General Motors (GM)General Motors (GM) President (Middle East Operations) Terry Johnsson told The Peninsula yesterday: "In the home markets, vehicles like SUVs are selling well although in Europe, factors like (traffic) congestion are involved. In Qatar, people would buy environment-friendly vehicles not due to savings on fuel consumption, but for factors like the carbon footprint and emissions."

He stated that a lot of work was being done here tailored to the environment and a tightening on carbon emissions standards could well follow. Vehicles here may be especially culpable, due to the frequent use of air-conditioning in the car because of the extreme weather conditions.

Earlier, in a press conference which was also addressed by GMGM vehicle dealers Khalid Mannai, Mohammed Jaidah and Mike McClure of the Saab dealership here, Johnsson said the luxury car segment was a fast growing one. In fact, for the luxury range of GMGM vehicles comprising Cadillac, Hummer and Saab, sales are up as much as 166 per cent over last year here. Company-wise, Mercedes-Benz has 24 per cent of the market, followed by Lexus (18 per cent), BMW (17 per cent) and GMGM (14 per cent), as per GMGM figures. "The battle for the top places has hotted up," he said.

Asked by a reporter on why prices of vehicles varied in country-to-country in the GCC region, Johnsson said the pricing of GMGM vehicles was competitive. "We offer aggressive pricing versus Toyota, for example. The dollar is competitive and it helps keep pricing competitive. In addition, the Qatari riyal is pegged to the dollar."

As for after-sales service and resale value of GMGM vehicles, officials present said the resale value was actually extremely high and GMGM vehicles put up for resale had to undergo checking on 110 points by GMGM experts before being out on the market and a one-year warranty offered on the used vehicle.

Johnsson said: "On after-sales service, we are working hard on it. Our parts are affordable and we measure the lowest cost of our parts." Without mentioning any rivals' name, Jaidah stated: "A visit to our service centre will show that their vehicles are being taken care of by our mechanics and we are also introducing concepts like an appointment system for servicing."

The GMGM dealerships here are headed for major expansions and the service centres are to be upgraded. Johnsson said: "We have spent $70m at our spare parts centre to ensure they can be delivered anywhere in the Middle East within 24 hours."

© The Peninsula 2007

 

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