The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has decided to lower the initial prices of APEC cars by 5-10% since the cars cannot find customers in the auctions.

On January 31, 2007, the APEC car auctioning board released the latest notice on auctioning the cars, which said that the auctions will be resumed, and the next auctions would take place on February 8-9 at the national convention centre. The initial prices of the cars have been lowered by 5-10% compared to the previously announced levels.

The Mercedes Benz E280, for example, is now offered at VND1.87bil/one-unit lot ($0.11mil) (the previous level was VND1.97bil or $0.12mil). Ten E280s have been sold in the first auction, and there are 14 units left.

Meanwhile, Mercedes Benz E200K will be lowered to VND1,240mil/one-unit lot ($77,500) and VND12bil/10-unit lot ($0.75mil). There are 42 units of this model available for auctions, after the first four units were sold in the first auction.

The new offer for Ford Mondeo 2.5 (22 lots, one unit for every lot) is VND636mil ($39,750), the new offer for 6 other lots (20 units for every lot) of Ford Mondeo is VND12,240mil/lot ($765,000). The initial prices of five lots of Mitsubishi Pajero (one unit for every lot) are VND545mil/one-unit lot ($34,000), and VND2,640mil/5-unit lot ($165,000).

The auctioning board said that it will open the door to visitors and those who may be interested in buying the cars from now until February 6, 2007, and will receive the applications for joining the auctions until February 7, 2007.

Car dealers in Hanoi said that the new price levels offered by MoF prove to be relatively attractive, which are lower than the market price. An E280, for example, is priced at VND2bil ($0.12mil) in the market. The APEC car auctioning board hopes that the new offers will lure more buyers after the first quiet auction.

MoF has announced that a new payment method will be applied, under which the buyers of the cars will have to pay 40% of the assets’ value first and receive the documents of relating to the assets, which will help them borrow money from banks. The buyers will receive the cars after they make 100% payment.

Posted: 02|1|07 at 10:03 am. Filed under: Auction News.