Trade-in project to bring used cars to showrooms in Kazakhstan

Trade-in project will help improve the Kazakhstan car market and make it more transparent. It will make used cars with their maintenance histories and guarantees available in car showrooms, Tengrinews reports referring to the president of the Kazakhstan Car Business Association Andrey Lavrentyev. Trade-in was officially introduced in Kazakhstan in 2014. With this program in place a car owner can part-change the car previously bought from a dealer that supports trade-in for a new car. Earlier introduction of his famous system was hindered by double taxation. "We have managed to persuade the government to remove the double VAT from car trading through dealer centers. (...) This is a historic event. With Trade-in effect we expect around 35% of the used car deals to come out of the shadow and start generating taxes for the budget," Lavrentyev said. The Association is sure that Trade-in will be welcomed in Kazakhstan, because purchasing a used car from a private owner alway carries a lot of risks. "It is a pig in a poke. A car has to be checked, and its registration, maintenance and accidents history should be made available for the new owner," Lavrentyev explained. Official dealers conduct a full diagnostic and study the whole history of the car before accepting it as trade-in. After that the traded-in car is made available for customers at a trade-in platform in Kazakhstan. According to Lavrentyev this new system will give a boost to the domestic market of used cars. "This program is not only for those who can afford a new car. It is for those who want to purchase a good used car with a full history and guarantees," he said adding that prices of the used cars offered by official dealers would be same at at the non-regulated car markets. "It is very important for us to make sure that the used cars are sold at their actual market price to make them liquid," he said. Trade-in in Kazakhstan will not be linked to any one car brand. It means that the owner can trade-in a car at any official dealer center regardless of which producer it came from. "It is clearly an advantage for clients. This means that car owner won't have to wait for their car to be sold to get the money and buy a new car. Old he has to do is bring in his old car add some money and get a new car. The used car market will become white and all the deals will be made officially," Lavrentyev said. He added that trade-in would induce no limitations related to manufacturing year or mileage of cars. The Association expects trade-in to become available in most of the dealer centers in Kazakhstan in the second half of 2014. And expects the number of deals affected through trade-in to make around 250 thousand per year starting from 2016. By Vladimir Prokopenko