By Ahmed Amer
The cabinet tasked a committee to observe increases in car prices during the year and compare them to the previous year to find the reasons behind increases.
Consumers have been expressing protests against the increase in car prices on social media outlets, such as Facebook.
A source at the cabinet told Daily News Egypt that they are currently observing car prices to compare them to last year’s prices in order to take new measures to address the increase.
Head of the Vehicles Committee at the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) Mohamed Anwar told Daily News Egypt that the car market is witnessing a rise in car prices without justification.
He pointed out that the current Consumer Protection Act does not give the agency the right to control car prices.
He disclosed that some auto companies agreed among themselves to determine the price of cars on a national level, making it harder to categorise this as fraud. Anwar, however, described it as monopoly, which falls under the tasks of the CPA.
Anwar said the CPA is considering adding this type of situation to the New Consumer Protection Draft Law, noting that the law is still being studied by civil society organisations to provide their comments and propose new articles.
Honorary Chairman of the Automotive Marketing Information Council (AMIC) Raafat Masrouga said companies sell cars at artificial prices to create the impression that certain brands are seeing greater demand.
When the price of a car rises, however, the company will see a decline in demand, forcing it to offer discounts to rectify a marketing mistake committed by the same company.
Masrouga said the rise in the dollar price against the pound is unrelated to the price increases, as companies import cars, components, and spare parts in euros, which is declining against the pound.
He also said companies are still selling from their inventories. More than 20 models have seen variable price increases in October.
The Bavarian Auto Group, the BMW agent in Egypt, increased their car prices, especially the I320 and X3 models, which both increased by EGP 5,000, recording prices of EGP 410,000 and EGP 510,000 respectively. The price of BMW X5 has also increased by EGP 17,000 to reach EGP 985,000.
Al-Mansour Automotive, the Chevrolet agent in Egypt, has increased the price of its Aveo by EGP 1,500 to reach EGP 107,250.
The Mitsubishi Lancer is now sold at EGP 137,000, an increase of EGP 2,000 from its price in September.
