Mazda raises prices amid car price cuts storm

At the end of the year, car manufacturers are participating in a "war" to reduce car prices by up to 200-300 million VND/car to stimulate car buying. However, many customers were surprised when Thaco Truong Hai increased the price of Mazda cars.

According to some Mazda showrooms, this November, car models such as Mazda3, Mazda CX-5, Mazda6... all had their selling prices adjusted up by a maximum of 20 million VND compared to October.

Continuous massive discounts at the end of the year

In recent months, the Vietnamese car market has seen many fluctuations as car manufacturers compete to reduce prices to boost sales at the end of 2017.

Accordingly, car prices have dropped sharply, with some models dropping by nearly 200-300 million VND/car, something consumers have never witnessed in the history of the car market in Vietnam.

The race to reduce car prices in Vietnam's car market in 2017 - Photo by Quang Dinh

The biggest drop in the current car market is the Hyundai Santa Fe model with a reduction of up to 235 million VND/car. Specifically, the lowest version of this model, the regular gasoline Sata Fe 2.4, has now "dropped" from 1.1 billion VND to 898 million VND.

The German car company also surprised everyone by joining the "price reduction war" with a strong discount of 130 million VND/car for the Touareg SUV model. In addition, the two versions of the Scirocco sports car were also strongly discounted by 100 - 120 million VND.

In November, Mitsubishi Vietnam also heavily discounted the Outlander crossover model by 206 million VND for both the 2.0L and 2.4L versions, with the lowest version now priced from 1.123 billion VND to 975 million VND. Most notably, Toyota's best-selling car - Vios has dropped to 500 million VND after the Japanese automaker reduced its price many times.

Although considered a "difficult" company when it comes to reducing car prices, Toyota cannot stay out of the price reduction war to compete.

Therefore, in early November, Toyota strongly reduced the price of the Vios model by nearly 60 million VND. In particular, the Vios TRD version has a reduction of 58 million VND, from 644 million to 586 million VND.

This is considered a "trick" that car companies apply to quickly push out old cars this year to anticipate the time when import tax on cars from ASEAN will drop to 0% early next year.

Why did Thaco increase the price of Mazda cars?

It is quite surprising that while companies are competing to launch many year-end stimulus programs in the hope of selling cars, Thaco has increased car prices.

Thaco increases Mazda car prices in the price storm, surprising many people - Photo: Que An

Specifically, the Mazda 6, Mazda CX-5 and BT-50 models have increased in price by 20 million VND/car and reached 879 million VND for each Mazda6 2.0 AT version, 919 million VND/car for the 2.0 AT Premium version, 1.019 billion VND for the 2.5 AT Premium version. Similarly, the Mazda CX-5 model has been adjusted in price to increase to 869 million VND/car for the 2WD version, 919 million VND/car for the AWD version.

The Mazda BT-50 model has been adjusted to a price of 825 million VND/car for the 3.2 AT version, 670 million VND/car for the 2.2 AT version and 640 million VND/car for the 2.2 MT version.

At the same time, all versions of the Mazda 3 model have been adjusted up by 10 million VND, reaching prices from 650 million VND to 770 million VND/car, depending on the version.

Thaco only did not adjust the selling price for the Mazda 2 model, this model continues to maintain the price from 515 million VND to 562 million VND, depending on the version.

With the price increase of Mazda models, Thaco is the first automobile manufacturing and trading enterprise to adjust the selling price of cars, after a series of consecutive months of price reduction. This may be a signal that automobile manufacturing and trading enterprises have found a way to stop the price reduction war between brands. Of course, the decision to increase the selling price of Mazda cars was made based on market developments and Thaco's business forecast.

According to Mr. Bui Kim Kha - Deputy General Director of Truong Hai, this move is to ensure the company's profits because in the previous months, the company had to "sacrifice" profits to reduce prices in the context of the gloomy market. He also revealed that Thaco may make some more price adjustments in the near future.

Many economists with knowledge of the auto industry see the price-cutting race as a way to stimulate car buying. But in reality, car manufacturers are “running” when import tax on cars from ASEAN is reduced to 0% in early 2018.

This shows that companies are looking to reposition car prices at acceptable levels to prepare for a new period of tension and fiercer competition.

However, it is also possible that the car price reduction will stop in the coming time when entering 2018 with stricter car import policies than before, the number of imported cars is expected to decrease sharply and the selling price will increase in the coming time.

According to TTO