CAR dealers were yesterday facing a flood of inquiries from potential customers after Parliament on Thursday approved legislation, which dramatically slashed the cost of most new cars.
Buoyant dealers said now was “definitely the time to be out buying a car”, with prices plunging as much as £50,000 in one top-of-the-range case.
Under the new legislation, cars will be taxed according to engine capacity, with six categories of saloon and 4×4 cars. Vans for private use will be divided into the same six categories but will be taxed at a much lower rate. Pick-up trucks will continue to be taxed, irrespective of engine size, at a flat rate of £0.50 per cc.
Car import dealers were yesterday upbeat about the change in legislation and the majority were optimistic that sales would soar.
A spokesman for Unicars, which represents Volkswagen, Audi, Seat and Skoda, told the Cyprus Mail: “Sales will go up. They have been at very low levels for the last six months and now they are going up…We are very happy that the changes have gone through because they were long overdue and it is a complete change in philosophy, which is more in line with European directives on what sort of car taxation system is in place.”
The dealers’ popular VW Polo 1.4 litre engine model has gone down from £10,300 to £7,950. The Golf Pacific 1.4 is now only £8,950 from its previous price of £12,500 and the Volkswagen Beetle 1.6 is down £2,700 from £15,650 to £12,950.
But, the German manufacturer’s Tuareg 4×4 with a 3.2 litre engine, which was once around £52,000, has now shot up to nearly £70,000.
“We believe there will be a shift in the market with regards to the type of car people buy,” the spokesman added. In other words, buyers who had previously been in the market for a 1.4 litre engine car might now buy a 1.6 litre engine vehicle. “They will go to bigger engines because it’s in their price range.”
Importers Demades D.J & Sons Ltd said the cost of their Fiat Punto 1.3 had fallen from £8,400 to £6,620 and the three-door and five-door Fiat Stylo 1.6 was down from £13,400 to £10,950. Meanwhile their Alpha Romeo 147 1.6 model fell to £11,970 from £14,670 and their 156 1.6 model dropped nearly £3,000 from £18,040 to £15,140.
Toyota salesman Evripides Evripidou said he believed the new regime would shift the market balance away from used cars and back to new models. He said Toyota believed they could double their sales.
“Sales of new cars took up 30 per cent of the market as compared to 70 per cent of used car sales. We would be happy with this dropping to 50/50 or 60/40 in our favour,” he said.
“In the past there was £4,000 difference in buying a used or new car. Now that the Yaris, for example, has dropped from £9,200 to £6,900, the new car will become more enticing to consumers, because it won’t be much more expensive than a used car,” he said.
Other price dips include the Toyota Corolla 1.4, from £11,450 to £9,200, and the Avensis 1.6, from £15,750 to £12,800. However, the Japanese car import dealer also saw a steep £23,000 increase in the price of its Landcruiser 3.0, which rises from £31,000 to £54,000.
Demstar salesman, Phivos Kyriakou, shared Evripidou’s optimism. “This year 3,200 used cars from Japan were sold. Because there will be no change in their prices, and possibly an increase, we should get a portion of the used car sales.”
He said none of Honda’s car prices had gone up. Instead the Honda Civic five-door hatchback was down to £10,500 from £13,200, the CRV SE Sport 2.0 jeep was down to £19,900 from £21,900 and the HRV 1.6 now cost just £11,900, down from £15,900. As for the sporty S2000 model, that’s down £9,000 from £37,000 to £28,000.
CTC Automotives were also able to report drastic price decreases, with the Saab 9-5 Vector 2.0 LPT down 28 per cent from £39,300 to £28,400 and the Saab 9-3 Arc 2.0 T down to £27,500 from £35,200.
Nevertheless the company’s top of the range Jaguar XKR 8 convertible saw the biggest plunge with a £50,000 decrease from £172,700 to £122,700, while there is a £39,000 decrease in the Jaguar X350 Super V8 4.2 S/C, now down to £124,500 from £163,500. The Jaguar X-Type 2.5 SE model is down £13,000 to £39,900 from £52,900.
However, CTC Automatives’ Hyundai Santa-Fe 2.7 Auto is up £18,600 from its previous price of £24,900 to its new price at £43,500.
But lovers of four-wheel drive vehicles need not despair, because Landrover’s Freelander models have actually dropped in price and not increased. The petrol-run Freelander 1.8 is now £19,900, down from £23,500, and the diesel Freelander 2.0 is down to £21,500 from £25,900. A salesman at Char. Pilakoutas (BCI) Ltd said this meant sales of the Freelander were likely to increase, particularly since preliminary estimates suggested the new Discovery model was set to go up by several thousand pounds.
