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Govt. suspends motor vehicles imports for 1 year


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On 11/22/2020 at 1:34 PM, Kavvz said:

 

Interesting point.

(I never considered that angle. I was wondering why the car sale buggers were making all this fuss; as local inventory prices have appreciated, and anyone selling a car now would make good profits. But to your point: Right! Any inventory purchased in Japan etc that is waiting to be shipped is a huge liability. Especially if they bought their usual, slighty body damaged stock to be touched up in SL, that can't be resold easily back into that market...)

and...here we go....the Sri Lankan exporters here are seeking for special permission to get rid of their stock over here...I am surprised its only 1364...that might be just the tip of the iceberg.

http://www.newswire.lk/2020/12/05/sl-automobile-association-in-japan-seeks-permission-to-bring-down-1364-vehicles/

What I find interesting is the bit about the cars having to be sold for half the price if it is sold to other countries. WTH ? How ? Why ? a 2mil yen car will be a 2mil yen car no matter where it gets exported to as that is the market value of the car in Japan. They talk about customized features and accessories...oh c'mon ! These are Premios and Allions and Vitzes...not even Toyota offers that much of customization that a car customized by one person would not work for a 1000 more ! So reduction in value cannot be that. Value could reduce because other markets too do not purchase cars that much because no one is there to buy it...but that is a sign of the times (I don't know about auction prices these days but I suppose they have stabilized and not as low as 50% anymore ? The market prices for cars to be sold in Japan never reduced that much...only to about 15% at most ?). OR it could be that most of these cars were fixed up piles of junk that the true value of the vehicle is half the price of what is being quoted to Sri Lankans

 

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56 minutes ago, iRage said:

What I find interesting is the bit about the cars having to be sold for half the price if it is sold to other countries. WTH ? How ? Why ? a 2mil yen car will be a 2mil yen car no matter where it gets exported to as that is the market value of the car in Japan. They talk about customized features and accessories...oh c'mon ! These are Premios and Allions and Vitzes...not even Toyota offers that much of customization that a car customized by one person would not work for a 1000 more !

Also these are all JDM cars right? So nothing special there. Sounds like there's some smoke and mirrors in there somewhere...See its stuff like this that makes one hate these buggers!

56 minutes ago, iRage said:

OR it could be that most of these cars were fixed up piles of junk that the true value of the vehicle is half the price of what is being quoted to Sri Lankans

Sounds very likely: I bet they have sold everything they could domestically in Japan and are stuck with the junk stock, so now they want to bring it down to SL, do some running reoairs, and sell it off 😉.

Sad thing is if this goes through / they get permission,  these junk cars will be sold at vastly inflated prices *sigh. Again, I guess this is why people have no sympathy for anyone in this industry. These tricksters are bringing ill repute on everyone even remotely associated with the trade! 

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1 hour ago, iRage said:

and...here we go....the Sri Lankan exporters here are seeking for special permission to get rid of their stock over here...I am surprised its only 1364...that might be just the tip of the iceberg.

http://www.newswire.lk/2020/12/05/sl-automobile-association-in-japan-seeks-permission-to-bring-down-1364-vehicles/

What I find interesting is the bit about the cars having to be sold for half the price if it is sold to other countries. WTH ? How ? Why ? a 2mil yen car will be a 2mil yen car no matter where it gets exported to as that is the market value of the car in Japan. They talk about customized features and accessories...oh c'mon ! These are Premios and Allions and Vitzes...not even Toyota offers that much of customization that a car customized by one person would not work for a 1000 more ! So reduction in value cannot be that. Value could reduce because other markets too do not purchase cars that much because no one is there to buy it...but that is a sign of the times (I don't know about auction prices these days but I suppose they have stabilized and not as low as 50% anymore ? The market prices for cars to be sold in Japan never reduced that much...only to about 15% at most ?). OR it could be that most of these cars were fixed up piles of junk that the true value of the vehicle is half the price of what is being quoted to Sri Lankans

 

As far as I know none of these cars are custom made for a Sri Lankan client, unless the order was placed for a specific colour. Last time I checked only the agent can get customized car for a certain market.

It was the big shots at the VIASL who went to town saying that they have sufficient stocks for two years with them, now they are asking for approval to bring down vehicles which they supposedly say are stuck in Japan without being able to sell to another market. It was they who bought down the so called 300 vehicles which were bought even without opening L/C's and now those are also being released.

Mind you most of these vehicles are bought from auctions and very few must be bought directly from a showroom paying the original price.

From all this the actual manufacture agents are hit the worst as they have exhausted their stocks and they have vehicles which were ordered kept at manufacturer premises with no idea when they can be imported. Some of the models will be obsolete in two years time, how many other countries would buy these vehicles for their market?

 

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1 hour ago, iRage said:

Quote:

According to the Daily Mirror, President of the Association S. A. Nishantha Meegalla said the Embassy of Japan has been provided with details of the purchased vehicles.

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Meegalla said permission is being sought to import these vehicles to cover up the losses as all the vehicles which were purchased and manufactured according to the local customer requirements cannot be sold to other countries.

unquote:

Isn't this customized cars are also JDM's? 
Those will not sell to SL legally by Japanese car makers and will come as used cars. They are legally customized for Japanese users and not for Sri Lankan users (although the real case is different)

Does the embassy support for this kind of underhand games?  

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@Gummybr, @gayanath...I strongly believe what these guys mean by customization is pretty much the manufacturer and dealer options that one can pick out of the catalog when they buy the car here in Japan. These customizations are nothing more than what type of carpet...color, stereo, seat color, extra gadgets, etc....None of these so called customizations have anything to do with the cars being made market specific to Sri Lanka. So there is no reason why they cannot be sold to any other market that accepts Japanese imports. This whole customization story is just BS made by these guys to make it seem like these cars cannot be sold to any other region because it has been customized for SL conditions and tastes...utter BS. 

And yes..market specific customizations are done by manufacturers through their local dealers on models designated for that market....No manufacturer is going to customize a JDM car for a small SL market.

30 minutes ago, gayanath said:

Does the embassy support for this kind of underhand games? 

I think that journalist made a mistake...makes sense for the association to file the request with the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Japan (i.e. Embassy in Japan). Especially because there is a Japan-Sri Lanka economic partnership and development (or some name like that) division at our embassy. Not the Embassy of Japan (in Sri Lanka). As for what the Embassy will do...well...for starters these political appointed people have no idea about cars or anything...and even if they do...well they don't care or are "friends" of these culprits and will lobby on their behalf with the government under the guise of supporting Sri Lankan entrepreneurs in Japan. So go figure...(also...don't forget...there are many other true Sri Lankan entrepreneurs in the Food and manufacturing industry who are pretty much screwed with low supply of material/ingredients/etc... from Sri Lanka with absolutely no support..and these are people who are building and marketing Sri Lankan brands)

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3 hours ago, iRage said:

@Gummybr, @gayanath...I strongly believe what these guys mean by customization is pretty much the manufacturer and dealer options that one can pick out of the catalog when they buy the car here in Japan. These customizations are nothing more than what type of carpet...color, stereo, seat color, extra gadgets, etc....None of these so called customizations have anything to do with the cars being made market specific to Sri Lanka. So there is no reason why they cannot be sold to any other market that accepts Japanese imports. This whole customization story is just BS made by these guys to make it seem like these cars cannot be sold to any other region because it has been customized for SL conditions and tastes...utter BS. 

And yes..market specific customizations are done by manufacturers through their local dealers on models designated for that market....No manufacturer is going to customize a JDM car for a small SL market.

yeah most of the so called custom cars are actually cars retrofitted with bullshit mods in japan and sometimes in Sri Lanka. I remember how car sales had so called G Package, Luxel Package and all which costed almost 1 Mil above the same grade standard car. the car documents and telltale signs show that its just a normal base grade car that these sellers fit Modellista bodykits from scrap cars and sometimes even dash pannel accesories like auto climate control, Multi steering etc to make it look of higher spec. Even most "brand new zero milage" cars brought by sellers have JEVIC, JAAI and Auction sheets which clearly means they are not brand new but auctioned off cars with reset mileage (they make it like 350km to make it convincible). One car salesman said the FOB price for brand new is higher so they buy the car and run a few KMs and register it in japan to show that its a used car (not sure if its BS but sure sounds like it). 

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16 minutes ago, HaeylM said:

yeah most of the so called custom cars are actually cars retrofitted with bullshit mods in japan and sometimes in Sri Lanka. I remember how car sales had so called G Package, Luxel Package and all which costed almost 1 Mil above the same grade standard car. the car documents and telltale signs show that its just a normal base grade car that these sellers fit Modellista bodykits from scrap cars and sometimes even dash pannel accesories like auto climate control, Multi steering etc to make it look of higher spec.

Yes...which is I guess the reason they can sell these cars to other countries only at 50% of what they could charge Lankans :D

16 minutes ago, HaeylM said:

brought by sellers have JEVIC, JAAI and Auction sheets

1. In Japan you cannot get a car released from the manufacturer's dealership without registering it...so even if a car exporter takes a car carrier to the dealership and drives it to the yard and the car has only 10km on...it will still have a registration plate...to export the guy needs to deregister it...therefore even with just 10km...that means it still gets classified as used by the Japanese authorities. and according to import regulations of SL and other countries...every used car needs a pre-inspection certificate. Even if it has onl7 10km on the clock and was taken out of the dealership 36 hours earlier. Only time countries like SL waive pre-inspection certificate is for brand new cars and brand new cars can only be sourced through the agents and franchise/dealership holders of the manufacturer. The reason why it gets waived is because the manufacturer provides a certificate of compliance for the car (which automatically happens) for its destination.

2. It is quite common to buy brand new cars from the auction...in fact many people make a business out of it. It is possible because of the whole registration requirement to leave the dealership. But then...these are not sold at auction as brand new because they are not...they are sold as 0 owner or low mileage or single owner new cars.

This is exactly what leaves everything open for our crooks to buy crashed cars...fix them up and then peddle them off as brand new cars.

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Accident and flood damaged cars bought from auctions and repaired with fake JAAI certificates and 4.5 grade auction sheets. Only the dumb Sri Lankan customers will buy them at 200% inflated prices to impress the neighbors next door.

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1 hour ago, ajm said:

Accident and flood damaged cars bought from auctions and repaired with fake JAAI certificates and 4.5 grade auction sheets. 

Ah! Yes and those car will obviously be worth up to 50% less :D !! Mystery solved as to why these buggers can't just put these cars back up for auction and shed their inventory in Japan itself! 😆 

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12 hours ago, ajm said:

Accident and flood damaged cars bought from auctions and repaired with fake JAAI certificates and 4.5 grade auction sheets. Only the dumb Sri Lankan customers will buy them at 200% inflated prices to impress the neighbors next door.

Quite a few times I saw JAAI, JEVIC, Shaken, Motor Inspection and other "JDM" stickers for sale on FB :) So...go figure....even if the car sales people won't do it..seems like the users will

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  • 1 month later...

Happy new year folks 

New member here & came across this thread

just a personal rant

I was searching a vehicle for a family member since mid 2020 because since corona happened , travelling via public transport suddenly became dangerous :(  

At that time the price hike was starting and everybody said it will plummet after a year or so . And the need for a vehicle also went down because of the work from home situation , so we backed off.

The prices are still going up , even a used 2016 vitz is closing on 5mil which is just ridiculous , and the 121 is 4 mil lol who would buy them at those prices ! Most of them are glued together nightmares.

I don't have anyone related to the large scale car sales side of things , just curious if people actually buy these cars at those inflated prices because online ads get taken down after a few days(or even hours) on hot topics like 240 premio vitz and toyotas in general ,  I mean people looking for those kinda cars are always middle class people(otherwise they'll buy a brand new bmw x1 or something because there are plenty of them for sale) , I think some people just can't take it anymore and bites the bullet? 

 

But hey , look at the bright side , MPs can bring whatever they want lol

https://www.newsfirst.lk/2021/01/08/mps-receive-luxury-tax-waiver-on-vehicles/

 

 

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  • 5 months later...

Well its been a heck of a roller coaster ride in Sri Lanka during the past week which was topped off with the increase in the Petrol and Diesel prices. The pendulum swung this way and that and at last the Presidents Office says that we have to look at reducing the use of fossil fuels. This whole situation has made me really wonder where this country is heading and I am really disappointed with how things have panned out. I do understand that we are heavily reliant on fossil fuel imports and that it is the biggest factor in our foreign currency going out, but wasnt it the same all these years? My problem is dont we have any people with common sense in these places that are so called advisory seats? Why do they just take these adhoc decisions and put people in trouble?

Yes the whole world is going full electric by 2030 and we need to change as well, but where is the infrastructure for public charging like super chargers etc? Has the government thought of that? All other countries have already started installing public chargers and superchargers (fast chargers). What about the fuel bill in terms of generating electricity (true few people have solar energy to charge their houses etc)? We are not a wealthy country and our tax structures are not the best for introducing the EV vehicles. You will have to pay massive taxes for vehicles that can do more than 200 - 300kms and have adequate power for day to days use or rely on cheap Chinese cars that develop around 5-6PS and will take you about 45-60kms.

So anyway it looks like there wont be any new imports (other than the so called misfiring Prado's) in the near future at all even for about another two years.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Priority-given-to-import-electric-vehicles-to-reduce-air-pollution/108-215634

There you go, they should first look at infrastructure, charging capability, range, scrappage schemes before implementing.

Hope we dont bring down EV's and transplant hybrid petrol engines like they do on the Leaf.

Air pollution my foot. You stop imports of fossil fuel vehicles and burn more fossil fuels to charge them. Where is the promised renewable energy etc?

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1 hour ago, Gummybr said:

https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Priority-given-to-import-electric-vehicles-to-reduce-air-pollution/108-215634

There you go, they should first look at infrastructure, charging capability, range, scrappage schemes before implementing.

Hope we dont bring down EV's and transplant hybrid petrol engines like they do on the Leaf.

Air pollution my foot. You stop imports of fossil fuel vehicles and burn more fossil fuels to charge them. Where is the promised renewable energy etc?

WTH !!!??? When is this going to happen ? The country has no dollars (expats cannot access their own money) and there is no plan on how to get forex flowing in...then this comes in ?

Typical unplanned work by our supreme leaders

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51 minutes ago, iRage said:

WTH !!!??? When is this going to happen ? The country has no dollars (expats cannot access their own money) and there is no plan on how to get forex flowing in...then this comes in ?

Typical unplanned work by our supreme leaders

Problem is not the environment, its just that Govt / Country doesnt have money for fuel nor any other imports. 

This is what everyone says, have a better plan inform and involve all the stakeholders, have a pulse with the people see if people can adopt in terms of cash flow etc.

On renewable energy do you think that we have the knowhow of how to generate energy without leaning on other countries? I know that LTL plays a major part in the energy generation here and in other countries, but the equipment is not locally made and it is very expensive. 

In the wake of banning of imports of anything considered luxurious this wont see the light of day as it is, but if the govt plans out ahead then bring in a policy (not an adhoc policy) we will see a good outcome and we will be able to align with other countries.

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5 hours ago, Gummybr said:

https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Priority-given-to-import-electric-vehicles-to-reduce-air-pollution/108-215634

There you go, they should first look at infrastructure, charging capability, range, scrappage schemes before implementing.

Hope we dont bring down EV's and transplant hybrid petrol engines like they do on the Leaf.

Air pollution my foot. You stop imports of fossil fuel vehicles and burn more fossil fuels to charge them. Where is the promised renewable energy etc?

Totally agree on the lack of Infra - forget cars, we still cant provide enough power to domestic use.  For a month there are apx 4 power cuts lasting over 6 hours citing so called "maintenance work"

These policies are like underwear - keeps getting changed so often - It would be good if it were only underwears  but not for policies

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2 hours ago, Gummybr said:

Problem is not the environment, its just that Govt / Country doesnt have money for fuel nor any other imports. 

Yeah man, situation is dire...I'm wondering  what is going to happen to essential services that are heavily subsidized such as the educstion sector and the health sector (no money to import anything for the State Hospitals, and even simple supplies like bandages, anesthesia supplies, IV fluids etc are low - Its scary.) ? 

2 hours ago, Gummybr said:

This is what everyone says, have a better plan inform and involve all the stakeholders, have a pulse with the people see if people can adopt in terms of cash flow etc.

People would be more willing to get onboard if the bloody politicians weren't so selfish and acted as if the austerity laws didn't apply to them....Look at them trying to sneak in Prados for themselves etc!  And its not just the monkeys in power who were trying to justify luxury vehicle imports during the pandemic, while even basic imports like tires and spare-parts were banned for the rest of us...They were all in on it; as even the opposition was mum on the topic until the public found out and THEN they all fell over themselves to deny / denounce the vehicle imports...What a despicable bunch our 225 are! Shame on them! 

 

 

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3 hours ago, Gummybr said:

On renewable energy do you think that we have the knowhow of how to generate energy without leaning on other countries? I know that LTL plays a major part in the energy generation here and in other countries, but the equipment is not locally made and it is very expensive

Absolutely not ! But lets also be positive....China does have a lot of EV charging infrastructure....so let's not be surprised if certain projects and contracts based on AMAZING loans gets thrown towards China. 
They never plan anything and just go with whatever fad they hear of which will keep the uneducated/self-centered masses quiet or push the agenda of any party who is willing to fill their pockets. If any planning was done...even a 5 year old can figure out that this is just going to cause a massive overload on the national grid and there will be no power for non-transportation purposes.

39 minutes ago, Kavvz said:

even the opposition

Do we actually have an opposition ? I mean the same flock of goats that keep on jumpring back and forth and graze under a different tree is the same flock and not the flock of the neighboring farm right ?

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13 hours ago, iRage said:

Do we actually have an opposition ? I mean the same flock of goats that keep on jumpring back and forth and graze under a different tree is the same flock and not the flock of the neighboring farm right ?

The reason Sri Lanka voted for a system change twice and still ended up with the same set of goats. No wonder a lot of people are thinking of leaving.

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13 hours ago, iRage said:

If any planning was done...even a 5 year old can figure out that this is just going to cause a massive overload on the national grid and there will be no power for non-transportation purposes.

 

We have a set of learned professionals in parliament who have proved to be just like the rest of uneducated idiots who says yes to anything and then go to justify everything. Do you think they are given the freedom to think and come out with policies or even have any common sense of a 5 year old?

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4 hours ago, Gummybr said:

We have a set of learned professionals in parliament who have proved to be just like the rest of uneducated idiots who says yes to anything and then go to justify everything. Do you think they are given the freedom to think and come out with policies or even have any common sense of a 5 year old?

System change

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Banana Republic it is, when the Environment Minister talks of going electric this idiot says that we will produce fossil fuel and gas within the next four years.  Having a refinery doesnt mean that we have fossil fuel production.

 

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On 7/8/2021 at 8:05 AM, Gummybr said:

https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Priority-given-to-import-electric-vehicles-to-reduce-air-pollution/108-215634

There you go, they should first look at infrastructure, charging capability, range, scrappage schemes before implementing.

Hope we dont bring down EV's and transplant hybrid petrol engines like they do on the Leaf.

Air pollution my foot. You stop imports of fossil fuel vehicles and burn more fossil fuels to charge them. Where is the promised renewable energy etc?

This is going to end like the compost fertilizer thing🐃

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