New cars 'sold out', Vietnamese people rush to rent self-drive cars during Tet

Disillusioned with buying a car for Tet

The car market in the days leading up to Tet Mau Tuat 2018 fell into chaos when the demand for car purchases increased while most dealers had no cars to sell. Many customers were upset when their contracts were canceled, accepting to pay more money but still could not buy a car for Tet due to the scarce supply.

Running around Honda dealerships for the past two weeks to buy a City, Mr. Le Quoc Viet - living in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City shared: "I didn't expect the supply to be so scarce. In previous months, cars were discounted and there were no buyers, now every dealership has announced that they are out of cars to deliver before Tet. I even contacted Honda dealerships in Binh Duong, Dong Nai... the sales staff only agreed to sign a contract with the condition that the car would be delivered after Tet."

According to Thanh Nien reporters, most Honda car dealers in Ho Chi Minh City are in a "standstill" situation due to lack of cars to sell. A representative of Honda Cong Hoa - Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City said: "The whole year of 2017, cars were discounted and sold off but there were still few buyers. At this time, the demand is high but there are no cars to deliver to customers. The Honda CR-V, Civic models... are popular but the import process is currently facing difficulties, so since the beginning of the year, no batch of cars has been imported to Vietnam. Only Honda City is produced domestically but the assembly components are not enough to meet the increased demand during Tet."

New cars are in short supply, and some customers have been "disillusioned" with buying a car for Tet when the dealer apologized, canceled the contract, and returned the deposit because there were no cars to deliver before Tet. Having traveled from Tay Ninh to Ho Chi Minh City to deposit money to buy a SantaFe at a Hyundai dealer since early January 2018, Mr. Le The Huy said: "I was very upset when the dealer's sales staff announced that the car delivery time would be postponed until after Tet or refunded the deposit because there were no cars to deliver at this time, even though we had previously agreed to buy an additional package of accessories and insurance worth nearly a hundred million VND."

Currently, although most models have been assembled at the factory in Ninh Binh, similar to Honda, Hyundai models such as SantaFe, Tucson, Grand i10... are also out of stock. Even the newly launched Elantra Sport model, the number of cars produced cannot meet market demand. A representative of Hyundai Thanh Cong explained: "The reason for the shortage is due to a shortage of components for assembly, due to the prolonged strike at factories in Korea."

In fact, at this time, some customers are willing to pay extra money to "bribe" the sales staff of the dealers but are still helpless because the supply is limited. Ms. Phuong Anh, an office worker in Da Nang looking to buy a 7-seat Honda CR-V, said: "My family is large so I plan to buy a 7-seat Honda CR-V. Compared to the previous estimated price, the price of this car model has increased by more than 200 million VND if you include accessories and insurance. However, after more than a week, I still have not been able to buy a car, even though I am willing to pay extra money to the dealer to receive the car before Tet, but everyone shakes their heads."

According to Honda VN, the new generation CR-V batch of 750 cars imported at the end of 2017 was distributed by dealers to consumers in January 2018. Currently, customers who order this car model must wait until Lunar New Year but the dealer has not yet determined the delivery time.

Similar to the Honda CR-V, the new generation Mazda CX-5 assembled by THACO has been "sold out". Most Mazda dealers in Ho Chi Minh City have stopped trading this model in January 2018 to wait for supply from the factory. Mitsubishi also announced that the first batch of Outlanders assembled in Vietnam was sold out since early February 2018 and currently the factory has no more cars to deliver to distribution locations. Popular models such as KIA Cerato, Mazda3... are also in a similar situation.

Rush to rent self-drive cars during Tet

Unable to buy a car before Tet Mau Tuat 2018, many customers postponed their car purchase plans to continue waiting, and chose to rent a self-driving car to travel during Tet.

Immediately after the dealer informed him that he would have to wait until after Tet to receive the car after signing the contract to buy a City, Mr. Quoc Viet contacted a car rental shop in District 7 and agreed to rent a 2016 Mazda3 for nearly 10 million VND for 7 days to take his family home for Tet. "At this time, even if you have money, it is difficult to buy a car as planned. The family has a 1-year-old child, so we have to rent a car to drive ourselves for safety." - Mr. Quoc Viet shared more.

Meanwhile, the failure of his plan to buy a car for Tet is causing Mr. Le The Huy to run around looking for a self-drive car to take his 5 family members to Phan Thiet for Tet. "I planned to rent a 7-seater like Innova, but I contacted many places that rent self-drive cars in Ho Chi Minh City at the moment and they said they were all sold out."

Currently, the demand for self-driving car rentals increases during the Lunar New Year, car rental establishments in Ho Chi Minh City have doubled the price of car rental packages compared to normal days. At a transportation service store in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City, the staff here quoted the price of renting a Fortuner car from the 26th of Tet to the 10th of Tet at 1.5 - 2 million VND/day. Meanwhile, on normal days, the rental price is only from 800 - 1 million VND/day.

Similarly, the Kia Sedona gasoline automatic transmission also increased from 1.4 million VND/day to 2.1 million VND/day. Even small car models such as KIA Morning, Hyundai Grand i10, which have the lowest rental prices on the market, but on Lunar New Year, those who want to rent a car have to pay up to 800,000 VND/day.

For customers who need to rent a car for a long time, businesses also have a package rental service from 7 to 10 days. However, the price for renting a car during Tet is not cheap. The Toyota Vios car rental package for the whole Lunar New Year ranges from 7 to 10 million VND, depending on the car model and version. The Toyota Fotuner package price for 7 days (29 to 5th of Tet) is from 11 to 13 million VND, Hyundai Grand i10 is from 5 to 7 million VND...

However, not everyone is lucky enough to find a self-drive car to rent as desired. Because up to this point, some car models are fully booked. The owner of a used car dealership and car rental service located on Highway 13, Hiep Binh Chanh Ward, Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City said: "80% of the cars have been rented, mainly from the 29th to the 4th of Tet. Car rental prices during Tet have changed, so in recent days, many people have called to inquire about car rental prices. Every year, usually after the 15th of December, the number of cars I rent is full of customers."

The option of renting a car for Tet holiday has made many customers willing to postpone the time of buying a new car to continue waiting. Because up to now, cars from ASEAN enjoying 0% import tax have not been able to enter Vietnam due to new regulations on car import under Decree 116.

According to a representative of a car company under the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), after Circular 03 was issued with instructions on the implementation of Decree 116, it will take at least 3-4 months for importing enterprises to complete all paperwork procedures to import cars for sale in the Vietnamese market. Meanwhile, some domestic car assembly enterprises are also waiting for batches of components enjoying 0% import tax according to Decree 125 to Vietnam for assembly to create a competitive advantage in price.