Government’s New Benchmark for Luxury Cars, Right or Wrong?

Khodrocar – Globally, luxury cars are divided into different segments, regarding their options with different price category. That’s the reason why the automobiles’ prices became the government’s new benchmark to define the luxury segment and compared to the engine displacement, it can be a much more logical and correct reference for the application of the new vehicle import law.

But this evaluation method still has many weaknesses. A sedan car with acceptable options is approximately about 35 thousand dollars but if it is imported to Iran, considering the huge differences in currency values, will be priced about 2 billion IRRs. Considering the Iranian’s purchasing power, most of the people can’t buy such a car and it is considered as a luxury car for them. But this car is not luxurious at all.

Regarding the issue, the cars under 1 billion IRRs should be imported to the country so that the people can buy these non-luxury cars. That means the cars priced under 20 thousand dollars which almost, all of them are specifically designed for developing countries such as India, Eastern Europe and Russia. These type of vehicles have very poor safety rating and have nothing to say when we speak about the design and material quality.

Also there is one more important issue about the cars from different segment which have same prices. A Dodge Challenger with 6.4 L of engine displacement is considered as a non-luxury coupe, while an E Class Mercedes-Benz with 3.5 L of engine displacement is a luxury car because of its brand and modern technologies.

This is while Mercedes-Benz only produces premium and luxury cars and just a few Fiat-Chrysler productions are considered as luxury vehicles.

This issue mentions one of the major weaknesses of the governments new benchmark for prohibiting the import of luxury cars.

Globally, the particular level of options, the use of specific materials, the number of production and even the brand name can define whether the car is luxury or not.

Because of these wrong benchmarks, the brands like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Lexus etc. which only produce premium and luxury cars, are available in Iran’s automotive market while many automakers are not allowed to import their non-luxury vehicles just because their engine displacements are over 2,5 L.

Khodrocar Journallist: Mostafa Anisi