Tehran, Iran, August 29
Trend:
Iran's second largest carmaker, SAIPA, said it would launch a pre-sale plan next week to sell its products in a bid to control an upsurge in auto prices in the country.
In a statement late on Tuesday, SAIPA said all its models would be available in the market next week, the industry ministry’s Shata news agency reported on August 29.
It added that the move will be aimed at controlling high and unreasonable prices in the market as well as cutting out the middlemen.
A new wave of higher car prices has arrived; pushing decent rides further out of average Iranians' reach and helping avaricious dealers make another quick buck at the expense of customers.
This is while some public figures have rushed in to calm down the market saying that nothing is out of the ordinary.
With the US dollar exchange rate on a runaway bullish run, most market observers expected the tumultuous rates have a knock-on effect on the auto market, as it did on Monday when mid-range vehicles saw a 3-6 percent hike in their prices while the value of high-end models jumped by 13 percent compared to a day earlier.
In the span of a single day, locally designed sedan model Dena+ saw a 13.3 percent price jump and is now sold at 850 million rials ($19,300), Peugeot 207's 13.09 percent rise places the vehicle's price at 950 million rials ($21,600), and Sandero Stepway's 10.47 percent jump has put the car's price above the one billion rials mark at 1.05 billion rials ($23,860).