The price of second hand cars in Kenya has skyrocketed over the past few months. Today, you will need to spend Sh. 2.7 million to acquire a second hand Toyota Premio imported from Japan.
Less than six months ago, this Toyota Premio was selling at Sh. 2.5 million.
At the same time, you will need to spend Sh. 1.6 million for a second hand Honda Fit. As at September last year, this model was going at Sh. 1.4 million.
The petrol model of the Mazda Demio is trading at Sh. 1.4 million up from Sh. 1.25 million.
The prices of high end second hand vehicles has also increased. For instance, the price of the Toyota Land Cruiser V8 has shot up by Sh. 500,000 to trade at Sh. 12.5 million up from Sh. 12 million.
The price of the Toyota Harrier has also gone up from Sh. 3.8 million to Sh. 4 million while the Subaru Forester is now fetching Sh. 3.4 million up from Sh. 3.2 million.
The Subaru Outback is going at Sh. 3.7 million up from Sh. 3.4 million while the Mercedes Benz C Class models are going for as high as Sh. 4.5 million, up from Sh. 3.8 million.
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These increases in the price of vehicle models has been largely blamed on the weakening of the Kenya Shilling.
“The dollar is the key issue affecting volumes of vehicles coming in. Since we are ending up with less dollars for the same amount of shillings, people end up importing less volumes,” the Kenya Auto Bazaar Association secretary-general, Charles Munyori told a local business newspaper.
Munyori further added that with the increasing prices, sales have gone down resulting in low turnovers for businesses in the second hand cars market.
“Business is very low and banks have become very strict on financing the purchase of cars,” he told the daily.