Higher pickup truck prices, no promotions leave buyers disappointed

Mr. Viet Thang, owner of a wedding photography studio in Ho Chi Minh City, held in his hand a price quote from a Nissan dealer for the Navara VL version that he planned to buy in March 2018 and shook his head in disappointment, "The price of the car after Tet is too high, there is no promotion at all, if I knew then I could buy a car at the end of 2017 for 30-40 million cheaper than now."

In the same situation, Mr. Tan, the owner of a food processing business in Tien Giang, shared, "I planned to buy another Chevrolet Colorado at the end of 2017 but waited until 2018 to see if the price would drop further. Unexpectedly, the car is now out of stock and the price is almost 80 million VND higher than before, so I don't know whether to buy it now or continue to wait."

The cases of Mr. Thang and Mr. Tan mentioned above are the current situation of many customers who want to buy pickup trucks in Vietnam, because the pickup models officially distributed in the Vietnamese market include: Ford Ranger, Chevrolet Colorado, Nissan Navara, Mazda BT-50, Mitsubishi Triton, Toyota Hilux, Isuzu D-Max are all imported from Thailand and are stuck with Decree 116 on car import regulations effective from January 2018, making it impossible for car companies to import new cars in the first 3 months of 2018.

Unable to import more cars, car manufacturers are forced to sell the cars they imported at the end of 2017. This number is not much and is only enough to sell for a few months. Up to now, pickup trucks in Vietnam are almost in severe shortage or there are cars but very limited in versions and colors.

Toyota's Hilux model has been out of stock since the end of 2017, so customers who want to buy a new car have to switch to other pickup models. Nissan Navara and Chevrolet Colorado, by March 2018, each dealer only has a few to a few dozen cars left, with not many color and version options. Isuzu D-Max and Mitsubishi Triton are in a similar situation. Ford's Ranger model was luckier when the company was able to bring in a batch of cars at the end of 2017. However, with monthly sales of about 1,000 cars, the number of Rangers that were able to import before January 1, 2018 is not much at the present time.

There are not many cars left to sell, so promotions are also "unnecessary" at this time. Typically, in September 2017, customers buying Chevrolet Colorado LTZ 4x4 and High Country 4x4 received a promotion of 60-80 million VND, customers buying Nissan Navara EL and VL also received a promotion of 41-48 million VND, but by March 2018, customers had to accept to buy cars at the announced price, no longer with the previous promotion.

Not only is the price of the car higher and the promotion is over, Mr. Viet Thang also said that currently, there are only a few Navara VL models left at dealers in Ho Chi Minh City. If he wants to buy the blue color, there is only one dealer left and he is "advised" to decide soon before... there are no more cars to buy.

“The current car prices are much higher than before and there are few options, so I am considering whether to buy a car now or rent another pickup truck temporarily and wait a few more months to see if the situation improves,” said Mr. Viet Thang.

It can be seen that Decree 116 is affecting imported car models in Vietnam today, especially the pickup truck segment which is purely imported. Customers who want to buy pickup trucks like Mr. Viet Thang mentioned above will have to buy cars at a higher price than before or continue to wait in the hope that the market situation will be more positive in the near future.