The new-car market has been very busy over the last few months as buyers can enjoy big discounts from manufacturers and sales agents, and a 50 percent vehicle registration tax reduction.

Car dealers also offer preferences for used cars to lure customers.

At K. Dang, a shop which specializes in distributing used cars on Nguyen Van Cu street in Hanoi, cars were seen covered with dust.

Nguyen Huu Luan, the owner of the shop, said he does not intend to slash the selling prices. “The car prices dropped dramatically in Q1 and Q2 because of Covid-19. If we continue to reduce the selling prices, we will incur big losses, or even go bankrupt,” he said.

When the used car market began recovering in early October, used car dealers had to keep the prices unchanged. Instead, they offer many preferences with the hope of boosting sales and avoiding losses.

Luan said his shop is applying an attractive warranty policy, which allows return or change of goods within one week. The shop is in charge of procedures for ownership transfer, and also provides lubricants.

Van Phu, the owner of a used car showroom in Cau Giay district, said the used car market has been hit hard by the pandemic and by the wave of commercial banks liquidizing used cars that are used for collateral for loans.

Phu has some common car products which have ‘very reasonable prices’: Hyundai Grand i10 1.2 AT manufactured in 2018-2019 at VND375 million, and Kia Rio 1.4 MT 2017 VND385 million. Chevrolet Spark 1.2 LS 2018 is priced at VND235 million, or 15-20 percent cheaper than the same period last year.

“In order to attract customers while keeping the prices unchanged, we have to offer gifts and a lot of other preferences,” he explained.

Phan Tuan, a car dealer with six years of experience in Hanoi, said the used car market will flourish in the coming time.

According to Tuan, because of the pandemic, most car dealers are not collecting used cars for sale. As used car prices fell sharply in Q2 and Q3, car dealers do not want to sell them. The supply has fallen and the prices will not decrease in the time to come.

Tuan thinks that the prices will increase slightly when the demand rises in the year-end sale season.

“Because of financial problems caused by the pandemic, many clients will buy used cars instead of brand new ones,” he explained. “The prices may increase from now to pre-Tet days." 

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