Economic uncertainty brings down auto sales

By The Nation

 

 

The Thai automobile market in July declined by 1.1 per cent, with insiders saying that economic uncertainty is causing consumers to delay purchases.

 

According to Toyota Motor Thailand Co Ltd (TMT), 81,044 vehicles were sold in July, comprising 32,794 passenger cars (up 0.8 per cent) and 48,250 commercial vehicles (down 2.4 per cent).

 

“Consumers are concerned about the economy that has been slow in recovering, as agriculture prices have remained low. That has curbed any growth in purchasing power this month,” said Paveena Nanthikulvanich, vice president at TMT.

 

She said in the first seven months of the year, 605,814 vehicles were sold, an increase of 5.9 per cent over the same period last year.

 

“Demand for automobiles was high during the first half of the year and there were a large number of sales promotions to attract customers. That helped the market grow,” she said, adding that sales in August are expected to remain stable. 

 

“The government’s economic stimulus measures will help strengthen consumer and investor confidence, but financing is tight and some consumers are still concerned about the uncertainty in the world economy,” she said.

 

Toyota is a top brand in automobile market with 197,262 vehicles sold from January to July 2019, followed by Isuzu with 103,011 units and Honda with 75,723 units.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/business/30375448

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-08-28

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Sound to me like the car market is still quiet healthy.

 

"She said in the first seven months of the year, 605,814 vehicles were sold, an increase of 5.9 per cent over the same period last year."

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Economic uncertainty brings down auto sales

That shouldn't be a lasting problem. The government stimulus package includes soft loans for workers, small business owners and farmers. That should give car sales a big boost at the expense of increasing household debt.

The economy needs stimulating no matter what the human consequences. Plus the country needs new cars on the roads to replace those being destroyed in large numbers every day.

I will start worrying when the mama noodle economic measurements come up. THAT is the real thing.

New cars are one of the biggest financial drains on the average household.  Better to spend a few bucks on some complete tool sets, metric and SAE sockets, box wrenches, the car repair manual, and buy used.  I understand that most people don't understand cars, have not worked on them, have no desire to work on them or get dirty.  But over the years it saved me so much money.  Cheaper insurance since I rarely had the need to insure the vehicle itself for collision.  I never took out a car loan (don't like paying interest)., etc.  To each their own, but to me it is sad when I see people enamored with a "new" car that they say they "bought" when all they did was take out a car loan, and either put money down out of pocket or took some no money down longer term loan that just costs one more interest over the years.  Cars get hit, damaged, degraded, etc.  Really should drop your expectations of what a car should be and do.  It should start and run reliably, steer and brake safely, have working AC. 

The Chinese here have the right attitude, the last thing they spend cash on is a new car, they spend on the kids education not a new metal box with four wheels to try and impress friends and neighbors.

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The Thai automobile market in July declined by 1.1 per cent, with insiders saying that economic uncertainty is causing consumers to delay purchases

The automobile market needs to adopt the TAT marketing strategy - there's no such thing as 'decline' or 'uncertainty' - they're banned words. They have been deleted from the TAT dictionary, the same as they think 'gullible' has been deleted from the English dictionary.

 

Edited August 28, 20196 yr by bluesofa
misprit

I sure will wait for a better exchange rate before buying a new car.