Vehicle importers have said that the non-available of spare parts in the Nigeria market is one of the major factors why Kia brand of vehicles are not always available at used vehicle shops.
Auto Port Weekly gathered that the Kia products are not visible in the fairly used market for automobiles even though new Kia products have their own share in the Nigerian auto market because its relatively affordable.
Vehicle importers have said that the non-available of spare parts in the Nigeria market is one of the major factors why Kia brand of vehicles are not always available at used vehicle shops.
Auto Port Weekly gathered that the Kia products are not visible in the fairly used market for automobiles even though new Kia products have their own share in the Nigerian auto market because its relatively affordable.
Investigation by our correspondent revealed that the Korea-made vehicles do not actually have a warehouse overseas, whereby large units of the vehicles can be shipped to Nigeria.
According to importers, the brands do not really have second hand value in market making it difficult for the Nigerian buyers to be attracted to it..
It is difficult for buyers to also get KIA vehicles from dealers as most of them stated categorical that "it is a bad market”.
Apart from the scarcity of the parts in the market, demand for it has also been fingered as another reason why it is not attractive to Nigerian importers.
Operators have also said that it is the brand that is in high demand that is been shipped into the country.
Vehicles that are in demand are the common brands like; the Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz and to some extent; the Hyundai.
A cross section of operators who spoke to Auto Port Weekly, shared divergent opinion as to why Korea- manufactured vehicles are not popular in the fairly-used vehicle business.
An Importer, Chukwuemeka Francis said the vehicles are not in demand, thus nobody is ready to gamble with a product that will incur more expenses.
According to him, "overtime we bring few KIA products from USA, but it is not encouraging like other notable brands, but in the long run, it becomes a problem to dispose of". “Most of the customers are aware of the fact that the parts are uncommon therefore they shy away from it".
He also noted that automobile technicians always advise their customers about the brand.
Meanwhile another operator were of the view that there are no importer in Nigeria that encourages used KIA importation and that there is no trading relation between the Nigeria fairly used importers and their foreign counterparts in Korea.
They said that it is the Nigeria market that controls the importation of used vehicles into the country and KIA brand does not have that control in Nigeria.
The operator said those KIA products are very difficult to sell because a dealer has to go the extra mile to sell the brand.
Some also disclosed that there is no restriction on importation of KIA, but the difficulty of selling it is a problem to the dealers.
They added that the body of the brands is too fragile and that repair works on the body is always obvious.
"The light nature of KIA product also affects its sale because there is no way you repair the body of those cars that it will not reflect on the body to indicate the degree of accident"
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