Car dealers change tactics as sales decrease dramatically

Dar es Salaam. Shrinking car sales in Tanzania has caused some car dealers in Dar es Salaam to change tactics in attracting more buyers.

Dealers say demand for personal vehicles has decreased as poor liquidity among consumers remains low.

They say the car market has shrunk dramatically the last two years as number of cars sold on a monthly basis is going down.

Although the real number of cars old in Tanzania is yet to be determined, importers say the number could be down by up to 30 per cent as based on their daily sales.

Idom Inc, which is one of the car importers in Dar es Salaam, has confirmed over the shrinking number of car buyers, which has forced them to find ways to boost sales.

The company which deals in Japanese vehicles says since the sales have shrunk, they have decided to sell cars on credit, whereby buyers pay in installments.

The company’s marketing officer, Mr Atsushi Sonobe, told The Citizen that they give cars to customers on loan, which they repay little by little.

“We came up with the idea in September last year after realising that, purchasing power has gone down for many Tanzanians due to economic hardships,” he said.

“After a long research, we decided to stop depending on the cash sales approach and we started to offer cars on credit in February this year,” he added.

To date about 20 cars have been sold that way, according to him.