Vietnamese people turn volte-face to US-sourced Toyotas

Vietnamese car buyers now say no to Toyota cars imported from the US, even though Toyota had been a favourite brand in Vietnam for decades.

Now that the Vietnam Registration Authority has proposed to stop providing ownership registration certificates to car models subject to manufacturers’ recall campaigns, the last hopes of dealers to sell their US-sourced Toyota cars in Vietnam have been dashed.

“Who dares to purchase these models now!” exclaimed Nguyen Anh T, a car dealer. “We try to explain to customers about technical aspects of the cars and probability percentages of problems. But we cannot do anything if customers have lost confidence in the brand.”

“The accelerator problem is very serious. Accidents may occur easily,” noted Do Thanh Long, who works in the field of media and advertisement.

“I met some friends at a café this morning and cars are always our favourite topic,” he added. “All of my friends say they are afraid of the recalled models.”

Before Tet, he planned to purchase a Corolla Altis at a little over $40,000. Luckily, he heard about the recall of some Toyota models in time.

As a result, many other manufacturers have benefited from the troubles of Toyota. “No one wants to purchase Venzas and Camrys from the US anymore,” acknowledged Vu T, director of a company specializing in US car imports.

“The imported car market is gloomy in general, but the Toyota market is much more lackluster,” T. admitted. “Clients have turned their backs on Toyotas.”

Dang Quang Huy of Kylin Car Company also complained that no one wants to purchase Toyotas.

“At first some planned to purchase Camrys, but then they changed their minds,” Huy revealed. A US-sourced Camry sells for $58-59,000, an amount they can easily use for models from other manufacturers.

Previously, US-sourced Toyota cars were always superior to those from Taiwan or made domestically. Now, Vietnamese customers ignore US-made cars.

The trouble has in no way upset Toyota Vietnam. As information about the accelerator problem spread, Toyota Vietnam sales staff advised clients against buying imports and to buy domestically-assembled products to enjoy good post-sale services. Only car importers are suffering heavily.

In the latest news, 200 clients who drive a US-sourced Camry came to V-Auto Club to have their accelerators checked by March 19. Of these, 40 had Denso accelerator pedals replaced with CTS accelerators. V-Auto Club reports that it has not seen any cases in which the cars operated abnormally because of accelerator problems.

Many car importers are worried stiff about the Vietnam Registration Authority proposal to halt ownership registration certificates for models with problems.

Tuan from Kylin asserted that the proposal, if approved, will seriously affect the operations of car import companies.

According to Tuan, all models that Kylin has imported recently also have certificates that say the problematic accelerators have been replaced. Therefore, the company still can sell these models and can continue to bring in cars ordered by clients.

“The registration agency should give certificates to cars certified to have had these errors fixed,” Tuan proposed.

Other car importers suggest that the registration agency should take a different path. Since problem like accelerators can be fixed, the agency can force importers to rectify car problems and provide certificates on their quality rather than halting certificate issuance altogether.

VietNamNet, Tien phong

Tags: Toyota Vietnam, Vietnam automotive, Vietnam automotive industry, Vietnam cars