Early sales disappoint at Motor Expo

"We are revising the figure we expected would sell at the Expo to 13,000 units from 15,000 units. In the first five days we have sold 4,778 units. The political unrest has led to this drop in sales and we also expect a total viewer drop of 15 per cent, from the 1.5 million visitors expected previously," Kwanchai Paphatphong, chairman of IMC, the show's organiser, said yesterday. The show's run ends on Wednesday.

Consumers were now buying more fuel efficient and smaller cars, he said.

The overall sales ratio for the Expo this year was expected to lean towards sedans, with the average price paid at the show sliding to Bt880,000-Bt900,000 - from the Bt1 million recorded last year. This brings the total cash transactions for the Expo down to Bt11.7 billion from the early estimate of Bt15 billion.

The most popular make was Toyota with 1,555 units sold, good for a 32.5-per-cent share; followed by Honda with 866 units and 18.1 per cent; Isuzu with 728 units and 15.2 per cent; and Chevrolet with 321 units and 6.7 per cent.

Selling under 300 units were Proton with 286 units and 6 per cent; Nissan with 261 units and 5.5 per cent; Mazda with 198 units and 4.1 per cent; Mitsubishi 183 units with 3.8 per cent; Ford 85 units and 1.8 per cent; and Hyundai 48 units and 1 per cent.

A Toyota spokesperson said a more accurate judgement of its sales at the event would be possible after the long weekend.

Honda, however, stayed optimistic about its sales, mainly due to the recently launched City model and the trend of buyers turning to fuel-efficient cars. Honda expects sales at the Motor Expo this year to be better than last.

Kwanchai anticipates turnover to improve as the political tensions calm down. Auto accessories though were expected to reach the Bt2 billion mark, similar to what was expected at the beginning of the show.

This year the show had 5,000 square metres in display space but it would downsize next year, he said.