Nguyen Kien, owner of a famous used car showroom on Pham Van Dong Street (Bac Tu Liem, Hanoi), is selling a 6-year-old Mercedes-Maybach S 450 for 4 billion VND. Vehicle has exterior and interior is all black, manufactured in 2017, first registered in 2018 and has rolled about 60,000km so far.
According to Mr. Kien, he bought this car from the first owner in May 2022. for 52 billion VND. At that time, he expected to be able to find a buyer after about 1 month at a price of about 5 4 billion VND. Looking at the profit of 200 million VND, it seems high, but it is only equivalent to 4% of the amount we spent while still bearing many other costs and risks,” he said.
However, the plan business above has been changed When unable to find buyers, the car market is affected by economic policies. In June 2022, the management agency began to tighten credit for real estate. It stopped cash flow, affecting all industries and directly the car business,” said this showroom owner.
According to Mr. Kien, potential customers who buy used luxury cars are businessmen and investors. Their assets may be a lot, but when buying a house or a car, they often do not pay it back directly but borrow to take advantage of “leverage” to serve their business. Not to mention, when cash flow is stagnant, these potential customers will not prioritize things considered consumables such as buying luxury cars.
“Initially, some customers paid 4 to 8 billion VND but I don’t sell because I still have the minimum expectation of recovering my capital. Car market continues to “collapse” then other customers give the number 4 3 billion dong, I still shake my head. Used car prices are “bottoming out” when new cars are constantly being promoted by the company. Now if the customer is willing, I will accept to sell for 4 billion dong,” Mr. Kien confided.
< p>The showroom owner above thinks he lost about 2 billion VND for this car. In which, considering the input price and selling price, the expected loss is 12 billion VND. Bank interest or “opportunity cost” for the 5 billion VND spent in the past 15 years to import cars is about 800 million VND according to Mr. Kien.
On the market Used cars Mercedes-Maybach S 450 produced in 2017 are being sold around 3,95-4,95 billion VND depending on the new level or color of the car.
Trung Dung expert In the car industry, the showroom “cutting a loss” of 2 billion VND for a luxury car like the above story is not unique.
“The recent period has witnessed the car market continuously “finding the bottom”. “The more expensive the car, the more it depreciates. There are even showrooms that have just bought back the user’s car, and the company launches a promotion that forces the price of new cars down to that of used cars. There are times when used car prices are very cheap and workers are afraid to import them because the market fluctuates so the risk is high,” Mr. Dung said.
Mercedes-Maybach S 450 is a sedan model luxury German brand. The 2017 production version (2018 model) had a price at that time of 7,219 billion VND and was imported in complete units to Vietnam. While the Mercedes-Benz S 450 L (4,199 billion VND) and S 450 L Luxury (4,759 billion VND) are domestically assembled cars.
In this version, the S450 series has a projector light cluster. Multibeam LED lighting with a modern interface characterized by 3 daytime LED strips. The grille consists of 3 double spokes instead of the previous model’s 4 single spokes. The interior has also been refreshed, with the digital dashboard behind the steering wheel and entertainment screen now having a Vietnamese interface.
The 2018 S 450 model line is all equipped with a V6 engine. 3.0L comes with a 9-speed automatic transmission. The Maybach version alone uses a full-time 4-wheel drive system (4Matic) while the remaining two models have rear-wheel drive. This expensive version is also worth the price with 2 business-style rear seats covered in Nappa Exclusive leather with foot support and massage function.
“
