is applied, the maximum decrease would only be a few tens of million dong.

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