The ruble continues to strengthen its position – the dollar is already worth less than 80 rubles, and the euro – just over 80. However, since the beginning of the year, cars have risen in price by as much as 40% – both new and , after them, used.
In some places, they even began to exchange cars for apartments. All of this happened against the background of a sharp depreciation of the ruble, a growing shortage of components and a disruption in component supply chains around the world.
Now there is one less problem: the value of the ruble is growing, which means that the prices of imported goods and components have to be lowered. But that doesn’t happen. Only one company announced discounts, and only because they had increased the cost of their cars one and a half times in one go (this Exeed
What should buyers and drivers expect: invest in cars now or wait?
Hilarion Demchikov, Business Development Director of Alfa-Leasing Group of Companies:
– The depreciation of the currency (dollar, euro and yuan) primarily affects the machines that are delivered. To date, we have only stocked Chinese equipment, the prices of which are fixed in yuan. This means that the cost of such cars in rubles will fall.
In stock cars, we see the retention of prices that shot up in late February – early March. Dealers are reluctant to part with stock cars, despite falling demand. The depreciation of the dollar has not yet affected the price reduction of the car. If the market is not ready to tolerate current prices, dealers will be forced to cut the cost of new cars.
The most important advice is to buy machines in stock or from the importer’s warehouse: For such cars, the price does not change, unlike the cars in the delivery. Our leasing company has purchased popular passenger car and commercial vehicle models and we are also ready to offer customers a fixed price that is not dependent on market fluctuations.
Medium-term price forecast for the car market
The expert believes that sooner or later the dollar price will level off relative to pre-crisis costs. The only question left is how long it will take. It all depends on the market and the hype for buying new cars. If customers are aggressive enough to buy available cars, the price will not fall – it will remain at a high level. But once consumer demand begins to fall, dealers will be forced to lower the price.