As the Yuletide season is drawing closer, automobile dealers at Africa’s biggest automobile market; the Berger auto market in Lagos are unhappy at the moment. They complain of inadequate parking spaces for their vehicles.
When Shipping Position Daily visited the market, some dealers were seen complaining of how the problem is causing untold hardship on them.
One of the dealers, who simply identified himself as Dr. Klems, said that it has got to the extent that when you go to test-drive a car, before you come back, they have occupied your space.
“The problem is so serious now that when you have a customer and you want to remove your car to go and test-drive, before you come back someone else would occupy the space you left. Sometime if the buyer eventually doesn’t buy the car, you will find it very difficult to see another space to park and this is causing a very big headache for us here in this market”, he lamented.
Another dealer who pleaded to remain anonymous said that some people have taken advantage of the situation to enrich themselves.
“Now people buy parking space here in Berger and be renting it out, people who do not know much about a particular park will come here and buy a space from N50, 000 and above and will be renting it out to others to park. You find out that at the end of the day they are making a whole lot of money. This is a very big problem that we are having here and we do not know what to do about it’’, he stated.
Meanwhile, activities at the market remained very slow as at last week. Some of the dealers are lamenting that cars are so expensive to buy and despite the fact that the Dollar rate is low compared to what it is used to be.
Another dealer at the market said that cars are very expensive to buy compared to what it is used to be.
“Markets have gone up, the price at which we buy markets these days is not what it is used to be there is a serious increase and it is affecting our business. Before now we know how much we used to buy cars and how much we sell but it is no longer the same now”
He also pointed at traffic congestion as one of the major headaches they have been having since the beginning of this season.
“As you can see for yourself, this traffic here is not doing us well at all, look at the way trucks are parked everywhere. Some time when customer calls us that he/she wants to come and buy the next call you will receive will be from that same customer telling you that he/she is not coming again because of traffic. So it is really that bad” he concluded.
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