Auto financing has seen rapid growth over last two years, said third edition of the auto industry survey published by PakWheels.com. The survey has thrown light onto the car buying habits of Pakistanis with 60 percent of the survey respondents buying used cars while 40 percent of them preferring new ones.
Following the rapid growth in auto financing during last two years, around 22 per cent of the new car owners and 5 per cent of the used car owners have purchased vehicles through auto financing or loan. These numbers give a clear indication that banks will witness significant growth in auto financing in the coming days, survey said. The survey considerably reflects the choices and preferences of Pakistanis from all age brackets, industry sectors and income levels, due to the large sample size, ie 11000+ respondents.
The survey revealed that 75 percent of the drivers on Pakistani roads were violating traffic rules as they were not complying with the Provincial Motor Vehicles Ordinance, 1965, which mandatorily required every car in Pakistan to be insured. However, only 25 percent of Pakistanis have their cars insured, which is primarily because they are bank financed and insurance is mandatory for financed cars, survey disclosed.
While the violation of insurance specific law could be attributed to lack of knowledge about this ordinance, the fact that significant number of drivers is also driving without a license points to a deeper issue at societal level. Survey further informed that around 24 per cent out of the survey respondents driving cars without a license in Pakistan with 41 per cent of them being even below the age of 21 years.
Contrary to the consumers' preferences - safety, comfort and other features while buying a car in developed markets like US, Europe, etc, Pakistani customers still considered fuel efficiency and resale value far more important than safety and other features, which the survey termed one of the reasons that certain mandatory safety features like Airbags in western markets were missing from majority of the locally assembled vehicles.