The surge in the price of the parallel dollar hasn’t completely alienated car dealership customers as it has on other occasions, although in many showrooms we experienced this Monday in which the “blue” rose by more than 20 pesos as if it had been an extension of the weekend.
But while potential buyers with dollars in hand they will wait for the value of the US currency to touch a new reference value go out and buy, the sale of zero kilometer units that are quoted in pesos and whose official price has been maintained since 1 April it has run its course. In some dealerships it was even sold at more paceunder pressure to meet quotas required by car terminals.
Ricardo Salomehead of the Association of Car Dealers (ACARA), has ensured that the list price is zero kilometers “It hasn’t changed since the beginning of the month and for May we expect an increase of between 6% and 7%how it is happening”. And at the same time he admitted that even with stable list prices, there are fewer customers.
“When there are moves like this in the blue dollar, people kind of expect it to keep going higher and only when the price hits a ceiling do they go out to buy”, added the entrepreneur.
Still at the dealership Fiat from the western area has ensured that locally produced cars, which are quoted in pesos and which have been shipped from the car terminals, continue to be sold and delivered. “The serious problem is imported. The national teams, especially the Cronos and the 208mango more, mango less, they are sold. We close the month and since we have to achieve the targets set by the factory, we continue to sell domestic models”.
Hernan Dietrichowner of the dealer group founded by his father Guillermo, specializing in the Ford and Volkswagen brands, agrees.
“Currently we had no change. I also came to think that sales would skyrocket, but they remained at the same level”.
According to ACARA, which is the body in which the concessionaires of zero kilometer units converge, the restriction on the entry of imported vehicles is generating a growing unsatisfied question. Farm-to-table sales today hover around 400,000 units a year and Salomé, the head of ACARA, estimates that unsatisfied demand “is at least 100,000 more units”.
In a Toyota Capital dealership they reported that in the last week the activity has been similar to others, with the delivery of units at zero kilometer “whose sale had been agreed several months ago”. Some Toyota models have a delivery date several months late, notably the Hilux pickups manufactured in Zárate and versions of the Corolla imported from Brazil.
And the buyers? Were you indicating, in pesos, vehicles that you will receive in a few months, with an unknown price list?
“Confusion reigns, both the public and us. Our claim is that with the money we raise from a sale we can replace that unit, but it’s not very clear when that will be possible,” they added at the Japanese brand dealership.
In the used market, however, the instability of the dollar has paralyzed everything, he said Alessandro Lama, Secretary of the Automotive Chamber of Commerce (CCA).
“Whenever there is a sudden movement of this kind, stoppage of salesboth for those who have their savings in dollars and for those who have the shares,” Lamas said. Ricardo Mastrangelo, high-end used dealer, put it in one sentence: “It’s all stopped.”
The CCA groups are above all resellers who operate with used cars. “The operations that were underway were completed in strict compliance with what was agreed. And now, in the new one, the consultations have stopped. AND there’s also not much willingness to sell the shares If you don’t really know how all of this is going to end today,” added Lamas, who has a used car dealership in the Almagro neighborhood.
Imported units, both farm-to-table and used, continue to be the hardest figurine to come by. There have been almost no drive clearances in recent weeks, according to an official dealer of Chevrolet.
“I understand that there are still restrictions and/or delivery delays by the SIRA government for shipping units to market, across all brands,” he said. His fellow Westside Fiat agreed. “The import situation is very serious. It’s completely uncertain repositioning”.
Source: Clarin
