Chinese motorbikes, which once flooded Vietnamese
market, have become unpopular though they are much cheaper than Vietnam made
products. In the eyes of Vietnamese customers, Chinese motorbikes mean low
quality and low cost products.

The owner of a motorbike shop on Nguyen Luong Bang Street in Hanoi said
that Chinese motorbikes have been selling very slowly, and sometimes he cannot
sell any product a month.

Several years ago, Chinese motorbikes once flooded the domestic market
thanks to the low prices affordable by low income earners. However, since
domestic motorbike manufacturers began diversifying their products, targeting
different groups of customers, Chinese motorbikes have become no longer
attractive to Vietnamese consumers.

Chinese motorbikes have been gradually eliminated in Hanoi and other big
cities. The problem is that Chinese products do not have good quality which may
break down just after a short time of use. Vietnamese customers would rather buy
brand new motorbikes on installment plan from domestic manufacturers than using
Chinese motorbikes.

It is now difficult to find the motorbike shops that sell Chinese products
in Hanoi. Giao duc Vietnam’s reporters once came to 10 big motorbike shops on
“motorbike streets” of Kham Thien, Ton Duc Thang and Nguyen Luong Bang to ask
for Chinese motorbikes, but they could not find any.

“No one uses Chinese motorbikes nowadays. Why do you still look for the
low quality products?” a shop owner asked the reporters.

The shop at No 36 Nguyen Luong Bang street proves to be the only one which
is still selling Chinese motorbikes.

Motorbike distributors say that customers now prefer domestic products to
Chinese, because domestic products have become cheaper. Honda, for example,
offers the models with reasonable prices, just 13-14 million dong, while SYM has
a model priced at 11 million dong only. The price levels fit the pockets of many
people, while buyers feel secure about the quality of the products, because they
can enjoy the warranty services.

Especially, motorbike buyers now do not have to pay for motorbikes at
once, because manufacturers have joined forces with banks and financial
institutions to allow buyers to buy on installment.

Binh from the motorbike shop on Nguyen Luong Bang street, said that the
motorbikes assembled in Vietnam are also very cheap. Some models are just one
million dong more expensive than Chinese ones. Therefore, Vietnam made products
have been replacing Chinese ones.

One year ago, a Chinese motorbike could be bought at 4.8 million dong.
However, as the input costs and the transport costs have increased, a Chinese
motorbike is selling at 6.5 million dong. The price proves to be unattractive if
noting that customers just need to have 10 million dong to be able to possess a
motorbike with high quality and good maintenance regime.

Thi, who lives in Long Bien district in Hanoi, said that he never thinks
of owning a Chinese motorbike. He said that the domestic motorbike prices are
now very reasonable. Meanwhile, those, who do not have enough money, can buy
products on installment.

Thang, from Viet Tri City, said that he is seeking to purchase a
domestically made motorbike to replace the currently used Chinese one. He said
that the Chinese motorbike has degraded seriously just after several years of
use. Especially, it gobbles up his money because it always breaks down and
consumes much fuel.

Meanwhile, Kien, a student from the Hanoi Architect University, said that
he does not have enough money to buy a brand new motorbike. However, he would
rather purchase a second hand motorbike than a brand new Chinese one. “The
cheapest is the dearest,” he said.

Source: Giao duc VN