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-   -   Let it rust: Social media campaign storms Egypt! Boycott new car purchases to force lower prices (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/international-automotive-scene/207545-let-rust-social-media-campaign-storms-egypt-boycott-new-car-purchases-force-lower-prices.html)

CAIRO —
"LET IT RUST" or # خليها تصدي #khalehaTesady2019 , a social media Campaign has gone viral in Egypt calling on Egyptians to stop buying new cars to curb price rises, has dented sales, but supporters say values must fall further before cash-strapped customers can return to new-car showrooms.
With a population of more than 98 million, Egypt is a potentially huge market, though only a minority own cars.

Most popular models cost 200,000 to 350,000 Egyptian pounds ($11,500 to $20,000), almost 10 times the annual salary of an average government employee making 3,000 pounds a month.

The movement for cheaper vehicles began several years ago under the slogan "Let it rust" — an appeal to let vehicles rust in car dealership lots — as Egyptians hit by austerity struggled to make ends meet.

It gained momentum in the run-up to Jan. 1, when a customs duty on European-made vehicles was slashed to zero.

That led to a drop in prices, but campaigners say they need to go lower. They argue dealers have hiked prices far more than they should have, since Egypt's pound was sharply devalued against the dollar in November 2016.


Nationwide, car sales fell 42 percent month-on-month in January to 11,460 vehicles, from 19,804 in December, according to data from the Automotive Marketing Information Council (AMIC). January's sales were up 10.8 percent year-on-year, but that is far below the average monthly year-on-year increase of 39.3 percent from 2017 to 2018.



Full Article
Twitter: #khalehaTesady2019

P.S. In India the Prices of Hatchback and Sub 4m Sedan segments B2,C1,C2 are steadily increasing by 50,000 yearly for the last 7-8 years. Swift Diesel available for around 7 lakhs on road in 2011 is well over 10 lakhs now. In the higher segments D1,D2 the rise is around 1 lakh yearly. At this rate these cars will soon be out of reach of the common man.

India too needs such a movement IMO. I'm unsure of the success of it if at all such a movement is started though.

I feel strogly that all the cars currently on offer are overpriced. I had written about this and in specific the rate of price rise in the below thread.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...h-reality.html

No kidding.

Cars with sub-4m length and engine capacities within the smallest tax framework have started breaching the 15L on-road prices mark!

Although I didn't boycott or anything - just recently got a price shock faced with the prospect of selling my B segment hatch for a sub-4m compact SUV for an additional 13 lakhs over the resale of the latter, and decided to hold on to my car for a couple more years for what its worth!

The upcoming change from BS4 to BS6, uncertainties over the future of diesel engines etc - made it an even more sensible decision.

We Indians should realise that these High prices are the 'Fruit of our Own doing'
These Crazy price hikes EVERY YEAR are the result of India's UNENDING DEMAND.
As long as the Indian Customers are happy to Buy at a higher price, these Car makers will KEEP pulling them Higher, Maximizing their profits. And to add to our woes, our Gov't keeps on increasing taxes and Milking the lucrative segments.

Heck, just look at the pathetic condition of those who do bookings and wait upto months and months for a Car!
Tbhp has countless threads of the frustration they face in their waiting period due to the apathetic and indifferent attitude of the Car dealers. As if they were 'Selling for Free' and alloting their Car was a Huge Charity.

Its simple.
Demand Up Price Up!
Demand Down Price Down!
CURB the Demand and the Prices will go down.

As soon as the Demand graph dips a bit, all kinds of discount offers Pop-up every where. 50000, 1 lakh, 2 lakh, 3 lakh! ... even more!
Volkswagen Tiguan SUV selling at MASSIVE Rs. 3 lakhs discount!

So Friends, if it is our Doing, it will Stop the day we Stop doing it :D
The day we Stop flocking like herds to these Dealerships, Stop pleading for their Car deliveries by accepting their infamous "Waiting Periods", Stop buying their Tin Cans, is the day WE will start dictating our terms, our prices, our quality and our day of delivery.

I think we need a targeted campaign for specific models, Read Innova, Fortuner, Swift, Ecosport

I don't think that we are being overcharged by the Carmakers. The prices here are much lesser than what are offered in Europe or elsewhere and a further decrease in prices would force the manufacturers to compromise in other areas.
Also, if you check the price of today compared to the one 10 years ago for the same car and adjust it for inflation, you would be surprised to see that we are getting much better value today than earlier.

Guys I just don’t think that every car manufacturer from Maruti to Mercedes is colluding with each other to raise prices and rip off Indians. I think that’s just absurd. I think the problems are closer to home like our free falling rupee, inflation and protectionist policies and tax structure.

When sub-4m vehicles, a segment that was allegedly created to make vehicles more affordable, start costing upwards of a million rupees with some nudging 1.5, you know something is very wrong in this market.

An Innova or Fortuner commanding the kind of crazy premiums that they do, which allow the customer to buy another small car if they choose to the less popular option, is simply ridiculous.

Less said about the D segment, the better. Cars that were in the 20L+ bucket are now at 50. Those of us who live abroad cannot digest the fact that people are actually buying a Camry for 50L, which is more than twice its price abroad. Or that Hyundai actually commands a premium here. Or that a vehicle from a failed automaker like Ssangyong, which find no takers abroad even at massive discounts, is being positioned as ‘luxury’ here. Or that Skoda, VWs poor cousin, prices it’s cars like Mercedes abroad and it’s spare parts like they were from a space ship.

There is no way that purchasing power has shot up to such levels. This sort of ludicrous pricing has to come to an end, and if a social media campaign sets it off, I’d support it with my eyes closed.

Spot on Steeroid clap:

These are current Car prices in the Gulf - (Kuwait/Dubai)
Corolla 11-13 Lakhs - in India 20-26 Lakhs
Camry 16-18 Lakhs - in India 46-48 Lakhs
Fortuner 20 Lakhs - in India 37 Lakhs
(* Petrol versions prices compared)
Any imagination where that difference money Goes?
And mind you, all cars are imported in the Gulf, whereas our cars are Made in India to bring down Costs :Frustrati

One Great son of India had a great Dream,
to see every Indian be able to afford a Car, he gave India the World's first One Lakh Rs. Car. He took on the might of the Auto Industry alone.
Noble Dream, but that Dream was shattered! Today it "Rests/Rusts In Peace"
RIP Tata Nano: How Ratan Tata’s dream turned into a nightmare

Irony is : today Two Wheelers cost Rs. 1 Lakh !!!

An Irony I see is the sleazy 'Middle Class Indian' mindset prevailing amidst the general populous, and this has nothing to do with an individuals financial position, it is something hard-coded in their psyche.

Doubt me?

Look around, and observe the common man, he would rather spend 2.5 Lakhs on a Royal Enfield and overload it with his entire family, kids hanging off here and there, the works!

Rather than get a Nano for the same price, which is safer, more or less returns similar FE and is in fact cheaper to maintain!

Absolute respect to Ratan Tata for bringing the Nano even though the aforementioned mindset resulted in its death.

At times when reflecting I think there was some truth in Churchill's controversial statement about Indians. :Frustrati

Thanks for sharing!

Though I am in support of the people in Egypt, I don't think it is a good idea in India. Consider this, the population of Egypt is 9.76 Crores, the monthly car sales are ~20k or less. Thats less than what just Alto sells in India. The ratio of monthly car sales / population per crore is (20,000 / 9.76) 2049 in Egypt while it is ~1977 (265000 / 134) in India. Still we have the problem of congestion in most of the cities in India. If the situation doesn't improve, most roads are gonna resemble parking lots.

Overpriced? Definitely. There is no denying that prices have shot through the roof and segments have moved up one level in price terms. However, we need to develop a proper solution for traffic management in cities. The less said about Bangalore the better. But in Mumbai, you know you have a big problem when you can cycle faster from one corner of the city to the other than a car or a bus ride.

Imagine if Fortuner starts costing 20L from the current ~40L levels! Not only would I rush to the nearest Toyota dealer, many others would go on a buying spree. If taxing cars is the only way to keep the numbers in check, so be it.

FYI - We have 4 cars, 1 scooter and a cycle for a family of 3! Now just imagine, if a BHPian has multiple vehicles, the number with the common man would be much higher for sure.

All valid points , don’t forget the ease at which banks provide car loans. Why wouldn’t car companies work with banks to ensure that both their businesses profit of each other . Take a look at the real estate market, it follows the same logic . Dyou honestly think prices would’ve risen for cars so drastically if buying one wasn’t so easy , thanks to banks and their so called ‘affordable’ car loans ?

The irony, someone saving from their tax-deducted income multiple years to buy a humble hatchback outright would get frowned upon by the authorities, while people taking loans far beyond their repayment capacity are considered 'lucrative' customers.

Financial responsibility is for idiots, apparently.:Frustrati

I think the car market in India is following in close footsteps of the housing market. Just like the later has stagnated and gone beyond the reach of middle class, the other has started following suit (hence the recent fall in car sales numbers). We don't need social media campaigns to restore sanity. A few more quarters of falling sales will do the needful in my opinion.

Buying a car, which has a certain level of aspirational value attached to it is always a long drawn out process for most salary earners. But, the way things are going these past few years, by the time one saves up for it, their dream car is already dearer by 5 lakhs. :Frustrati

Fortuner, Endy prices are just laughable today.

Car prices have gone on the rise, it's glaringly obvious. But are we questioning anyone even though we are an highly value conscious market, Nope, we are not. Because we either get a car from a lower segment or an used car.

Heck have you seen any improvements in our roads despite the high taxation on our car's. Have anyone of us questioned the govt ? Nope, because we are willing to spend more and get SUV's to take on our poor road's.

In both these cases, our people are just improvising. No one is questioning anybody. Not SIAM, not any manufacturer and let's not even talk about our government.

They all see us as milking cows who don't question them for anything. Maybe it's an inherent characteristics of our people. I don't know. But will the slightly dwindling sales right now bring a catastrophic change to this trend, definitely NOT.

This will only improve if people start a movement like in Egypt and the government hear us, else we are all just their bakras and cow's as usual.

It's insane what a Swift costs now. Camry , Fortuner and Innova are just way too expensive. A BMW 520d cost 71 Lakhs on road :Shockked: That's 1,00,000$ which is Porsche 911 and GTR money in US.

Let's be honest, with the same amount of money if we were able to buy a GTR instead of 520d, which would make our country look wealthier to the world ? Our roads would automatically start to look more prettier too with all these beautiful car's around. There is a sudden spike in the social status of the country.

I don't believe with lower prices, people will buy 2 or 3 car's more, they will just jump a segment or 2 up and get a costlier vehicle. Because people have more brand awareness now than ever before, only reason they settle for something cheaper is because of the sky high prices.

We badly need this movement in India. Even if we didn't think about it earlier, someone has showed us how it's working for them. We can just implement and try it out as that's the only way the government will ever listen to our car enthusiast community.